In case you haven’t been near a computer or newspaper for a while, there’s a total lunar eclipse occurring tonight in the Western Hemisphere (early morning for Europe and Africa). This “moon darkening” event occurs because the Moon temporarily moves through Earth’s shadow. The Moon won’t go completely dark, but turn smoky grey to reddish in color; it’s still lit up by indirect sunlight, which is why we can see it.This is one of those celestial events that you can watch from your house (or backyard), but if you’re craving a social experience, call your local planetarium and/or public observatory and see if they’re planning an eclipse-watching party. There’s more information about the eclipse at Sky and Telescope’s page. You can also check out Astronomy Magazine’s pageand for the ultimate in eclipse-o-phile info, go visit MrEclipse.com.
Now, chances are that some parts of North America (at least) will have cloudy conditions for all or part of the eclipse. But, check it out anyway. Your local weather may clear just in time!
In stargazing circles, the phenomenon known as the “sucker hole” is a very real one. It usually manifests itself during eclipses and comet apparitions, and leads great numbers of people to search anywhere for a good hole in the clouds. I’ve been taken with sucker hole fever a few times, most notably during the 1991 total solar eclipse. We went to Hawai’i to see it as part of an expedition sponsored by the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Our chosen viewing site was a big field in Waikoloa, and was much-touted as being on the “dry” side of the Big Island. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate, which we discovered after being awakened at 4 a.m. in our Kona hotel room, pushed onto a bus, and trucked out to the viewing site. As the light of day grew, so did our horror at finding out that the sky on the supposedly “dry” side of the island was, in fact, completely clouded over. We searched in vain for a sucker hole as totality approached, and were rewarded with a few glimpses of the eclipsed Sun through some pretty gauzy-looking sucker holes. Mostly though, we just watched the clouds get dark and then light again. Ironically, if we’d stayed in Kona (which had a less-wonderful forecast) we would have seen the eclipse because that area had clear skies!
Undaunted, we pushed our luck again in 1998, when we saw a great eclipse through clear skies in the Caribbean. (You can see our pix here.)
In 1999, we decided to to try for the hat trick, so we went to Garching bei Muenchen in Germany. This time we didn’t have to worry about racing a cruise ship around in case of clouds, and we swore we weren’t going to drive all over the countryside looking for a sucker hole. So, we sat in a lovely “platz” outside our hotel and hoped for the best. For a couple of hours, we watched it rain. And, we searched in vain for sucker holes.
By golly, we got sucker holes. And just as totality began, we got to see the eclipse. The break in the rain clouds lasted for several minutes, and then within a half hour of the end of the eclipse, the rain resumed and we all sat around in the biergarten under umbrellas, toasting our good fortune. Others in our group were not so lucky—they chased sucker holes all over Bavaria and came up with nuthin’.
So, once in a while, sucker holes DO materialize during celestial events. We’re now 3 for 5 in eclipse attempts. Our first one was in 1979, which we saw from Wolf Point International airport in Wolf Point, Montana. Our second was in Helsinki harbor, which was a sort of partial success due to low-lying clouds battling a rising eclipsed Sun. Our third was the ill-fated Hawai’i expedition; our fourth was in the Caribbean, and our fifth was Germany.
No such luck for this year’s fabulous comet McNaught. We got spoiled by the Hyakutake and Hale-Bopp apparitions, and hoped to recreate the wonder of comet-gazing this year. I fear we’ve lost our chance to see.
Speaking of Germany and sucker holes, I got a funny story from my Google News Alerts today, datelined a few months back. It seems this German attorney is taking advantage of a law that allows kidnap victims to claim compensation from the state. He’s offering to go to bat for anybody who claims to have been kidnapped by aliens. No word on whether he’s got any takers, yet, but he thinks this is a growth area for his legal business. Wow.
