The Lunar Eclipse

August 28, 2007

We read about the total eclipse somewhere, and since we have not seen one, we planned on seeing it. We read at the Liberty Science center site that at 5:52 a.m. on the morning of Tuesday, August 28, the shadow of the earth will completely block the light of the sun that would have been reflected on the moon.

We also read that unlike solar eclipses, lunar blackouts are perfectly safe to view and we learned about acool instrument called an astrolabe - since we read that as the Earth’s shadow passes across the lunar face, the Moon will be at a low point in the western sky: 23 degrees above the horizon when the real action begins at 4:51 a.m., and just 4.5 degrees above the horizon when blackout occurs. The Moon will actually set at 6:20 a.m. while in total eclipse.

So we figured we could not see it from Central park because of all the trees. We took a cab and went to the Boat Basin by the west side highway at 4:30 a.m. Boy, were we sleepy.



We joked around a lot about Wallace and Gromit, and how the moon was made of cheese.