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NASA Science News for May 12, 2003

Lunar Eclipse

Sky watchers in North and South America will be favored for a
copper-colored lunar eclipse on May 15/16, 2003.

May 28, 2105: The airlock door slid sideways and Jack stepped out
onto the moon. 

The dusty ground was bright, reflecting light from the sun above.
Squinting, Jack scanned the curved horizon. There: a smooth spot in
the distance. "Perfect," he thought as he bounded toward it,
bunny-hopping Apollo-style.

"OK, Jack," the radio crackled after a while. "You better stop now
and get ready. The eclipse starts in a few minutes." 

"Dad... I know what I'm doing," he radioed back, his 14-year-old
voice gruff. To prove it, he took one more hop--then stopped. Jack
didn't want to miss anything. 

Grunting, he reached behind his back--not so easy in a pressurized
space suit--and tugged at some Velcro straps. A little fiddling and
he had it: his great-grandfather's camping chair. Nearly 100 years
old, made of green canvas and aluminum tubes, Jack's family treasured
the old thing. 

Jack pressed the chair into the moondust, maneuvered around and
wriggled the bottom of his space suit between the narrow armrests. A
button on his glove, pressed, sent an electrical current surging
through his visor, which darkened like welding glasses. "I love these
advanced materials," he grinned. Staring straight up at the sun, his
eyes felt good. 

For the next hour he patiently waited, watching the sun's disk glide
behind something big and dark: Earth. From the moon, Earth looked
three and a half times wider than the sun. Sometimes Earth was
amazingly bright, blue and cloudy-white. Today, though, the planet's
night side was facing moonward. 

Finally, the sun vanished. This is what he had been waiting for....
Lit from behind, Earth's atmosphere began to glow around the edges,
ringing the dark planet with all the colors of a sunset. And from
there sprung the Sun's corona: pale white, sticking out like Jack's
sister's hair when she rubbed her stockinged feet on the carpet back
in the lunar habitat. 

Jack cleared his visor to enjoy the view.

The ground around him wasn't bright any more. It was dim and deep
red--aglow with sunlight filtered through the edge of Earth's
atmosphere. All at once every sunset on Earth was shining down on
Jack. 

"I bet he would love this," said Jack. He was thinking of his
great-grandfather, Don Pettit, the science officer of the first
International Space Station. Don had loved to watch sunsets and the
red edge of Earth's atmosphere from orbit. When his tour of duty in
space was done, he used to sit in this old chair by the campfire and
tell his boys all about it, or so Jack's dad claimed. 

The radio crackled again: "Jack, are you seeing this?"

"I sure am, dad, thanks." He completely forgot to be gruff.

May 12, 2003: The astronomy in this story is real. The rest is
science fiction--at least for now. 

One day lunar colonists will stride outdoors to enjoy such eclipses.
They happen about twice a year whenever Earth passes directly between
the sun and moon. Our planet's shadow darkens the moon, while
sunlight filtering through the edge of our atmosphere turns it red. 

Here on Earth we call them lunar eclipses--and one is about to
happen. On May 15th and 16th the moon will glide through Earth's
shadow for the first time this year. 

The eclipse begins at 10:00 p.m. EDT (7:00 p.m. PDT) on Thursday
evening, May 15th, or 0200 Universal Time (UT) on Friday morning, May
16th. 

At first the moon will seem pale and bright, as usual. During the
hour that follows, however, it will plunge into the darkest part of
our planet's shadow--a region astronomers call "the umbra." Jack was
inside the umbra when he saw the sunset-red ring around Earth. On May
15th the moon will be inside the umbra for about 52 minutes, from
11:14 p.m. to 12:06 a.m. EDT (8:14 to 9:06 p.m. PDT) or 0314 to 0406
UT on May 16th.

How dark and red the moon appears during that interval depends on
what's floating in Earth's atmosphere. Dust storms and volcanic
eruptions can fill the air with particles that redden sunsets and
eclipsed moons alike. Sometimes the moon is so dark it's nearly
invisible. Other times it's a lovely shade of bright copper. 

Sky watchers in North America and South America are favored. Except
for Alaska and some remote areas in Canada, the eclipse will be
visible from all parts of those two continents. In Europe and Africa,
the early stages of the eclipse will be visible for just a while
before dawn on May 16th. 

The eclipse will not be visible from Australia or most of Asia. Or
from the Moon, but that's only because there's no one there to see
it ... not yet. 

Visit NASA's Eclipse Home Page for more information about this and
other lunar eclipses. 

Credits & Contacts
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips 
Responsible NASA official: Ron Koczor 
Production Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips 
Curator: Bryan Walls 
Media Relations: Steve Roy

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