Although Thursday evening's skies were completely filled with clouds,
being basically an optimist, I loaded my scope into the van and braved the
treacherous I-95 on my way to the South Florida Science Museum
to experience the total lunar eclipse with my fellow astronomers. I arrived
shortly before 8PM and found several even more optimistic colleagues already
on location. Mostly they were looking upward towards the sky and mumbling
estimates of when it was going to clear enough for proper viewing. The
clouds looked quite ominous to the West, and by 8:15 we were experiencing a
few scattered drops of rain. As the evening's twilight slowly faded into
darkness, more people arrived, accompanied by additional optimistic
forecasts of clear skies and fair weather. Unfortunately, and to the great
disappointment to all of us, the clouds continued to thicken, and by 9PM the
western skyline was ablaze in lightning.
I didn't feel that there was much I could contribute to our somewhat
lackluster moon party, so I hopped back onto the I and headed
for home. While in route, I received a call from a friend at the Buehler
Observatory on the Central Campus of Broward Community College in Davie. I
was told that the skies there were hazy but clear, and that I was invited to
join the festivities, so long as I volunteered to help. Being the sucker
that I am, I altered course and headed for BCC. By the time I arrived,
there was a reasonable crowd of mostly college students and their parents,
and the moon was already partially into eclipse. Several scopes were
already set up on the viewing field, so I made myself useful by pointing out
and describing the various heavenly objects and by keeping the the assorted
telescopes aimed at their assigned targets.
The haze continued to diminish throughout the night, and by the time of
totality it was almost completely clear. I set up one of the scopes to
observe the grazing occultation of the 5.5 magnitude star ZC2217, but it
turned out to be a non-event because I was several miles too far North of
the optimum graze point. It was now well past Midnight and the crowd had
dwindled to a small handful of hearty soles. After the last of them had
departed, Arno brought out his digital snapshot camera, and together we
took an assortment of "through the lens" photos as the moon emerged from
totality. We talked and joked for a bit longer, and I finally made it home
and in bed by 2 AM.
Fred Lehman, May 15, 2003.
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