The moon as it appeared above San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge yesterday in a total eclipse. (Frederic Larson/San Francisco Chronicle/Associated Press)
Moon watchers in the western U.S., Hawaii and elsewhere across the globe were treated Saturday to a rare celestial phenomenon: a total lunar eclipse.
For 51 minutes, the Earth’s shadow completely blocked the moon.
The moon took on a reddish glow, as some indirect sunlight continued to reach it after passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.
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You will see it if you keep looking:
Since the atmosphere scatters blue light, only red light strikes the moon, giving it a crimson hue.
The last total lunar eclipse was on June 15 although that was not visible from the U.S. The next one is on April 15, 2014, and will be seen in the U.S.
At the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, some 300 people, many clutching coffee cups in the frigid morning air, sat with blankets and chairs on the observatory's great lawn.
Perched on a slope north of downtown near the Hollywood sign, the property offers clear views of the sky. Observatory officials alerted the crowd when the eclipse began and spontaneous applause erupted when the celestial event ended.
David Sayre, who runs a public relations firm in Hawaii, said it had been cloudy and rainy around his house on Oahu, but the weather cleared just in time for the eclipse.
Kind of spooky, huh?
"To be able to see it just right outside our house was really cool."
Well, not really according to prophecy.
That's the print brought to me by my Bloody Boston Sunday Globe.
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