The Sommers-Bausch Observatory at the University of Colorado at Boulder will be open to the public, weather permitting, from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20, to view the century聮s first total eclipse of the moon.
The lunar eclipse begins when the full moon enters the Earth聮s shadow at 8:05 p.m. and will be totally eclipsed by 9:09 p.m. The total eclipse will last until 10:22 p.m., but at 9:48 p.m. it will be deepest into Earth聮s shadow and will be about one ten-thousandth as bright as it was earlier in the evening.
"At the observatory we will be watching the eclipse through a telescope, but it will also be viewable without one," said Keith Gleason, laboratory coordinator of Sommers-Bausch Observatory. "The night will go from being lit up by a full moon, to being very dark in just over an hour. It will be a very eerie night if it聮s clear."
Gleason explained that if the sky is clear, it will be the first time since Dec. 9, 1992, that a total lunar eclipse has been visible in Colorado without cloud cover. Such eclipses usually occur about every 32 full moons, he said, with the next one being May 15, 2003.
"If you look around the sky that night between 9:09 p.m. and 10:22 p.m., the moon will look like a coppery penny in the sky," Gleason said.
He explained that the moon takes on a reddish, coppery color because most of the sunlight is blocked out by the Earth聮s shadow. However, some light "leaks" around the rim of the Earth during the eclipse and shines onto the moon making it appear dark red.
There is no charge to visit the observatory, adjacent to Fiske Planetarium on the CU-Boulder campus. For more information about the eclipse or the observatory, see .