Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Total Lunar Eclipse

On April 15, 2014 there was a total lunar eclipse.  As we were conveniently located at a RV park in northeastern Kansas, away from city lights, Kathy made plans to observe the event.  Weather folks and meteorologists on TV predicted approximate viewing times for our area...before going to bed a look out the window showed a bright full moon and no clouds.  Perfect!
    Kathy set an alarm for the assigned event time, but managed to wake up before it sounded...through the motorhome front window she was able to watch as the moon passed through the Earth's shadow; the moon finally became completely in shadow, then the colors began...indirect sunlight, filtered and refracted by Earth's atmosphere caused the moon to flicker with a reddish-orange-gold hue.  It was very neat to see!!
   (Note: to our more scientific followers...hope this is an accurate explanation of how a total lunar eclipse occurs!)

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