Total eclipse of the moon

For about three hours Wednesday night, and community members got the chance to see the last total lunar eclipse until December 2010.\nPeople gathered around telescopes, clutching cups of free hot cocoa as they watched the dark shadow eat away at the lower corner of the moon.\n“Usually we only get to see one in North America every two or three years,” said Christian Johnson, a graduate student in astronomy. “You need a specific alignment.” \nThe event, hosted by the IU Astronomy Department, took place on the roof of the Henderson Street parking garage.\n“The reason why this doesn’t occur is because the plane of the earth’s sun system is flat but the plane of the earth’s moon system is slightly tilted, and so it takes special time to line up correctly,” senior David Green said. “Lunar eclipses occur a couple times every year, but it’s unique when it occurs totally.” \nAt about 10 p.m. Wednesday night, the moon was almost entirely eclipsed, and an orange tint shaded the surface. \n“It’s because the earth’s atmosphere filters the sunlight, and so some small fraction of light from the sun goes through the earth’s atmosphere and has the blue light removed, and so only the red light is reaching the moon and also the earth’s atmosphere bends the light into the shadow and so a bit of filtered red light actually reaches the moon during the eclipse,” said Haldan Cohn, a professor in the astronomy department. “So if the earth had no atmosphere, the moon would go totally black during an eclipse.” \nCohn said the event was organized to introduce the public to astronomy and to allow people to share a fun astronomical event. \n“Unfortunately, with all of the bright lights here it takes away from some of the grandeur of the night sky,” Cohn said, “but the nice thing about a lunar eclipse is it’s easy to observe the moon at night because it’s so bright.” \nDozens of people stood in line, waiting their turn to peer through the telescope to get a closer look at the eclipse.\n“We have a really good turnout, especially for such a cold night like tonight,” Cohn said. “It’s worth having cold toes and fingers for.”