A total lunar eclipse will darken the moonlit skies over Colorado during the early evening hours of Wednesday, Feb. 20, according to University of Colorado at Boulder astronomers.
The Sommers-Bausch Observatory on the CU-Boulder campus will hold a free public open house, weather permitting, to observe the lunar eclipse. The observatory will open to the public at 6 p.m. as the earliest stages of the eclipse begin. Observatory staff members, as well as members of the Boulder Astronomy and Space Society, will be available to answer questions and help visitors with eclipse viewing.
The moon will begin disappearing into the Earth聮s shadow at about 7 p.m. and will be totally eclipsed by 8 p.m., according to Keith Gleason, manager of CU-Boulder聮s Sommers-Bausch Observatory. The darkest part of the eclipse will last for nearly an hour, when the moon will be dimmed by a factor of more than 10,000 in a little over an hour聮s time. The moon will begin slowly re-emerging from the Earth聮s shadow at 8:52 p.m.
The moon is 聯totally eclipsed聰 when it becomes completely immersed in the shadow of the Earth and receives no direct sunlight. The moon will take on a reddish color during the eclipse because a small amount of sunlight 聯leaks聰 around the rim of the Earth through its atmosphere and gets bent so that it shines on the moon, according to Gleason.
Total lunar eclipses occur about once every 32 months on average. The last total eclipse of the moon, visible from Boulder in the early evening, occurred on Oct. 27, 2004 and the next one won聮t happen until Dec. 21, 2010.
The observatory聮s 16-, 18- and 24-inch telescopes, in addition to smaller telescopes and binoculars, will be available for visitor use on the observatory deck. Observatory staff members will discuss why eclipses occur, why the moon turns red and how best to photograph a lunar eclipse.
Sommers-Bausch Observatory is located east of Fiske Planetarium at the corner of Regent Drive and Kittridge Loop on the CU-Boulder campus. For more information about the total lunar eclipse visit .