ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19963, 4 June 1928, Page 10

ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.

IMPRESSIVE SPECTACLE. COLOUR PHENOMENA. FINE VIEW IN AUCKLAND. The total eclipse of the moon visible in Auckland last night provided a most striking spectacle, and thousands of Aucklanders took the opportunity to observe this comparatively rare and most impressive phenomenon. Unclouded skies and a clear atmosphere made the conditions especially favourable for the observation of the eclipse in all its, stages. A view of the moon at 9.30 p.m. revealed that the penumbral shadow, which then almost entirely covered the moon's surface, had resulted in an almost imperceptible diminution of the lunar brightness, rendering the orb less dazzling and bringing out its full detail, the dusky grey " seas " and the largo white areas. When the shadow of the earth made its first appearance on the moon at 9.48 p.m. it was seen to bo a bluish grey in colour, with a hazily defined edge characteristic of lunar eclipses. From this moment, the shadow rapidly advanced across the face of the moon.

By 10.30 p.m. the shadow covered approximately one-half of the moon's surface, and it became evident that the umbra possessed a warm reddish tint, which assumed a bluish grey colour near the uneclipsed portion of the disc. By 10.45 p.m. only a narrow crescent remained unobscured by the shadow, which at 11.1 p.m. entirely covered the moon. During totality the copper or reddish colour of the eclipsed disc was very evident, the globe shining prominently in the sky. The edge of the shadow remained bluish in tint, as had been noticed earlier, so it may be accepted that this colour was real, and not an effect of contrast with the bright portion of the moon. The brightness of this bluish area in the eclipse which occurred in June last year led some astronomers to publish their belief that the eclipse had not been total, as it should have been according to calculation. The red colour of the central portion of the shadow was due to the sun's rays being refracted by the earth's atmosphere into the,shadow-cone, when the red rays, being refracted most, predominate, as in a sunset sky. At this eclipse the moon passed well into the earth's shadow cone, so that at mid-eclipse it lay just south of the centre of the shadow-cone, with its northern limb almost exactly at the centre of the shadow. The umbral shadow-cone possessed a diameter 2.6 times as great as the diameter of the moon. When the limb of the moon emerged from eclipse, at 12.18 a.m., a reversal of what had happened prior to totality was witnessed. The fainter stars and tke galaxy faded once more into the invisibility they had sprung from at totality as the crescent of light in the uneclipsed portion of the moon rapidly grew and lost its shape.