THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 4, 1996 TAG: 9604040335
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
It ghosted onto the twilight sky like a vagrant golf ball.
It posed demurely against the deepening blue, then blushed as pink as a shy maiden caught sneaking a kiss.
Last night's total eclipse of the moon lasted nearly 90 minutes - long enough for serious astronomy buffs and the celestially naive to get a good, long look. The Oceanfront boardwalk, billed as the best spot to watch the rare lunar fade-out, drew hundreds of onlookers.
David Gaskins of Virginia Beach had a high-powered telescope set up on a tripod in the sand near the 15th Street pier. His excitement mounted as the darkened globe grew brighter, signaling the eclipse's approaching grand finale.
``See that glow near the bottom?'' Gaskins asked Joe Frizzelle, another night-sky fan who had joined him.
``It's going to go from red to white,'' said Frizzelle, catching Gaskins' enthusiasm. ``When it breaks free, it's going to light up like a light bulb.''
Gaskins peered through the telescope, hoping to catch a close-up glimpse of the Earth's shadow moving across a moon crater.
The wispy white ball was not visible as it rose, totally eclipsed, above the horizon because, said Gaskins, an unexpected ``green'' marine layer had obscured it. ``Something they didn't predict.''
Earlier, as the sky darkened, the eclipsed moon looked like a giant basketball suspended over the dark Atlantic - not patched on the night sky like any old full moon.
``It's kind of weird, kind of spooks me out,'' said 15-year-old Jordan Freeman of Chesapeake.
``It looks like a Florida orange with a slice out of it,'' said Kathleen Glazin, a vacationer from Toronto. Then, as the lower edge grew brighter, ``It's like a piece of a fingernail.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot
The lunar eclipse ends and the moon emerges to full view.
by CNB