by Jay Reynolds Freeman
I watched the eclipse from the home of a friend in northern Virginia; it was pretty dark and relatively colorless, compared to others I have seen. The sky at this site, about 50 miles from Washington, DC, was notably darker than I would expect to have experienced had I been watching from Fremont Peak on a night with no fog below, but not nearly as dark as at the Peak with low fog kayoing city lights. (These remarks may not entirely do justice to the quality of sky at my friend's location; low fog and scattered cloud made several light domes from nearby small towns more prominent than they would have been in clearer sky, and occasionally Washington, DC, itself gets fogged out.)
In these circumstances, after fifteen minutes or so of dark adaptation, I could see the dividing line between the darkest portion of the Moon's limb, at maximum exclipse, and the sky; however, I could not see that dividing line until I had begun to acquire dark adaptation. I might have described the color as rather on the yellow side of a new penny -- this is perhaps the least red lunar eclipse that I have seen, if memory serves (and for color, it may not).
Why was I in Virginia? Well, my friend was throwing a fancy dress ball, and she invited me. I *do* have a life occasionally.
Glad you were able to observe the eclipse, Jay. Never really thought much about dark adaptation playing into a lunar event. :) [snip...]
Well, my friend's house was brightly lit, and I arrived only about an hour before mid-eclipse. Sneaking glances out the window of my rented car during the drive from Dulles Airport, with eyes affected by headlights, gave the impression of a very dark eclipse, which also obtained after we had greeted each other and gone outside to look again. (My friend has an occasional interest in amateur astronomy -- she has been to the Peak with me several times, though not for many years.)
After she had retired, however, I turned off all the house lights and sat quietly in the darkened breakfast area, which has appropriate windows, and watched the eclipse change in character as my eyes grew more dark adapted. (I went outside from time to time as well, but the temperature was in the Farenheit 20s and there was 20 knots or so of wind, so not too often -- the weather was enough to make me nostalgic for springtime in Vermont.)
Her house is way out in the country, so there were no local outside lights, so I had pretty good conditions right there, The difference was quite marked -- I could watch the northern limb of the Moon appear slowly, as my night vision improved. And -- I have been skimming back EMail -- was it Jane Houston who described it as "honey colored"? That fits the color I saw perfectly.
And I should have made it clear, that all the observations I reported were naked-eye.