Westmont Observatory hosting Total Lunar Eclipse Viewing

MONTECITO, Calif. (KEYT) Westmont College is doing a viewing of the rare lunar eclipse at its observatory overnight.

Some of the professors including Physics Professor Emeritus Dr. Ken Kihlstrom and Astrophysics Professor Jennifer Gee and students are going to be waking up early or staying up late to see it.

Members of the public are also welcome to join them on campus.

They will be at the observatory that has a bright yellow Keck Telescope from Longmont, Colorado inside.

The telescope will be aimed at the rare Worm "Blood" Moon.

The worm part gets its name from the earthworms signaling spring and the blood portion from the shades of color.

"It's is a blood moon even though it is in earth's shadow the atmosphere of the earth bends the light like sunrise and sunsets and bends the light and that illuminates the moon and you get a reddish appearance.," said Kihlstrom, "The moon's orbit is tilted by 5 degrees ,so half the time the earth's shadow goes above the moon and half the time below but it is only when the moon crosses over the earth's orbit you have either a lunar or solar eclipse."

It happens about every six months, but it is not always total.

They will be watching the eclipse between 3-5 a.m.

The eclipse event will begin 12:44 a.m. with totality will happen at 3:04 a.m.

It should last for 58 minutes, with the eclipse ending at 6:23 a.m.

Professor Kihlstrom thinks it is a good way to get kids interested in science.

Gee describes it on Westmont's website as "marveling at the way God created our solar system."

Another reason this eclipse is getting a lot of attention is because the next total eclipse of the moon won't be until New Years Eve in 2028.

For more information visit https://westmont.edu