complains Shakespeare’s Juliet. While the Moon may be a poor symbol for an enduring love, its complex changes provide a fascinating celestial show barely more delightful than the follies with which it is associated. Between the end of 1999 and the middle of 2000, the Moon provides several interesting events (and possibilities for human comedy).

Literature, both lowbrow and high, is filled with endless misapprehensions of even the most obvious elements of the Moon’s behavior. One of my favorites is:

Speaking of an inconstant Moon! (To say nothing of the fact that half moons rise at midnight.)

And everybody believed it. The only problems were that it wasn’t true; if it were true, you wouldn’t notice; and, if the story about the ambush were true, I assume the Sioux had other scheduling constraints with time scales of less than 133 years.

The source of the e-mail was an article in the Old Farmer’s Almanac. What was true was that full Moon, lunar perigee, and the winter solstice were within 10 hours of each other and that was the record back to 1866. However, the full Moon has been closer to the Earth near the winter solstice in 1893, 1912, and 1930. The 1912 event, which occurred on 4 January, was probably the brightest of these coincidences because it occurred on the day that the Earth was closest to the Sun that year. The full Moon was about 0.24 magnitudes (or about 25%) brighter than average that year but that is a difference that is almost imperceptible.

A local TV station came out to the Hamming Astronomy Center to verify the e-mail story, and I carefully explained (on camera) why it was interesting but not that interesting. Sure enough, it was reported as the brightest Moon in 133 years on that night’s news broadcast. I called up the show’s producer. He was surprised at my error, "All the scientific journals say it’s true." "What scientific journals?" I asked, incredulously. He hesitated slightly, "Newsweek and the New York Times." Their next version of the story omitted any reference to the 133 years.

Many weeks later I was preparing to give a talk to a meeting of Phi Beta Kappa at Asilomar. My host remarked that he had gone out on his deck the night of the brightest moon in 133 years and found that he could read his newspaper by this extraordinary brightness. Had he tried the same experiment during an ordinary full Moon? No.

a fine lunar eclipse presented itself to the Central Coast. Lunar eclipses, unlike solar eclipses, are visible over very large areas and take hours to complete. MIRA scheduled an eclipse party at the Hamming Center and invited everyone. The weather, frequently cloudy, made it exciting. Even with a nearly total overcast, well over a hundred visitors and a couple of news crews showed up to witness the event. When the dark part of the Earth’s shadow (the umbra) started to cover the moon, the overcast thickened and the Moon disappeared in an untimely way. The faint of heart headed for home, but as totality neared the clouds started to break apart. By the time totality started, the Moon was frequently completely clear.

We ran a short slide show outside to explain the geometry of the orbits of the Moon and the Earth. Views of the eclipsed Moon and bright planets were enjoyed by all through the WSO telescope and the several telescopes brought by the MIRA amateurs. Totality lasted for 1 hour and 17 minutes; during that time a steady stream of new arrivals enjoyed the commentary and views. As the eclipse ended, the clouds returned.

there will be a nearly perfect total lunar eclipse. In this second lunar eclipse of 2000 the Moon will pass almost exactly through the center of the Earth’s shadow. Because of this, the total phase of the eclipse will last 1 hour and 47 minutes, nearly the theoretical maximum duration and the longest in 140 years. The only downside is that it is best viewed in Australia. Totality will start almost exactly at moonset for observers on the Central Coast, on the morning of 16 July. The Moon will be within 20 degrees of the great star cloud in Sagittarius, providing a wonderful opportunity for a spectacular photograph of the Moon and a rich part of the Milky Way.

¹ The winter solstice is the point in the Earth’s orbit where the apparent position of the Sun is at its most southerly part of its motion on the sky. It also marks the transition between the astronomical autumn and winter.