If the clouds behave, lunar eclipse will be visible tonight

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 11:43 a.m.

If the weather holds up, Las Vegans will get a chance to see a lunar eclipse tonight.

The nearly full moon is scheduled to rise just after sunset, and by 6 p.m. the eclipse will start with a shadow beginning to move across the lunar surface, Community College of Southern Nevada Planetarium Assistant Deborah Bazar said.

"A lunar eclipse is when the earth blocks the majority of the light reflected by the moon from the sun," Bazar said. "This is the first lunar eclipse visible in Southern Nevada that I can remember in the last few years."

The last total eclipse of the moon was in September 1997. Tonight the moon should reach total eclipse at 8:05 p.m., and the entire eclipse should be completed by about 11:30 p.m.

"It will be visible to the naked eye as long as it's not cloudy," Bazar said.

Officials at the National Weather Service forecast the sky to be partly cloudy during the eclipse.

The CCSN Planetarium at the Cheyenne Campus, 3200 E. Cheyenne Ave., will be open from 6:30 p.m. until 10 p.m. with free public use of telescopes for viewing the eclipse. Planetarium staff will be on hand to help people get a good view of the eclipse and answer any questions, Bazar said.