By Shannon McKenna
Round Table editor

During the year 2010, two solar and two lunar eclipses have occurred, Jan. 15 was an annular solar eclipse, June 26 was a partial lunar eclipse, July 11 was a total solar eclipse and on the morning of Dec. 21  the final eclipse of the year occurred, the total lunar eclipse.

A lunar eclipse only occurs when the moon passes behind the earth so that the earth is blocking the sun’s rays from striking the moon. This can occur only when the sun, earth, and moon are aligned almost exactly so that the earth is in the middle. The moon can change its appearance from bright orange to blood red to dark brown.

Some Middletown High School students gave up a few hours of sleep to see the beautiful sight as the moon hit its peak at 3:17am. The total eclipse was supposed to begin at 2:41am and end soon after at 3:53am.

Because of the cloudy sky early in the morning many students woke up to find no moon or even stars in the sky, much to their disappointment.

“I was actually looking forward to seeing the eclipse and when I woke up in the morning it was so cloudy I couldn’t even see the moon in the sky so I ended up just going back to bed,” said MHS senior Corbin Troup.

Total lunar eclipses are more rare then all the others and only occur for a short period of time. Feb. 20, 2008 was the last recorded total lunar eclipse.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) predicts that there will be six eclipses during 2011, there will be four partial solar eclipses and two total lunar eclipses. Students who missed the chance to see this morning still have many chances to witness the sight in the upcoming year.

“Hopefully I can see another eclipse in the future because it was disappointing to wake up, when I could have been asleep, and then I couldn’t even see the moon,” said MHS junior Megan Toms.

More information can be found about lunar eclipses at: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2010.html