Lehigh Valley resident photographs partial lunar eclipse
Sometimes, it can feel as if the cosmos is working against you. But when the stars align — pardon the pun — it can also be pretty amazing.
Such was the case for Palmer Township resident and amateur astronomer Terry Pundiak, whose faith in Mother Nature and the universe at large was put to the test early Friday during the longest partial lunar eclipse in 580 years.
After all, it’s hard to see much of anything in the nighttime sky once storm clouds roll in. Pundiak said that has generally been the case for big celestial events in the Lehigh Valley, so he didn’t get his hopes up beforehand.
“I checked early this week and the forecast said it was going to be rainy and cloudy, so I pretty much wrote it off,” Pundiak said. “I just assumed it would be lousy because it’s a one-day event.”
Fortunately, for a man with an estimated 27 hobbies and one really great telescope — a 16-inch mirrored, 7-foot long model — a mostly sleepless night paid off around 2:18 a.m. Friday when the Earth’s umbra (or shadow) began traversing the moon. It grew more intense until around 4:02 a.m. Eastern time, when more than
97 percent of the moon had disappeared.
Though it was technically not a total lunar eclipse, for Pundiak the spectacle was close enough. The self-described “science nut” was awed as the moon was bathed in a blood-red glow, with just a sliver remaining dimly illuminated.
For someone who traveled all the way to Wyoming to take in the 100 percent, two-and-a-half-minute totality of a
full solar eclipse in 2019, even he seem surprised at the feeling of watching Friday’s lunar event unfold and “the math of science and astronomy when it all comes together.”
Events such as Friday’s near-total eclipse have also swelled the ranks of hobbyists and novices alike, Pundiak said. For the past few months, he’s traveled into downtown Easton on clear nights and set
up his telescope next to the Bayou restaurant in Centre Square.
“I put a sign up next to the telescope for the Rotary Club (an international service organization),” Pundiak said. “The sign says ‘Saturn on the Square’ and I put a donation bucket out and show people Saturn or the moon.”
The haul since August has totaled $1,826, Pundiak said. Some of that money has come from those who look through the eyepiece with some ambivalence, if not total disbelief.
“Most people are skeptical, but then they’re like ... ‘Wow!’ When they look through there, they start out thinking it’s baloney or it’s some sort of gimmick. Then they’re just surprised.”
While Pundiak believes the COVID-19 pandemic probably stimulated unusual public interest in astronomy, he enjoys the reactions of children and adults alike who are starry eyed by what they’re able to witness.
“I had one woman last week ... she and her sister came by. They were in their 20s, probably, and I said, ‘Do you want to see Saturn?’ She looked through the telescope and started crying. She was just really excited. I’ve also had people doing birthday parties come by. It’s just been a fun thing.”
Pundiak’s hope is that his visitors not only leave more enamored with the celestial than the mechanical, but that they come back to see him again in that perfect little spot on the corner of Centre Square.
“I know we’ve been talking about this lunar eclipse, but I’ve seen Saturn about 1,000 times now,” he added. “I’ve never seen it better than I’ve seen it from downtown Easton.”