Observatory Opens for Rare Lunar Eclipse

The college community and local residents showed up in the middle of the night to peer through the Keck Telescope and witness the last total eclipse visible in Santa Barbara for at least the next three years. From 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., the observatory welcomed diehard astronomy fans. March’s full moon, named a worm moon, slowly turned into a blood moon as the Earth’s shadow completely covered the moon, filtering sunlight through our atmosphere and turning the lunar surface deep red or coppery brown.

Gavin Stay ’26, an engineering major from San Clemente, California, captured these images of the blood moon, including one with a long exposure. 

The Westmont Observatory, which houses the powerful Keck Telescope, 24-inch F/8 Cassegrain reflecting instrument with Ritchey-Chrétien optics, opens to the public the third Friday of the month, weather permitting.