Thousands of skywatchers -- and a few surprised onlookers -- gazed in wonder at the first lunar eclipse of the millennium, braving cold weather, and even snowstorms to get a glimpse of the unusual event.

The eclipse was eagerly awaited by astronomers, who take advantage of the darkened moon to make observations difficult or impossible to do at other times. But for most observers the lure is the grand spectacle of the event, the ominous disappearance of the moons light and its almost-magical re-emergence a couple of hours later.

Observers turned out all across the Western Hemisphere to observe the grand event. In Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, high school teacher Tom Orff braved subfreezing temperatures and a wind chill of 2 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 17 degrees Celsius) for a few brief views of the darkening moon.

"It was a wonderful sight seeing the moon become engulfed in the earth's shadow," Mr. Orff said. "It was difficult to see the shadow on the moon because of the heavy cloud cover, but the glimpses I got were quite exhilarating."

In Houston, Texas, clear skies allowed Al Kelly to be mystified by a bit of history. As he watched the circular edge of the Earths shadow move over the moon, he wondered, "How could we ever have thought the Earth was anything other than round?"

Unlike a solar eclipse, where the suns disk is completely blacked out, in a lunar eclipse the moon is never completely dark. Though its bright glow is dimmed to a faint shadow, even at its darkest point the moon is still bathed in a spectral orange glow. The faint glow is from sunlight that is refracted and scattered through the Earths atmosphere. It is reddened by its low angle through the atmosphere in the same way that the setting sun is reddened as it nears the horizon.

Seeing the deep-orange moon was a bit of surprise for Matt Considine, observing from a site north of Philadelphia. Clouds and snow hid the moon much of the evening, but near the peak of the eclipse, 30-m.p.h. (48 kilometer per hour) winds unexpectedly cleared the skies.

"The result was an awesome burnt-red moon, hovering over fresh-fallen snow," Considine said. "The quiet that accompanies a new snow cover made it a humbling experience."

Near West Palm Beach, Florida, Doug Murray set up a camera to photograph the eclipse and was treated to a lucky event.

Murray recounts that at about 11:40 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, "a meteor flew very close below the moon!"

He is not sure his camera captured the meteor, but if it did it could be the photo of a lifetime, a blazing meteor streaking by the coppery moon.

In Birmingham, Alabama, veteran eclipse watcher Clark Mason said a light haze seemed to dim the eclipse.

"I cannot judge how this one compares to past eclipses since the cloud layer here diffused light from the moon, making it seem darker than ones I have observed in the past," Mason said. "The slight amber color is much more pale than the ruddy ones seen in the late '80s and early '90s."

Mason also reportedly saw what might be the same meteor that Doug Murray viewed several hundred miles east.

"Wow! A meteor cut between Gemini and Canis Minor just now (10:51 p.m. Central Standard Time), creating an eerie and beautiful combination with dark skies, an amber Moon and a grand collection of constellations!! This is definitely one to remember," Mason exclaimed last night.

Observing next to a busy street in Dallas, Texas, singer-songwriter Annie Benjamin wondered why more people were not watching the eclipse.

"People driving by should stop and take a look at this," she said. "They don't even know this is going on and they're missing out. It's beautiful!"

As she spoke, cars continued to rush by, their drivers oblivious to the grand event taking place directly above their heads.

From his home observatory in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Frank Schwartz observed an interesting effect.

"[Once] the eclipse was in totality, there was a really dark spot that seemed to travel along the upper half of the moon from left to right," Schwartz said. "[It gave] the appearance of a crescent moon that was in the shape of a backwards "C" to a "U" shape, then to a "C" shape as the dark shadow traveled across the moon face. This crescent was dark, and the shadow was even darker."

Mr. Schwartz was observing with a small spotting scope, pointing out one of the most beguiling aspects of a lunar eclipse: It can be viewed with very simple equipment, or even no equipment at all.

Across the country many observatories opened their doors to the public with special eclipse-viewing programs. For many people, this provided their only opportunity ever to view a major celestial event through a large observatory telescope.

On Mars Hill, site of the historic Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, more than 250 visitors turned out to view through several of the observatorys instruments, including its famous 24-inch Clark refractor. The 40-foot-long instrument, now 104 years old, was originally built for detecting signs of life on Mars. But in its long history it has served many purposes, including helping select the site where man first set foot on the moon.

Thursday night, the grand old telescope was a witness as the Earth again touched the moon -- its silver face brushed with our planets soft shadow. But according to staff observer Brian Skiff, the best views were not through the big telescopes, but with the wide-angle views of the small portable telescopes brought by many of the visitors.

At the U.S. National Observatory atop Kitt Peak in southern Arizona, visitors and staff took note of how dark the skies become during totality.

Observatory staff member Steven White remarked, "I am astounded at how dark the sky has gotten. Zodiacal light is now easy to see, and the Beehive Cluster, only five degrees away from the (full) Moon, is visible with the naked eye! Incredible!"

When the moon first started to emerge from totality, its ruddy color combined with the peculiar angle of this eclipse to create a very unusual illusion: A number of observers with telescopes remarked how much the eclipsed moon resembled the planet Mars, with its reddish-orange surface and bright polar cap. On the moon the "polar cap" was the bright tip of the emerging moon, its bright white a stark contrast with the remainder of the moon still in the Earths burnt-orange shadow.

As the moon regained its brilliant glow, observers around the country packed up equipment and headed for indoor warmth. The eclipse was widely photographed, but at the clouded-over Cabrillo College observatory site near Santa Cruz, California, members of the college astronomy club engaged in some curious photography of their own: Standing in thick mud and surrounded by rain puddles, they photographed themselves staring glumly upward at the cloudy skies. Better luck next time, perhaps.

Lunar eclipses occur at least twice a year, but not all are total eclipses, and they are not visible from everywhere. The next total lunar eclipse will be on July 16, but it will only be visible from the Far East and parts of the Pacific Ocean. The next total lunar eclipse visible from the Americas wont be until the year 2003 plenty of time to prepare for this rare and exciting spectacle.