Lunar Eclipse

The Moon will turn an eerie shade of red for people in the western hemisphere late Wednesday and early Thursday as we experience the first lunar eclipse since August 28, 2007. In a lunar eclipse, the Sun, Earth and Moon are directly aligned and the Moon swings into the cone of shadow cast by the Earth. But the Moon does not become invisible, as there is still residual light that is deflected towards it by our atmosphere. Most of this refracted light is in the red part of the spectrum and as a result the Moon, seen from Earth, turns a coppery, orange or even brownish hue.



One can even use such knowledge to save their bacon. Can you say Christopher Columbus?



Lunar eclipses have long been associated with superstitions and signs of ill omen, especially in battle.

The defeat of the Persian king Darius III by Alexander the Great in the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC was foretold by soothsayers when the Moon turned blood-red a few days earlier. And an eclipse is credited with saving the life of Christopher Columbus and his crew in 1504.



This is not just some wise tale!



Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, the explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies. Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac, realised that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504.

He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night. The warning came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon, which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.



Some things are predictable and known. Other things like Planet X are postulates and suspected. On the known siade of things, the Moon will be in total eclipse from 0301 GMT to 0351 GMT. This will be visible east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, as well as in all of Central and South America, West Africa and Western Europe.



It will be in partial eclipse from 0143 GMT to 0301 GMT, visible west of the Rockies and from the eastern Pacific, and from 0351 GMT to 0509 GMT, visible across the rest of Africa and Europe and much of South and West Asia.



The next lunar eclipse won't take place until December 21 2010. That's exactly two years before God only knows what will take place on December 21, 2012. And then there's February 14, 2013 or about 45 days after the most talked about date of the future. Planet X is projected to be 2.85AU from the sun with the earth directly between the brown dwarf and our sun. And talk about coronal mass ejections (CME) and sun spots? You've not seen anything like this fireworks display.



Try to make a movie out of this doomsday scenario! Art cannot imitate life to such an extent. But, while you can, and hopefully the weather will allow such a view, enjoy the quiet of mother nature.