Fun Facts and a Total Lunar Eclipse

As you may remember, on our blog last week, we discussed the upcoming total Lunar Eclipse for Monday night (tonight...). Well, in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, the weather is not too conducive to seeing the eclipse. Even here in Arizona, where the weather is great most of the time, we have some light cloud cover. The good news is that we can still watch the eclipse. The cloud cover only makes the moon look fuzzy, but you can still see the full moon and as I run back and forth, I can see the beginnings of the Lunar Eclipse. The total eclipse should be about 12:40 am MST and will last approximately 72 minutes.

If you have the opportunity to run outside, the Lunar Eclipse is just beginning (approximately 11 PM MST). hopefully you can get a glimpse of this year's Eclipse, especially since it falls on the Winter Solstice. The reason this particular eclipse is so unique is that it falls on the Winter Solstice. The last time a full Lunar Eclipse fell on a Winter Solstice was 372 years ago on December 21st 1638. The next full Lunar Eclipse that will occur on a Winter Solstice will be on December 21st, 2094. I am not sure, but I don't think I will be in attendance for that one...

Ancient documents from Asia, Europe and the Middle East are full of references connecting eclipses with subsequent dark events such as famines or the death of a monarch.

In many traditional cultures, a total lunar eclipse occurs not when the moon enters Earth's shadow, but when a mythological creature swallows the moon.

The Chinese believed the heavenly dog swallowed the moon, the Maya sometimes depicted the eclipse creature as a serpent, while in the Andes, it was often a puma.

In Iraq, lunar eclipses were believed to have been eaten by a whale.

For most people the majority of the time, most eclipses meant trouble. Eclipses were regarded as disruptions of the world order.

In Japan, people still cover wells in order to avoid being poisoned by the disease of the moon during the eclipse.

Native residents of Arctic regions have been known to turn over their utensils to avoid contamination.

The arrangement of boulders in England (Stonehenge) have long been associated with celestial meaning. It has been discovered that if you place stone markers strategically atop 19 columns in the array, a known 47 month cycle of lunar eclipses becomes apparent.

Do you know why the moon turns reddish during a Lunar Eclipse? - Earth's thick, dust-filled atmosphere filters the sunlight shining through it, resulting in the rusty hue of a total lunar eclipse.

Hopefully you enjoyed tonight's fun facts about total lunar eclipses and also had an opportunity to view this years Total Lunar Eclipse on the Winter Solstice.

Until tomorrow...