Tue 28 Aug 2007
Red Moon Rising
Posted by anaglyph under In The News, Religion, Science, Signs, Skeptical Thinking
[18] Comments
… and since we’re astrologizing, did you all catch the total lunar eclipse and corresponding ‘Blood Moon’ last night? The park near my house was filled with folks looking skyward, which for me was almost as big a thrill as the event itself.
It still amazes me, though, how confused and ill-informed people continue to be about events like this. As I walked up the street to the park, glancing up at the beginning of the eclipse, an old bloke said to me knowingly “Better get a good look – you’ll never see that again in your lifetime…”*
Lunar eclipses occur frequently, sometimes two or three times in a year, total eclipses a little less frequently. ‘Blood’ or ‘Hunter’s’ moons appear whenever there is a total lunar eclipse.† I’ve already seen a few, and I hope to see a few more, all things going well.
Acts 2:20 ~ The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
Of course the religious loonies leap upon this sort of thing with gusto. As an omen, the red moon is surely the lamest of portents to choose – by my calculation, the Earth has seen at least two thousand of these since the apostle Peter penned the above prediction. Even if you assume that St Peter was referring to a combination of solar & lunar eclipses, it’s not such a rare thing for those things to occur in tandem.
If you want to know when your next Blood Moon occurs, you can do no better than fire up the Javascript Lunar Eclipse Explorer at NASA. Plug in your capital city and your century and you’re set to plan your next End Times Picnic!
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*Of course, it is possible that he was clairvoyant, and the real meaning of his pronouncement was that I’ll be turning up my toes before the next lunar eclipse occurs…
†Unless there are extenuating circumstances – a lunar eclipse on December 30, 1982 was almost completely dark. Dust from the recently erupting Mexican volcano El Chichon clouded the atmosphere to such an extent that it occluded the sun’s rays, preventing them from casting their filtered red light on the moon.
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There are plenty of explanations as to his premonition that don’t include pushing up daisies.
1) you’ll go blind before the next Lunar exclipse
B) you’ll coincidently be inside during any future L.E.
finally) Technically, you’ll never see that again is correct as the next eclipse you see will be a different eclipse.
Next) maybe he was talking to someone else (real or imagined)
I am pleased to have attracted such high quality pedantry to The Cow.
Sorry.
I thougt this was a spanking-fetish site.
Joey: You probably meant to go here.
Aside: I have met Mr Fondman of ‘Fondly & Firmly’ and have had business dealings with him. He is a very thoughtful, clever and helpful gentleman in his professional field, and it is a sad fact that he has apparently been persecuted enough by stupid people that he has been forced to remove all references to his real identity from his site.
I stood on the roof of my building with many of my neighbours to watch the event. The presence of the other people, and especially the almost complete silence in which we watched, added to the wonder as we turned our faces up to the sky. Each new arrival seemed to glean the need to be quiet, and the few comments that were made were murmered in the dark.
Did you take that spectacular photo? My best effort was the beginning of the encroaching shadow.
Sorry, I mean this moon.
No, sadly I did not take the photo. The best I could do with my little camera was a very faint blob. That photo was taken by Mr NASA who is pretty good at snapping such things.
Oh, Revrend!
You are a enabler!
Education is the name of the game here on The Cow, Joey!
I wonder how all this looks to a Selenite.
John’s Revelation I think is on its way out of popular literal interpretation. Which is nice. The end of the World truns into more of a goal than anything else to most religi-wackos.
However, if it takes the end of the world for me to see simultaneous eclipses, I’m down.
With “Blood Moon”, St. Peter was probably referring to Bush’s upcoming invasion of the Moon in his ever-widening search for Osama Bin-Whatshisname.
They say they have definitive proof this time. Documents and stuff.
Hey, I hear you guys tittering, but it makes as much sense as invading I-raq. Like The President says, “Sometimes you just gotta have faith.”
Well, ok, what he actually said was “Sometimes I just gots, um, you know, having faiths, faith, them’s a good thing, not a bad thing, faiths is“, but we all know what he meant.
Jam: It’s a great and thought-provoking question. Something not unlike this I speculate:
Casey: I think they’ve already blown so many chances that they should give up on the omens-from-the-heavens schtick. Maybe they’d do better with the Rain of Frogs or the ol’ reliable Plague of Locusts.
Colonel: Well, now that they have a light sabre on the Shuttle, Little Georgie is probably feeling pretty darn cocky!
Reverend- a new memo from the National Republican Party Headquarters specifically forbids the use of the word “cocky” to describe any Republican from now on.
Now I want to see one.
*sigh*
Alas, I shall not see that kind again – I had hoped, here in Perth to see a lunar eclipse cut by the horizon – It clouded out – Erisdammit!
btw, that NASA eclipse site is not very good – it doesn’t have my century on it!
Lawks Archie! Exactly how old are you? It goes back to -1999 (ie, 1999BC)!
Oh, I am incredibly ancient – I remember dinosaur BBQ’s – – – Well, my children are convinced I do!