How often do you get to witness an event that has not been seen since the year 1378, over half a millennium, 632 years ago? Of course, weather will make or break the viewing, and it appears the much of the west coast of the USA will be socked in with a significant winter storm at that time.
Here’s the USA forecast for cloud cover. Blue is clearest, gray is cloud cover.
For those that can see it, the moon will likely appear as a deep coppery red, like this 2003 eclipse photo at left.
From Science @ NASA, they write: Everyone knows that “the moon on the breast of new-fallen snow gives the luster of mid-day to objects below.” That is, except during a lunar eclipse.
See for yourself on Dec. 21st, the first day of northern winter, when the full Moon passes almost dead-center through Earth’s shadow. For 72 minutes of eerie totality, an amber light will play across the snows of North America, throwing landscapes into an unusual state of ruddy shadow.
The eclipse begins on Tuesday morning, Dec. 21st, at 1:33 am EST (Monday, Dec. 20th, at 10:33 pm PST). At that time, Earth’s shadow will appear as a dark-red bite at the edge of the lunar disk. It takes about an hour for the “bite” to expand and swallow the entire Moon. Totality commences at 02:41 am EST (11:41 pm PST) and lasts for 72 minutes.
If you’re planning to dash out for only one quick look - it is December, after all - choose this moment: 03:17 am EST (17 minutes past midnight PST). That’s when the Moon will be in deepest shadow, displaying the most fantastic shades of coppery red.
Why red?
A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is underway. You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it’s not. The rim of the planet is on fire! As you scan your eye around Earth’s circumference, you’re seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth’s shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb.
Back on Earth, the shadowed Moon paints newly fallen snow with unfamiliar colors–not much luster, but lots of beauty.
This lunar eclipse falls on the date of the northern winter solstice. How rare is that? Total lunar eclipses in northern winter are fairly common. There have been three of them in the past ten years alone. A lunar eclipse smack-dab on the date of the solstice, however, is unusual. Using NASA’s 5000 year catalog of lunar eclipses and JPL’s HORIZONS ephemeris to match eclipses and solstices, author Dr. Tony Phillips had to go back to the year 1378 to find a similar “winter solstice lunar eclipse.”
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA
h/t to WUWT reader “Ray”
I look forward to it , i can remeber seeing the solar eclipse in 1984 and it was a sight.
Well you only ever once get to observe ANY event. Events NEVER occur again for those who missed them.
So I missed the 1378 event; I must have been doing something else that day.
I barely can stay up to midnight for the new year and it would be almost impossible to set an alarm to get up to witness this event.
“Dec. 21st, the first day of northern winter”: why is such a daft usage so popular in the US?
A lunar eclipse can be extremely beautiful at times.
I observed the eclipse November 2003 pictured in this article, with a telescope and a webcam, creating a live webcast. From the still pictures, I later made
this animation of the Lunar eclipse 08-09 Nov 2003
Go out and have a look if you can. No telescope needed. A red lunar eclipse is most beautiful seen with the naked eye.
Thanks for the tip. The kids will love that if they’ll get up and dressed in the middle of the cold night! Probably will be another long, long wait to see that coincidence again.
In Australia Summer starts on the 1st of December and the other seasons on the corresponding 1sts of the months.
My Thanks to Dr. Phillips, to Ray and to Anthony…! I’ll be using as much self-control
as is possible to wait (so, I’ll use that time to figure out ‘when’ this eclipse happens in the skies south of Adelaide. The ‘picture’ that the ‘moon view’ brought to mind was awesome, indeed! My mind has ‘been there a bit’ (ie: ‘The Little Prince’, that guy who lives on the moon with that rose in an upside down beaker…? …which – Truth be told, I STILL don’t ‘get’ to this very day…it was kinda like ‘Flatland’, to me, you know?)
But, the imagery provided here… “standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is underway. You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it’s not. The rim of the planet is on fire! As you scan your eye around Earth’s circumference, you’re seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth’s shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb.”…is awe-inspiring stuff.
It was especially interesting to me…as an intercessor, Scientist-Wanna Be (with a little s, that’s ‘me’…) and, a Shepherdess over 800-plus ‘cross-bred sheep’…(hahaha… are there ANY other kind, she laughingly asks….?) ’cause it just so happens to be yet another of the satanists ‘high holy days’, as well.
During ‘their events’ globally…….. their…..’sabbat festivals’ as they call them… (those which have eyes to see and ears to hear, let them take notice) where they engage in all sorts of ‘fun’, such as ~ oral, and anal (but, that’s not sex, so……let’s talk about what the definition of ‘is’, is…right?) orgies in supposed ‘glorification’ to their ‘god’, (decidedly LITTLE ‘g’…ah,hum…) So ~ while folks, such as myself, are face down and hearts up in prayer over the total 24 hours of these decidedly obscure obscenities,
those of you who read this post can now ‘see’ yet another in a plethora of reasons why I enjoy frequenting ‘Watts Up’.
And, that’s exactly why I don’t claim omniscience (see??? ‘omni-science’??? get it…?
yet another reason why Science is under attack, guys… ’cause you either are an enlightened ‘observer’ of Glory or…..you learn to say that YOU create the Glory on your own… The ‘ego’ thing, sadly….but, lest I continue to digress and lose the ‘lot’ of you…which would be SO VERY SAD…) I’ve gotta say that I NEVER EVER thought that by dropping by this site, I’d learn to so very easily love so many Individuals (definitely capital ‘I’!) that frequent it, as well.
Be Blessed and Be Watchful, k? ha-ha-ha…ho-ho-ho… ’cause JUST like Glenn Beck said at that Wilmington, Ohio thingie… (I’m paraphrasing, here…) …when you read the word ‘Santa’… what OTHER word can it ‘turn into’??? (Yeah……most folks were doin’ the normal one you ‘see’ now………but, remember, Beck has a sense of humor like most of us do……. So, he wrote……..” ‘Santa’= ‘Obama’!!!” hahaha hohoho….. and the whole audience laughed and laughed!!!
Oh!!! One ‘last gift’ before I go to check the critters, as it’s 10am here in the Southeast… Just CHECK OUT ‘FOR YOURSELVES’ the name (which I LOATHE
to say, as ‘they’ always want to ‘speak things into existence’ but, for YOU GUYS I’m making a learned exception……… Here goes: “BARAK HUSSEIN O-BAMA” go on……………RESEARCH (you guys are into that, right?!) what each of those words mean and I PROMISE you’ll be calling him good ol’ Barry Soetoro from now on. (MY suggestion??? NEVER say those words together, jus’ DON’T DO IT. An’ if you think I’m nutz……then, at least before passing judgement……. RESEARCH what each of those words actually means…..tut, tut, tut, right….? hahaha…big ears an’ all……
God Bless You Guys……..an’ happy hunting. I, for one, am gonna go learn about the earth being a ‘great ball o’ fire’……!
C.L. Thorpe
The redness depends to some degree on the amount of volcanic ash in the earth’s atmosphere, which of course alters the redness of our sunsets. One might be able to make a guess about future weather, using this hint about the amount of ash in the atmosphere. Perhaps this is what has led to a certain amount of lore regarding the eclipsed moon being an omen of future events. I think in Shakespere’s Macbeth there is some reference to a “bloody” moon, baleful in the sky during an eclipse, and I once saw an eclipsed moon which was surprising drab and grey, (though I can’t recall what sort of luck it fortold.)
Total Lunar Eclipse, 21st December 1638.
Ref; The Sky Astronomy software by Bisque.
That reminds me I need to RSVP to an invitation to an eclipse watching party.
One minor correction: that’s a forecast of cloud cover for the contiguous 48 states. The USA covers a tad more real estate than that. You can see the sky cover forecast for my home state and the remainder of the USA by going to the NOAA link here:
http://www.weather.gov/forecasts/graphical/sectors/conus.php
Then click on Go to Region just above Washington State and you will find Guam, Hawaii, Alaska, and Puerto Rico.
Clouds + winter solstice + no sun = “really, really cold,” right?
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
“Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”
Thanks Carsten!
Thanks Anthony,
I think Rudolph (the Red-nosed Reindeer ), might argue with the science as presented.
You know, Rudolph “with his nose so bright…”, probably thinks it’s his fault the moon is red.
George E. Smith says: “So I missed the 1378 event; I must have been doing something else that day.”
Yeah, you were busy not experiencing not existing but don’t worry you’ll get to not experience not existing again… unfortunately. [:)]
There are not even near a whole number of Lunations in 632 years (7816.742),
so there cannot have been a Lunar eclipse in 21.12.1378.
A Lunar eclipse is when the moon goes behind the Sun, right?
…just kidding.
Sounds cool!
We on the Isthmus appear to be in the total eclipse area.
This family may head for Turrialba Lodge, over 3000 meters elevation: should be good opportunity for exploring our new camera. Photos, maybe, for the great crowd here.
A thoughtful Advent to you each. regards, John
file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Ian/My%20Documents/My%20Pictures/sulphuricsunset/sulphuricsunset.jpg
Hey, Guys! Here’s that ‘sulfuric sunset’ I promised!!! Prayerfully, you’ll be able to open it and share it on this ‘red moon’ talk! I took the photo the night after you alerted me
that the last Asian eruption would send ‘beautiful sunsets’ to Australia.
Hope this works! I’ve been tryin’ to send it to you for 3 weeks……. it was my step-daughter that just came in to do this……..all kudos to Fiona!
Cynthia Lauren Thorpe
It took me all of 15 minutes to work out that the last Lunar eclipse at a winter solstice was in 1638, from the 93yr cycle of eclipses :-
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLEmap/1601-1700/LE1638-12-21T.gif
It is really not on for the solstice 1378 :-
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEcat5/LE1301-1400.html
“LibertyAtStake says:
December 17, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Clouds + winter solstice + no sun = “really, really cold,” right?”
The sun is not visible anyway around midnight in North America. It is the moon that is in the shadow of the earth.
[snip – take your ad hom comment outside ~mod]
Tarnation!
South central Texas is the only gray spot for 500 miles or more in any direction. At least it’s light gray. A broken sky would still be fine. With the way this winter is going we might even have snow on the ground that night. Florida too! Who’d a thunk it possible.
Ulric, is there the possibility of date shifting due to the “Old Style” Julian calendars in use in the 14 th century versus the “New Style” Gregorian calendar of later centuries?
As far as I know, the Gregorian calendar didn’t have widespread acceptance until the middle of the 18th century, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t in use in some places prior to that, as it was developed and “issued” by 1582, although it took ages to become more or less universal.
Does this mean the greenie earth worshippers will be dancing around the campfire in their birthday suits?