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”
Ulric Lyons says:
December 17, 2010 at 3:45 pm
> Total Lunar Eclipse, 21st December 1638.
> Ref; The Sky Astronomy software by Bisque.
When was the solstice that year? Is that a Julian calendar date or Gregorian? From a famous calendar article (Software Problem Report) that predates Wikipedia (and nearly predates the Internet), http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/year-2000/leap.html says:
In Unix-land:
$ cal 1752 1752 ... July August September Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 1 1 2 14 15 16 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 ...BTW, all geeks, especially those who know what VMS is, should read that link. Very little is computer-specific, so non-geeks will like it too.
Ric Werme says:
December 18, 2010 at 6:33 am
My astronomy application says 21st Dec 1638. It has to be the solstice as it is 372 solar years of 365.242199 days before this solstice. The 365.2564 (365.25636) figure you gave is the sidereal year, the anomalistic year is 365.25956 days.
Commenting as the goddess in the cave, I here by declare Dec. 21st, 2010 as the day, regardless of which calendar you use. Hey, if the Christians can take over a pagan day and then call it something else, so can I. I’ll let the folks 2000 years from now straighten it out.
Now there’s a comment on how long it takes us to figure things out.
Interstingly, the last time this event occured, the observers didn’t actually understand it.
Whenever I see a year like 1378, and a date like 21st December, I ask myself. according to which calendar? The Julian calendar came into being in 44 BC, IIRC, and lasted for various lengths of times in different countries. It changed to the Gregorian calendar in many peculiar ways, right up to the 18th century. So, I think one needs to ask the question. December 21st according to which calendar, Julian or Gregorian?
Ulric Lyons, are you taking into consideration the reset of the calendar? Remember that the calendar had drifted out of sync with the seasons. There was a correction and a concurrent switch to a new system. This is reflected in NASA JPL ephemerides. Many days went missing one year. Have you factored this into your analysis? And does the software you cite take this into account?
Those in South Florida might like to see my article “Total Eclipse of the Moon, December 21 ’10” in “Astronomy for South Florida”, at http://www.oarval.org/astroFL.htm with local times for the event.
Clear Skies!
I have no idea when the last lunar eclipse was on a solstice, but I will make my kids get up to watch this one Tuesday AM. looks like the forecast is for partly cloudy.
Ulric Lyons says:
December 18, 2010 at 7:05 am
Can’t argue with that, thanks. So either 1638 got missed or event timing missed a day in some timezone (and since there weren’t timezones then, I guess Greenwich time would be the reference). Maybe that eclipse wasn’t visible at Greenwich or someone just missed it in looking through the records. Where’s Jean Meeus when we need him? 🙂
BTW, the Gregorian calendar averages 365.2524 days long (in 400 years, there are 97 leap days, so (400*365 + 97)/400 = 365.2524. I think the Russian calendar has a century rule involving nines of centuries, so they get to 365.242222…, but it will be another century or two before their calendar falls out of sync with the Gregorian.
@Paul Vaughan says:
December 18, 2010 at 8:25 am
Yes, yes, and yes. 1582.
Isn’t it more like you can see these eclipses when ever you just have to be at the right place at the right time.
These two quotes explain my reasoning:
‘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?’
‘For those that can see it, the moon will likely appear as a deep coppery red, like this 2003 eclipse photo at left.’
So the answer would be about 7 years. 🙂
@Ric Werme says:
December 18, 2010 at 9:36 am
I just checked and had to step 372*365.242777 days to go from
{16:06} 21.12.1638 to {23:39} 21.12.2010. = {solstice times}
Really we looking at a Lunar eclipse occurring on the same day as a winter equinox, whatever calendar date that day has. This could be a problem for New Zealand as the eclipse is around 08:00 GMT.
At my Latitude there will be only about 9 hours of daylight next Tuesday, December 21st. I did some checking and back on June 21st there were almost 15 hours of daylight. Running a simple trend line forecast, by next December 21st there will be no daylight at all. Why hasn’t anyone spoken up about this???
Happy Winter Solstice to all!
I’m a voodoo chile, lord I’m a voodoo chile.
Yeah.
The night I was born, lord the moon stood a fire red.
Said the night I was born, the moon turned a fire red.
My poor mother her cryin’, she said “The gypsy was right!”
And she fell right dead.
Hey, and he said “Fly on, fly on!”, ’cause I’m a voodoo chile, baby
voodoo chile.
RIP Jimi
To Mike Borgelt in Australia and Dearieme,
just to pass on what I was taught in high school. The reason that we have seasons at all is due to an astronomical event, i.e. the tilt of the earth’s axis in relation to its orbit. Without that tilt there would be no pronounced seasons as we have them today. In fact the earth may have divided up into distinct zones like those on Jupiter which has only a 3 degree tilt to its axis.
The cardinal dates that relate to the earth’s tilt are the solstices and equinoxes. In our Greco-Babylonian influenced society these dates were said to herald the beginnings of the seasons. The other dominant cultures of antiquity, the Chinese and the Celts, believed that the seasons start half way between the equinoxes and the solstices, the Cross Quarter days. This has led to the confusing conundrum of people referring to the solstices as ‘mid-winter and mid-summer.’
As mentioned in many posts above our calendar has needed to undergo many reforms over the years to keep it on track. For many reasons, mostly politics and religion, the best chances to keep the calendar aligned with the seasons as it was originally intended in Roman times, has been missed.
The solstices and equinoxes now appear three weeks into the month in stead of at the beginning as they once did. I feel that Mother Astronomy who now has somewhat bigger fish to fry, has passed the job onto one of her children, in this case meteorologists, to announce the start of the seasons and get into the ear of the politicians to make that announcement official.
Politicians being the expedient animals that they are can’t handle the inconvenience of seasons starting 3 weeks into a month, so not having the guts to change the calendar to match the start of the seasons, they change the start of the seasons to match the calendar! Confusion rains (sigh).
Cynthia Lauren Thorpe
you should look to the north east at sunset to see the moon rising. Unfortunately for you totality will be completely over by the time that the moon rises in Adelaide. The Moon will only be in the penumbral part of the shadow. Nowhere near as spectacular I’m afraid.
Cheers
Coops
Total lunar eclipses will become more commonplace with increased CO2 output.
Please consider further enriching Al Gore and his buddies to prevent this catastrophe. Ask your Senator for a tax rise today!
Ahh! Syzygy!
@Ulric Lyons says:
December 18, 2010 at 11:01 am
Sorry that`s “solstice” not “equinox”.
This whole thing is just creepy.
Actually, 1638 is the last year when the two coincided only if you use UT as the time zone. If you shift the time zone 7:00 to the west (to what is now called Central Standard Time) or farther west, there was an occurrence on Dec.22 1703 when a total lunar eclipse and the December solstice happened on the same date.
@Starhugger says:
December 18, 2010 at 10:22 pm
Safe.
Lucy Skywalker says:
December 18, 2010 at 3:41 am
“…For those interested in astr****y there is more, but here is not the place to discuss – just to note that Newton and Kepler would have had no problem.”
Reading this thread, it seems we need astr****ers just to know what day it is:-)
I’m sure that even our megalithic ancestors had a better handle on the seasons.
Cynthia Lauren Thorpe says:
December 17, 2010 at 3:39 pm
“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?)”
The “Little Prince” character did not live on our Moon, but on asteroid B612 (see http://www.b612foundation.org). The rose was not “in an upside down beaker”, but in the open, behind a screen to protect it from the wind, and under a glass globe at night (a greenhouse).
See http://home.pacific.net.hk/~rebylee/text/prince/index.html
Clear Skies!
One point not yet mentioned, Sirius (aka the Dog Star) was once thought to heat the earth and was responsible for the seasons, its proximity the sun in the summer overheating our planet. Pope Gregory in his calendar reforms restored Sirius to curious position of crossing the meridian at midnight on New Years Eve. Probably not coincidence. See for example the book Homo Neccans by Burkhert.
.
.
Well, it’s just my back-of-the-envelope visual interpolation but it looks like the average temperature dropped under the several-hundred-year average about AD1378:
MWP to Little Ice Age
But heck, in 2010, near Winter Solstice and the Lunar Eclipse there’s nothing but balmy Winter conditions out there in the Northern Hemisphere, right?
Sister Nature sometimes smiles with a wink. Some of us who endured the imminent nuclear Winters in the 70s might still have a few dusty snuggly blankets packed away in the bottom drawer.
.
.