Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Hanging a Red Moon

The moon appears totally covered by shadow as the earth passes between the moon and the sun, during the lunar eclipse in this Jan. 9, 2001 file photo taken in Kiel, Germany.

Toronto, aka " the center of the universe", experienced a rare event last night - no, not  Leaf victory - but rather, a lunar eclipse. During a lunar eclipse, the earth is exactly in line between the full moon and the sun, blocking the sun’s light from bouncing off the moon - hence appearing with a deep red colour.**Note: the pic above is the lunar eclipse where the moon is a deep red; the pic below is a different red moon:
The earth’s atmosphere makes the moon appear to be red, the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, Toronto Centre, explained on its David Dunlap Observatory site in Richmond Hill. The moon appeared entirely red at 2:41 a.m. and continued until around 4:00 a.m.
I read up and discovered that lunar eclipses have changed the course of history. During the 5th century BC, the Athenians considered a total eclipse a bad omen and delayed their siege of Syracuse, altering the course of the war. In 1504, Christopher Columbus used foreknowledge of the eclipse to trick natives in Jamaica into feeding his sailors. The last time a winter solstice total lunar eclipse was visible overhead the English and French had just started squabbling over the fur trade in Canada — 372 years ago.
And in 2010, a red assed baboon thew poo at a little boy:

be sure and duck
Johnny Boy

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