The first total lunar eclipse of 2014 occurred Tuesday, but unfortunately for the many worldwide star and moon gazers it was solely visible in North and South America.
Luckily though,
NASA live-streamed the incident with additional images available through the
Slooh camera, a robotic telescope service accessible over the web.
The lunar eclipse was the first in a succession of 4 total eclipses happening at regular six month intervals - an astronomical event known as ‘lunar tetrad’.
Normally, lunar eclipses only occur nearly twice a year and they are rarely total, making this 'tetrad' an unusual event.
The moon does not completely disappear from sight during a lunar eclipse, nonetheless it moves into the darkest part of Earth’s shadow known as the umbra.
It means that the Earth blocks all direct sunlight from reflecting off the moon’s surface so the light passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, giving the moon a reddish coloring during a total eclipse as the Earth’s atmosphere scatters other parts of the light spectrum.
Several myths surround the event and should we look at lunar eclipse mythologies, we find that many cultures view the disappearance of the moon as a time of danger and chaos.
Among the collected myths is a story about a jaguar that attacked and ate the moon. The big cat's assault explained the rusty or blood-red color that the moon often turned during a total lunar eclipse.
The Inca feared that after it attacked the moon, the jaguar would crash to Earth to eat people. To avoid that, they would try to drive the predator away by shaking spears at the moon and making a lot of noise, including beating their dogs to make them howl and bark.
The Hupa, a Native American tribe from northern California on the other hand, viewed the event in a more positive manner. They believed the moon had 20 wives, several pets including mountain lions and snakes. Legend says, when the moon did not yield enough food to eat, they attacked and made it bleed. The eclipse would end when the moon’s wives would come in to protect him, collecting his blood and restoring his health.
Similarly, the Luiseño tribe of south California believed an eclipse was an indication of the moon’s illness and tribe members would chant and raise prayers to bring it back to health.
In Africa, the Batammaliba people of Togo and Benin are said to believe that the sun and moon are fighting during an eclipse, and so the people hold several rituals pleading an end to the cosmic war.
As for some Christians, a blood moon heralds an End of Days scenario evident in this passage from the King James Bible.
"The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes," [Joel 2:31].
Whether you are more interested in the science or the mythologies surrounding this celestial event, we suggest you take to your electronic devices to observe this magnificent event.
As for the readers who are lucky enough to be in the Americas, bring out your telescopes, pick higher grounds where light pollution would not interfere with your viewing and enjoy a night out moon gazing.
After all, one can fairly say that our ancestors who solely had the night sky, stars and moon for their evening entertainment suffered a lot less stress than we do in our modern times.
Additional photos courtesy of Hani Shaabi -Houston, Texas.