An interesting natural phenomenon will occur tonight (April 14 - 15, 2014). At that time, there will be a lunar eclipse. Before midnight, the Earth's satellite will be colored red, like blood or commonly referred to as blood moon.
Mid-April eclipse is the first total eclipse of 4 consecutive Moon eclipse or 'tetrad series of eclipses' in 2014. Four consecutive eclipses are quite rare events. The series last occurred in 2003 and 2004. It's just going to happen again seven times in this century.
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| Before the middle of the night, the Moon will be colored red, like the blood called blood moon phenomenon. The true sign of the apocalypse? (Picture from: http://www.salon.com/) |
Some people believe it is a blood moon, either impending sign of doomsday or disaster. Such superstitions contained in the book, "Four Moons Blood: Something Is About to Change" (Worthy Publishing, 2013) by John Hagee, which shows the relationship between the four total lunar eclipse with the apocalypse prophecies.
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| This NASA graphic shows the months with total lunar eclipses between April 2014 and September 2015. This tetrad of total lunar eclipses features eclipses on April 15, Oct. 8, April 4, 2015 and Sept. 28, 2015. (Picture from: http://www.space.com/) |
According to scientists, when the mechanism behind eclipse less well understood, they are considered a sign of bad news, as well as comets. Like a Comet Elenin ever considered as Nibiru wild planet, which will hit and shook the Earth. Now Elenin was dead.
"Now people know that the eclipse as it was just a normal incidence on the solar cycle, the things that have been going regularly for thousands of years and that will happen over thousands of years into the future," says Geoff Gaherty of Starry Night Education, as quoted from Space.com on Thursday, April 10, 2014.
He added that the link between 'predictions of disaster' and astronomical events are all fabrications of the human mind. "The only thing that happens during a lunar eclipse is that the moon spends several hours past the Earth's shadow, hardly something to worry about."
Thanks to the internet, people heard about the disaster at the other corner of the Earth, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruption - that they never cared about in the past. "As a keen observer of the sky, I was saddened to learn many wonderful things in the sky like a lunar eclipse, regarded as an omen of disaster," added Geoff Gaherty.
The blood moon term rarely used among the astronomers. If used, the astronomers use it as as an alternative name for Hunter's Moon - the full moon following the Harvest Moon, which usually appears at the end of October.
Hunter's Moon, as well as the Harvest Moon, rose slowly in the autumn night that shines through the thick layer of Earth's atmosphere. The color red by scattering Rayleight - elastic scattering of light or other electromagnetic radiation by other particles - and air pollution.
However, a lunar eclipse is something very different. It occurs when the Moon passes through Earth's shadow. Earth's shadow is composed of two parts: a dark core called the "umbra," and the outside of the lighter called the "penumbra. Rather than total darkness, shadow core usually orange or red by the light that passes through a ring that surrounds the Earth's atmosphere.
Depending on how the condition of Earth's atmosphere through which the light of the Sun, umbra can be colored from bright copper-red to almost totally black. On rare occasions, the light reaching the Moon has exactly as the color of blood, but there is no way to predict it in advance. So, there is no reason to call a particular lunar eclipse as the moon blood until the Moon finally showed its color.
Because the Moon's orbit slightly tilted compared to the path of the Sun in the sky, often the Moon passes above or below Earth's shadow, so no eclipse occurs. Sometimes the Moon passes through the penumbra and only produce what is called a penumbral eclipse, where the Moon is only slightly covered Earth's shadow - will not even realize the difference by sky watchers. There are 2 penumbral eclipse which occurred in 2013 - on May 25 and October 18.
There is also a partial lunar eclipse, where the moon is only slightly covered the Earth's shadow. As happened on April 25, 2013. Comparatively rare lunar eclipse is when the Moon passes through the darkest part of Earth's shadow: a total lunar eclipse that occurred on December 10, 2011. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SPACE]
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