If you're into skygazing, you really should stay up late tonight (April 14, April 15) and watch the first of a series of four "blood" moons -- a sequence of lunar eclipses called a tetrad that will occur over the next two years, and which some religious types believe signifies the beginning of the apocalypse. Mars is also incredibly close to Earth at the moment, making it one of the brightest objects in the sky. This alignment between the Sun, Earth, Mars, and the Moon has only occurred a handful of times in the last two thousand years, each time coinciding with a "hugely significant" religious event. For non-religious types, though, it's just a great opportunity to see an amazing astronomical event that probably won't happen again in your lifetime.
At around 2am tonight (Eastern Daylight Time), the Moon will enter the Earth's penumbra (the edge of the shadow cast by the Earth), creating a partial eclipse. From 3am through to 4:30am, the Moon will be fully within the Earth's umbra, creating a total lunar eclipse. During this period, the Moon will appear sunset (or blood) red. It's really quite beautiful.
The stages of the first 2014 lunar eclipse The total lunar eclipse will be visible from the entirety of North America, in some parts of Europe in the morning during moonset, and the east edge of Asia and Australasia in the evening during moonrise. With the mid-eclipse occurring at 3:46am EDT, you're either going to have to stay up very late or get up very early. West coasters have it a bit easier, with the eclipse hitting its peak just after midnight. Remember to look for Mars, too, which is currently very close to the Earth and looks like a large red star in the night sky.
Is the 2014 lunar eclipse visible for you?
Usually, lunar eclipses happen in a pretty random order -- you get a total eclipse, followed by a penumbral, followed by another partial, another total, etc. In this case, though, we will be treated to four total eclipses in a row -- called a tetrad -- all of which will be visible from North America. The three remaining eclipses of this tetrad will occur on October 8 2014, and then April 4 and September 28 2015. Tetrads can be very rare (none occurred between 1600 and 1900), but sometimes they're fairly common (eight tetrads will occur this century). What is rare, however, is for the first of the tetrad sequence to occur while the Earth, Mars, Sun, and Moon are aligned.
If you're not of a religious or astrological bent, this alignment means nothing other than a spectacular skygazing opportunity. If you do believe in signs, though, this celestial alignment (or syzygy to give its scientific name) combined with a tetrad is a sign that something significant is about to happen. Pastor John Hagee, who has written a book on the topic (conveniently called "Four Blood Moons"), believes that a "hugely significant event" is about to rock the world. In 1493, a tetrad coincided with the expulsion of the Jews by the Spanish Inquisition; in 1949, the establishment of Israel occurred during a tetrad; and the last tetrad, in 1967, coincided with the Six-Day War.
"The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD." Joel 2:31, King James Version
The first lunar eclipse of this tetrad will occur on April 15 -- and the Jewish festival of Passover will begin tonight, after the sunset of April 14. "Every time [this alignment has happened] in the last 500 years, it has coincided with tragedy for the Jewish people followed by triumph. And once again, for Israel, the timing of this Tetrad is remarkable," said Hagee.
As for what that "hugely significant event" might be, no one really knows. In all likelihood, nothing will happen -- or, more likely, given the annoying human capacity of finding patterns where there are none, something will happen somewhere, and we'll attribute it to the lunar eclipse, even though there's absolutely no causal link. As a journalist, I feel ethically and morally obliged to tell you that it's incredibly unlikely that the world will actually end tonight, or at any time during the next two years of the tetrad.
If you have poor visibility in your area, NASA's Ustream channel(Opens in a new window) will have a live feed of the first blood moon lunar eclipse -- and if you don't feel like staying up until 4am, then you should be able to watch a recording of the lunar eclipse on the Ustream channel later tomorrow.
[Image credit: P Jones(Opens in a new window)]
