Dancing In the Moonlight: Red Lunar Eclipse
Photo taken by Austin Huss, senior at Lake Country Lutheran
On the night of Sunday, September 27th, 2015, millions of people were treated to the eye-catching sight in the sky of a red moon, more commonly know as a Blood Moon.
Everyone from students to amateur astronomers where out watching the result of the earth passing in between the moon and the sun, which, according to Science.com, is considered to be the cause of a Blood Moon, making it a lunar eclipse.
The September 28th lunar eclipse was the fourth and final eclipse of the lunar tetrad, which is
four total lunar eclipses that happen in a row.
The supermoon was fully visible in Milwaukee area at 9:50pm and was fully disappeared approximately around 10:30pm.
The next estimated blood moon will occur in March 2016.
“I kept peeking out my bedroom window to watch it until I feel asleep, but it was awesome to fall asleep to a red moon,” said senior Brianna Grams.
According to NASA, even though our planet is bigger than the sun, our star’s lights bend around the edge of earth. This light reflects onto the moon, but not before it travels through our atmosphere, filtering out the shorter wavelength blue light, leaving the reds and oranges unscathed to bathe the moon’s surface–and then, voila`, a red moon appears.
“When I saw it, I thought of the Joker’s line in Batman, where the Joker says, ‘Ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?’ I don’t know why put the redness of the moon just put it in my head,” said junior Brian Adams.
NASA experts have stated that eclipses are not totally rare and that a beginning astronomer can see a blood moon every two to two and a half years.
Junior Makayla Haag said, “It felt like a scene from the Twilight movies or the TV show, The Twilight Zone.”
A Jewish historian, Irvin Baxter, along with others, claim the rarity of the blood moon occurs when it coincides with a Jewish celebration day. There is evidence that this has only happened four times in the past 500 years. To Baxter, this is a sign from God that will effect the Jewish community and affect the world.
If you find yourself dancing in the moonlight, look up every once in awhile because you just might be dancing under the beautiful phenomenon of a red moon.
