Blood wolf moon spooks, dazzles

Pivotal shift Combo of photo shows the heavenly body’s transformation into a Red Moon, which is a marked change that will hopefully apply to the House of Representatives after the leadership shakeup. AP

Doomsday or not, skywatchers, particularly in the western hemisphere, were treated to a spectacular celestial display last night.

It was extra unusual in Europe, Africa and the Americas, where a total lunar eclipse was glimpsed to boot.

The full Moon appeared bigger than normal because it was closer to the Earth – about 222,000 miles (358,000 kilometers) away.

Total or partial lunar eclipses happen at least twice a year on average

Other monikers include a “Wolf Moon,” a traditional way of coining an eclipse in the month of January and a “Blood Moon” because of its rusty, red color. Hence the name for this year’s event: a “super blood wolf Moon.”

Native Americans called it the “wolf” moon because it appeared when wolves howled in hunger.

Doomsayers and other religious fanatics argued that the unusual phenomenon is actually a sign of the end of times as described in the Book of Revelations and the Book of Joel of the Hebrew bible.

American theologian Pastor Paul Begley said the eclipse with the Red Moon was a sign of the end times.

“Obviously, these apocalyptic signs in the heavens are pointing to a catastrophic event that is just on the horizon,” he said.

He admitted, however, that the sky display does not mean that the world will end but rather a warning from heaven.

“We don’t know when,” he said. “Just because you’re going to have a super blood moon on 20 and 21 January doesn’t mean that 22 January all hell’s going to break loose, but then again, it doesn’t mean it won’t. There are these signs that are starting to be revealed with an urgency that has begun.”

Dire predictions aside, last night’s was the only total lunar eclipse this year and that came with a supermoon bonus.

On Sunday night, the moon, Earth and sun lined up to create the eclipse, which was visible throughout North and South America, where skies were clear. There won’t be another one until 2021.

Moon, stars, stripes An American flag flutters in downtown Washington during a lunar eclipse which also featured a blood moon in a rare cosmic event. AP It was also the year’s first supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter, thanks to its slightly closer position.

The entire eclipse took more than three hours. Totality — when the moon was completely bathed in the Earth’s shadow — lasted an hour. During a total lunar eclipse, the eclipsed, or blood, moon turns red from sunlight scattering off the Earth’s atmosphere.

Besides the Americas, the entire lunar extravaganza could be observed, weather permitting, all the way across the Atlantic to parts of Europe.

During a lunar eclipse, the Moon appears red because the light of the Sun no longer directly illuminates it, since Earth is passing in between the Moon and Sun.

“The color is due to Rayleigh scattering — where the Sun’s blue light is scattered off molecules in Earth’s atmosphere — which also happens at sunsets,” explained the Royal Astronomical Society of Britain.

“The Sun’s red light is scattered much less by air, and is bent by Earth’s atmosphere in a process called refraction, traveling all the way through it to light up the Moon’s surface.”

Total or partial lunar eclipses happen at least twice a year on average, Florent Deleflie, an astronomer at the Observatory of Paris-PSL told AFP. It’s just that they are not visible everywhere.

It’s a rare event when a total lunar eclipse is visible on so many parts of the Earth’s land mass, as was the case Monday.

Europeans last saw a total lunar eclipse in July 2018. The next chance for a glimpse of a lunar eclipse will be in 2022, but the entire continent won’t be able to see the totality of a lunar eclipse again until 2029.