HOW BLURRED IS OUR BELIEF ON A BLOOD MOON

 

HOW BLURRED IS OUR BELIEF ON A BLOOD MOON

 

 Nikunja Bihari Sahu

 

         Grand celestial spectacles are not generally welcomed in our dogma dominated society. Be it an eclipse of the Sun or Moon, people likes to celebrate the occasion quietly in their own style of penance and abandonment.

               Come 27th July, 2018 in the depths of a deep and dark night, a blood Moon will rise in the sky in a sequel to a rare celestial event that will never recur before the turn of the century. The bizarre spectacle will unfold during a total lunar eclipse when the colour of the Moon will gradually change from deep red to reddish brown thus attracting the popular name Blood Moon. The next Blood Moon would occur on 29^th January, 2019 almost after a century. The grand celestial event promises to be spectacular in India as both the partial and totality phases of the eclipse can be seen for almost the entire night of 27^th and 28^th of July, 2018 provided good viewing conditions.

      Unlike in a Total Solar eclipse, the Moon never vanishes completely in a Total Lunar Eclipse although it remains shrouded in the darker part of the Earth’s shadow called the Umbra. Our atmosphere acts like a giant lens and when sunlight passes through it, the shorter wavelength components gets scattered and filtered out. The remaining longer wavelength colours, predominantly red, pass through the atmosphere and refracted again towards the surface of the fully eclipsed Moon illuminating it with a reddish-orange glow.

     What makes the upcoming eclipse so special is the duration of the eclipse which is going to be the longest one in the century logging about 1 hour and 43 minutes. The relatively small apparent size of the Moon due to its position at the apogee (farthest point in its orbit around the Earth) and its passing through the vast central region of the Earth’s shadow cone lengthen the duration of the totality.

          The appearance of the Blood Moon is foretold in the Bible. The Blood Moon of July 27, seen in conjunction with the red planet Mars in the sky, has been interpreted with doomsday and apocalypses by some priests of the Christianity.

 

      Many cultures around the world view the disappearance of the Moon as a time of turmoil and chaos. Marauding demons, murderous pets, and ravenous jaguars are some of the culprits that have been blamed for the Moon's disappearance during a lunar eclipse.  The Incas feared that a lunar eclipse was caused by a wolf eating away the Moon making its coloration red as blood. They feared that the wolf, after eating up the Moon in the sky, would descend to the earth and devour all the animals. They tried to drive away the beast by beating drums or shooting arrows at the sky. The Chinese has a slightly different variant of the story with a dragon as the culprit. In our society even, it is believed that during a Chandra Grahan, the Moon is swallowed up by a hungry demon named Rahu.

 

     The imprint of the eclipse is clearly reflected in the revised schedule of our daily life that is generally marked with fasting and abstinence from pleasure, restrictions on the rituals of deities, ban on embarking distant journeys and many other upheavals. What really disturbing is the unchanging of the mindset of the people even in the light of the convincing scientific evidences put forward behind the celestial happenings. It is quite ridiculous to shut oneself indoors when a spectacular natural event is unfolding up in our backyard. We can never shy away from this celestial challenge, but be a part of the drama.  We should not only free ourselves from these bizarre beliefs, but also develop a sense of curiosity to unravel the celestial mystery with a scientific perspective.  As unlike in a solar eclipse, observing a total lunar eclipse does not require any special optical aid, we can also enjoy the celestial drama with naked eye and wonder at the mysteries of nature.

 

 

                                                Education Officer

                                                Dhenkanal Science Centre

                                               (National Council of Science Museums

                                                   Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India)

                                                 (Near Rajbati)

                                                  Dhenkanal-759001

                                                    Phone: 8018708858

                                                ODISHA