3 surprising things that you didn’t know about lunar eclipse
Just a fortnight after a partial solar eclipse, it’s time for more than half of the world (including India) to experience a total lunar eclipse on 8th November. On this day, the rare Blood Moon will be visible. What makes the upcoming eclipse even more special is the fact that this is the last total lunar eclipse for the time being as the next one will occur on 7th September 2025. That’s still far off, isn’t it?
Almost all of you know what a lunar eclipse is right? It’s a phenomenon that happens when the Earth casts a shadow over the Moon. However, in most cases lunar eclipse is partial, meaning, only parts of it get engulfed behind the Earth’s shadow. However, the one scheduled for 8th November isn’t going to be the same. Why? Because it’s a rare total eclipse during which the moon will be completely immersed in the umbra (darkest part of the Earth’s shadow). Even though the moon will vanish behind the Earth’s shadow, it will have a reddish hue, a phenomenon described as the “Blood Moon.”
Though the basics of lunar eclipse are known to most of us, there are some aspects of this celestial event that most of us are unaware of. Here are a few of them for you.
Lunar eclipse leads to drop in temperature
Not many know that when the Earth casts its shadow on the moon, there is a radical drop in temperature. Guess what this leads to? A thermal shock that has the capacity to damage lunar rocks and let out lunar gas from the surface of the moon. Usually, when the Sun dominates the moon, the temperature shift is gradual. But in case of a lunar eclipse, it’s the Earth that takes over and leads to a rapid and sudden fall in temperature, often over a period of 10 to 30 minutes. This, in turn affects the temperature on Earth, and if you really observe closely, you will often feel cooler during and after a lunar eclipse.
Bonus fact: During a total lunar eclipse in 1971, the temperature dropped from 168.3 Fahrenheit to minus 153 degrees Fahrenheit.
A lunar eclipse may have saved Christopher Columbus
Legends have it that when famous Italian explorer Christopher Columbus set out on a voyage to find the ‘New World,’ he carried with him an almanac (a book that lists nautical, astronomical and astrological events of a particular year), compiled by a contemporary German astronomer named Johannes Muller von Konigsnerg, better known by his pseudonym Regiomontanus. Now, it is believed that this particular almanac covered the years 1475 to 1506 and included future lunar eclipses as well.
As it happened, during his final voyage in 1502-03, Columbus experienced a shipwreck near Jamaica and got involved in some trouble with the natives. In order to save himself from the clutches of the locals, he threatened them that he had the supernatural power to cut off Moon’s light. He based this on the predictions mentioned in the almanac that a lunar eclipse was due on 29th February 1504 and even showed it to them. When they realised that most of the forecasts of the year were a match, they panicked and agreed to help Columbus in exchange for bringing the moon back to them. This is when the great navigator revealed that although it was too late for him to stop the moon from disappearing, he could ensure that it reappears. You can easily guess what happened next, don’t you?
Selenelion: Meeting of the sun and the eclipsed moon
Sometimes, the sun and the eclipsed moon can be seen together, and this is known as Selenelion or Selenehelion. This usually happens right before sunset or just after sunrise when both the celestial objects appear right above the horizon at exactly opposite points in the sky. Guess where the Earth is when this happens? It positions itself directly in between the two. So, the only time the sun and the eclipsed moon can be seen together is when refraction of light in the Earth’s atmosphere leads the sun and the moon to come up higher than their usual position. How amazing is that!