Clear skies were had last night, allowing me to take this blurry photo of the lunar eclipse and a little, tiny Saturn in the lower left-hand corner. I wish I’d had a telescope, or even binoculars!
Did you know most ancient cultures saw a lunar eclipse as a bad omen? Many of them believed the moon was being eaten by an animal such as a dragon, jaguar, or cow. It was often thought to bring disease and bad luck. If I didn’t know the scientific realities, I might be pretty freaked out by the moon suddenly turning blood red, too. My knowledge of the real explanation, however, does make the phenomenon lose some of its romantic mystique.
Did you know most ancient cultures saw a lunar eclipse as a bad omen? Many of them believed the moon was being eaten by an animal such as a dragon, jaguar, or cow. It was often thought to bring disease and bad luck. If I didn’t know the scientific realities, I might be pretty freaked out by the moon suddenly turning blood red, too. My knowledge of the real explanation, however, does make the phenomenon lose some of its romantic mystique.
4 comments:
Eaten by a cow? Man... that just sucks. A dragon, maybe, but a cow? What a way to go...
Oh geez, is that where the old tale that the moon is made of cheese came from?
From The Straight Dope.com:
Here's an early green cheese citation from John Heywood's Proverbes (1546): "The moon is made of a greene cheese," greene meaning new, unaged. One can find similar quotes in the works of Francois Rabelais and Thomas More. I'm hearing sarcasm here, but in that era before ;-) one can't be sure. Other citations are clearer: "You may as soon persuade some Country Peasants, that the Moon is made of Green Cheese (as we say) as that 'tis bigger than his Cart-wheel" (Wilkins, New World 1, 1638), the implication being that Luna's non-cheesiosity was not a matter regarding which even the rustics were in doubt.
I saw the eclipse too! It was cloudy all day here in Portland, but it miraculously cleared up just in time. It looked kind of like someone had smeared mud on the moon. But in a nice way.
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