Posts tagged as “dark skies”

Astronomers, including our local Dark Skies Smokey Jack Observatory crew, are looking forward, clouds cooperat­ing, to the lunar eclipse tonight. A lunar eclipse is a phenomenon created by Earth moving directly between the Sun and the Moon. The Earth’s shadow on the lunar surface does not totally darken the Moon, as longer wavelengths of sunlight—reds and oranges—bend into Earth’s shadow and eerily illuminate the Moon. Hence the phrasing, “Blood Moon” during these total lunar eclipses. This will be the first lunar eclipse since November of 2022, and is the first of three across 2025-2026. There are some odd matters associated with the Blood Moon phenomenon. For example, Christopher Columbus, knowing the catalogued prediction of a lunar eclipse while stranded and ill among the Arawak peoples…