Lunar Eclipse Tomorrow
Tomorrow night, beginning around 9:00 PM ET the Earth will begin to eclipse the Moon. By 10:00 PM there will be a total lunar eclipses. Get a good nights sleep so you don’t miss it because there won’t be another until December of 2010. Scientists expect the lunar event to last for about 3.5 hours. For close to fifty minutes the Earth will completely shadow the Moon. Throughout the centuries there have been various myths and legends surrounding an eclipse of both the Sun and Moon.
One tribe in the Amazon believes an eclipse is the result of a fight between the Sun and Moon (why can’t they just get along?)
The Vikings believed that two wolves wanted to eat the Sun and Moon. When one of the wolves caught either there was an eclipse. To bring back the missing orb humans needed to scare the wolves off by making loud noise (or singing “please release me let me go”).
In China the Moon was represented by a mirror. It was believed that during an eclipse a dragoon swallowed the Moon. By beating on mirrors the Dragon would cough the Moon up (they must have been pretty strong mirrors they beat on).
In many cultures it is still believed that lunar eclipses emit harmful radiation, or cause sickness (of course this may not be covered under your health care plan).
