Blood Moon Basics

I set an alarm to view the astronomical event known as the "Blood Moon" or "Hunter's Moon" because several weeks ago the topic had come up with a group of guys I have coffee with. The person that started the discussion talked mainly about the connection between the occurrence of this lunar event and events in history.

Picture Taken Without Tripod

Wayne Diercks a relative who is in the group will often further research topics from the gab sessions using the Internet. The next week he brought in the story of how Christopher Columbus used his knowledge of an upcoming Blood Moon to scare the native people where he and his men were to give them food.

Cellphone Picture

The religious connections to the Blood Moon relate this phenomenon to the end times or the return of Jesus. For people of the Jewish faith this cycle of four Blood Moon's known as a " tetrad" coincides with  religiously significant dates.

What Causes the Red Color?

 The sunset red glow that circles the Earth as it blocks the light from the sun is cast upon the moon when the paths of the Earth and Moon are lined up. This would be a monthly event except the the Moon's orbit is inclined about 5 degrees to the Earth's orbit. From 1600 to 1900 the tetrad of eclipses did not happen at all. In the 21st century this is a more common event with nine sets of tetrads.  The next three will happen on:

October 8, 2014
April 4, 2015
September 28, 2015

Sorry for low quality pictures.

Bill Kuhl
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