Zeni, this should have been on my other feeds; as usual, yer ahead of the edge. thanks
Can we forget the âblood moonâ Revelation-cosplay framing for lunar eclipses?
The term started with End-of-Days Christianists and was taken up by the media, but normal non-magical-thinking people just call them âlunar eclipsesâ.
The eclipse will be most visible across the South Pacific. Within North America, parts of it will be visible in the western states.
Iâm in my mid-thirties and finally watching an eclipse. For once I can stay up late without consequences and the clouds in Western Washington are cooperating. Donât know how much longer Iâll last but it has been a great experience accompanied by the live stream from Griffith Park Observatory and a nice whiskey.
Me too, in western WA. But on a PC, with cheap beer. Because I work the night shift, and canât stray from my non-re-routable deskphone.
Meanwhile, over on the other coast, Iâve got good rum but itâs absolutely pissing down here in QLD. 
I dunno if youâre joking or if you honestly mistook Western WA for Western West-Australia. Iâm guessing itâs a joke, since youâre pretty hip and with it.
Err, yeah. I totally meant to do that. Honest. âŚinnocent lookâŚ
In my defense, the rum really is very good.
The skyâs gone out!
ETA. With all the drums and the fireworks we have CHASED AWAY the sky dragon that was eating the moon.
The neighbours should be grateful to us, rather than complaining about the noise.
I didnât realize that actually came from the Bible originally until I looked it up just now. That line from revelations is part of the lyrics of a Yabby You song called âRun Come Rallyâ which is definitely in the running for greatest reggae song ever.
Isnât a blood moon specifically a lunar eclipse that occurs shortly before sunrise or after sunset, resulting in the red appearance? Not all lunar eclipses are âblood moons,â locally speaking.
Iâve never seen it used that way. An eclipsed moon is equally red wherever on Earth youâre seeing it from and whatever the local time might be, because the only light reaching the moonâs surface has passed through and been scattered by the Earthâs atmosphere. More importantly, journalists make no time-of-night distinction: here, for instance, is a NZ news site, following the âBlood Moonâ usage to describe last nightâs eclipse which reached totality at 1 a.m. local time:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/67614287/lunar-eclipse-offers-spectacular-blood-moon
Connoisseurs of human stupidity might derive some entertainment from this Examiner presentation of the Christianist magical-thinking world-view on astronomical phenomena, in which the ookie-spookie
term âblood moonâ is the default descriptor â appearing 19 times â while the word âeclipseâ is used once.
Ah, youâre right; Iâve seen a middle-of-the-night eclipse and it wasnât red, and I confused the reason. Nothing to do with time of night, but how closely the center of the umbraâs path travels to the center of the moonâs disc. The light doesnât always pass through the same amount of atmosphere over the course of the eclipse; this one, for instance, was so short a totality because it just skimmed along the edge of the umbra. One where the moon travels through the center of the umbra is darker.
Regardless, calling it a blood moon isnât indicative of any Millenarian belief, itâs just describing the event in a colorful way, like Wolf Moon or Harvest Moon. People who use it as an excuse to babble about the Rapture will use just about anything as an excuse for that. There are fringe Christians who think Easter eggs and Christmas trees are an abomination unto the Lord. (Donât get them started on HalloweenâŚ)
I hope youâre right. Use of the term certainly implied an acceptance of the End-of-Days apocalyptic worldview back in the 90s, when it was first going around, and featured heavily in the rhetoric of Pastor Hagee and his ilk. One can only hope that those associations were forgotten when airhead journalists of the wider media pandered to the Talibangelists and mainstreamed the term. But the âbabbling about the Raptureâ demonstrably came first.
I still dislike the animist magical-thinking nature of âblood moonâ. I side with the Auditors there. Also I am bitter that the media did not adopt the preferred term from my own theology, âSky-dragon-swallowed Moonâ.
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