The Syracu-sans, their enemies, were less superstitious and attacked all the same - and won. They were so dismayed by one in August 113BC that they refused to set off for battle. For example, the lunar eclipse in the year 3BC was quickly followed by the death of King Herod.Ĭertainly the ancient Athenians took eclipses seriously. Indeed, lunar eclipses were thought to herald the death of kings and the fall of empires. 'These late eclipses in the sun and moon/portend no good to us,' wrote Shakespeare in King Lear. But that has not stopped soothsayers and prophets associating them with doom and disaster. Most of us could, in fact, see an eclipse of the moon on average roughly once every year from our front windows. For at 18.42 Greenwich mean time, the Earth will start to pass between the moon and the sun, until it reaches the point - at 19.49, it is estimated - when the total eclipse will begin.Īs the Earth's shadow falls across the surface of the moon, it will turn a deep and wonderful blood red.Įclipses of the moon, unlike the great solar eclipse of August 1999, are relatively common - and each one is visible over half the Earth's surface. One of the greatest total eclipses of the moon will cover the planet this evening, creating one of the most spectacular sights in the sky for the past decade.Įclipse aficionados are particularly excited. The greatest show not on Earth - that's the way it's been billed, and it's happening at a place near you tonight.
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