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Rare 'super blood moon' eclipse should bring wonder, not apocalypse
Global September 29, 2015

On Sunday night and early Monday morning, much of the Earth will witness a glorious heavenly event.

The night of September 27-28 will showcase a lunar eclipse coupled with a "supermoon": a full moon that appears larger because it's at perigee, the closest point of its orbit with Earth. The concurrence is relatively rare, having not happened since 1982.

Though some observers are viewing the date with fear -- calling the eclipse a "blood moon" -- for astronomers and stargazers, the event is to be welcomed with celebration.

"It's a beautiful sight in the nighttime sky," said Mark Hammergren, an astronomer at Chicago's Adler Planetarium. "It's a way of connecting us to the universe at large. It gives us this view that there's a bigger picture than just what we're concerned with in our daily lives."

iReport: Share your supermoon eclipse images with us

The entire eclipse, from first shadow to last, will be visible from most of the Americas -- including the eastern half of the United States -- Greenland, Western Europe, western Africa north of the equator and parts of Antarctica. Other portions of the world, including western North America, the rest of Europe and Africa and a swath of western Asia, will see most of the drama, though they'll miss the first or fading bites of the moon.

Supermoon eclipse forecast

What is the supermoon eclipse, where can I see it?

In the United States, observatories are hosting a variety of festivities to showcase the eclipse and supermoon.

The University of Nebraska Omaha is opening its Durham Science Center observatory and planetarium to the public, adding telescopes with smartphone adapters so visitors can take pictures. The Kopernik Observatory & Science Center near Binghamton, New York, the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and Hammergren's own Adler are planning moon parties for what the Cincinnati Observatory is calling"THE astronomical event of the year."

Can't make it to a planetarium? NASA TV will have live eclipse coverage that you can watch in the comfort of your own home.

Or you can walk outside.

"You don't have to be anyplace special. If you can see the moon, you can just look up," said the Griffith's curator, Laura Danly.

The Earth's shadow will start making its way across the moon at 8:11 p.m. ET. The total eclipse begins at 10:11 p.m. ET and will peak at 10:47 p.m. ET. The total eclipse will last about 72 minutes.

 

A sign of turmoil?

 

Hammergren points out that these astronomical events link humanity to history. We've been watching the skies for thousands of years, creating mythology, arriving at scientific discoveries and simply taking pleasure in the movement of celestial bodies.

"Astronomy, in particular, is something that hooks us up to our most ancient roots," he said.

For some, astronomy also provides clues to earthly futures -- and this particular "blood moon," as some end-times believers call the lunar eclipse for the reddish tint of the earth's shadow, is revealing of particularly troubled times to come.

 

Photos: Doomsdays throughout time

The "Great Disappointment" was the most notorious example of a failed doomsday prophecy in American religious history. In the 1830s, after crunching numbers derived from biblical prophecy, Baptist preacher William Miller became convinced the end-time events and second coming of Jesus would occur between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. When nothing happened, others recalculated and said the date would be October 22, 1844. The repeated failure of these apocalyptic predictions greatly disappointed evangelicals. Rather than suppress future apocalyptic speculations, however, the experience galvanized evangelical Christianity in the United States.

"Marian Keech" (an alias used by sociologists who infiltrated her group) led a tiny doomsday sect. She had earlier been a part of L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics movement before he created Scientology. She claimed spiritual beings on the planets Cerus and Clarion told her a flood would destroy Chicago on December 21, 1954. A visitor would arrive at midnight on December 20 to take her group to a waiting spacecraft and salvation. When nothing appeared, she said the group's piety helped change God's mind. The incident inspired the book "When Prophecy Fails," introducing the public to the term cognitive dissonance, the mental turmoil provoked by holding contradictory ideas simultaneously.

A 1966 pamphlet published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, an organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses, mentioned that the seventh period of human history, which was to last 1,000 years, would begin in 1975. Although never a part of official doctrine, the view that the world would end in 1975 came to be accepted by many members and profoundly affected the outlook and public activities of the religion.

The Branch Davidians (a distant offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church) became a household name when members killed four U.S. agents in a 1993 shootout at the group's compound near Waco, Texas. After a 51-day standoff, the FBI stormed the compound. An ensuing fire left nearly 80 Branch Davidians dead, including their leader and prophet David Koresh. During the standoff, Koresh worked to decipher the seven seals of the book of Revelation, which he thought would explain the group's situation. The Branch Davidians were one of several apocalyptic movements since the 1970s to result in tragedy, including Jim Jones' Peoples Temple.

Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles founded a theology that blended biblical apocalypticism and science fiction. The Earth, they said, was a stepping stone to a higher evolutionary state. They were convinced the planet, which they likened to a garden, was so full of weeds that God (actually an alien from the evolutionary level above human) would plow it under, or recycle it. In March 1997, 39 members committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, outside San Diego, California, to escape the prophesized doom. They believed a spaceship, traveling alongside the comet Hale-Bopp, would transmit their souls to their evolutionary destination.

Some Christians thought the end date would be May 21, 2011. That's when their biblical calculations told them the Rapture would occur, when the righteous remnant of the world's population would be saved. But that date would also bring an enormous earthquake, draw bodies up from graves and mark the beginning of five apocalyptic months before the world would finally end on October 21. The best-known proponent of this belief was Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio, a Christian broadcasting ministry. Camping previously claimed that the world would end on September 6, 1994.

According to the 2012 theory, data recorded in the Mayan "Long Count" calendar suggested the present age would end on December 21, 2012. The 2012 prediction combines old-school apocalyptic notions with a nonbiblical (Mayan) timetable. Some expected a cosmic calamity on the order of Revelation. Others anticipated an alignment of the planets or the sudden inclusion of a new celestial body. Still others thought 2012 would usher in a spiritual transformation. The Internet -- not to mention Hollywood -- played a huge role in shaping the 2012 message, allowing people around the world to participate in what became a global, multicultural phenomenon.

From biblical times to the present, the end of the world has been anticipated many times. CNN asked Lorenzo DiTommaso, religion professor and author of the book "The Architecture of Apocalypticism," to describe end of the world predictions throughout history.

The Bible's book of Genesis tells how the wickedness and corruption of humankind saddens God to such a point that he unleashes a huge flood to wipe out almost all life on Earth. But before he does, he commands Noah to build an ark to save his family and two of each living creature -- one male, one female. The rain lasts 40 days and 40 nights, after which the floodwaters cover the Earth for 150 days. In some Christian views, Noah's flood was the deluge of the world by water, and it will be followed by future judgment and destruction by fire.

The most famous Jewish apocalypse is the book of Daniel, the final part of which was written about 165 B.C. The book is both an apocalypse and apocalyptic. It contains predictions about the end of time and foretells the rise and fall of four great empires. Daniel chapters 2 and 7 claim the end will come after the fall of the fourth empire. Daniel 8 and 9 lay out specific timetables, while Daniel 12 offers a brief description of final judgment and a promise of individual resurrection. Along with the book of Revelation, Daniel has had great influence on subsequent apocalyptic speculation and end-time timetables.

This final book of the New Testament dates from the last decade of the first century A.D. It describes the coming doom in great detail, laying out a sequence of plagues, pestilence, chaos and cosmic catastrophe. Its themes and images are an indelible part of the apocalyptic idiom. Some examples include the number 666 as the "mark of the beast," the expectation of a final battle (Armageddon) and a New Jerusalem that will descend from heaven. Unlike much apocalyptic literature, Revelation does not pinpoint a precise doomsday date. This has allowed people of later centuries to interpret the book's message in their own way and to believe, in some cases, that the end will come in their time.

The "Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius" is arguably the most influential of hundreds of apocalyptic texts composed by Christians, Jews and Muslims during the Middle Ages. Written in Syriac (an Aramaic dialect), almost certainly in the seventh century, it was quickly translated into Greek, Latin and other languages. Pseudo-Methodius coincided with the rise of Islam, and its message comforted Christians living in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern lands. It promised the coming of an end-time emperor who would vanquish Muslims, confound the enemies of Christ and restore the glories of Rome.

The Anabaptists were Reformation Christians in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Melchior Hoffman, an Anabaptist visionary and prophet, proclaimed that a new era would begin in 1533. Strasbourg, now in France, would be the epicenter of the event and the location of the New Jerusalem. When the apocalypse didn't happen, some followers blamed flawed calculations. They said Munster, now in Germany, would be the second coming site, and this led to the Munster Rebellion of 1534-35, when Anabaptists tried to establish a radical theocracy in the city. The Amish and the Mennonites are among the groups that descended from the Anabaptists.

Sabbatai Zevi, a young Kabbalah scholar, lived in Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey). In 1648 he announced he was the long-awaited messiah. Jews believed the messiah would come that year and shepherd in the end of days. When 1648 came and went without incident, rabbis censured and then banished Sabbatai Zevi from Smyrna. He traveled for 15 years and adopted the Christian apocalyptic speculation that the end would come in 1666. Anticipating the overthrow of the sultan in Constantinople, he and his followers headed that way in early 1666, only to be imprisoned. Taken before the sultan, he converted to Islam on the spot, as did many followers, thereby ending his mass movement.

The "Great Disappointment" was the most notorious example of a failed doomsday prophecy in American religious history. In the 1830s, after crunching numbers derived from biblical prophecy, Baptist preacher William Miller became convinced the end-time events and second coming of Jesus would occur between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. When nothing happened, others recalculated and said the date would be October 22, 1844. The repeated failure of these apocalyptic predictions greatly disappointed evangelicals. Rather than suppress future apocalyptic speculations, however, the experience galvanized evangelical Christianity in the United States.

"Marian Keech" (an alias used by sociologists who infiltrated her group) led a tiny doomsday sect. She had earlier been a part of L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics movement before he created Scientology. She claimed spiritual beings on the planets Cerus and Clarion told her a flood would destroy Chicago on December 21, 1954. A visitor would arrive at midnight on December 20 to take her group to a waiting spacecraft and salvation. When nothing appeared, she said the group's piety helped change God's mind. The incident inspired the book "When Prophecy Fails," introducing the public to the term cognitive dissonance, the mental turmoil provoked by holding contradictory ideas simultaneously.

A 1966 pamphlet published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, an organization of the Jehovah's Witnesses, mentioned that the seventh period of human history, which was to last 1,000 years, would begin in 1975. Although never a part of official doctrine, the view that the world would end in 1975 came to be accepted by many members and profoundly affected the outlook and public activities of the religion.

The Branch Davidians (a distant offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church) became a household name when members killed four U.S. agents in a 1993 shootout at the group's compound near Waco, Texas. After a 51-day standoff, the FBI stormed the compound. An ensuing fire left nearly 80 Branch Davidians dead, including their leader and prophet David Koresh. During the standoff, Koresh worked to decipher the seven seals of the book of Revelation, which he thought would explain the group's situation. The Branch Davidians were one of several apocalyptic movements since the 1970s to result in tragedy, including Jim Jones' Peoples Temple.

Marshall Herff Applewhite and Bonnie Lu Nettles founded a theology that blended biblical apocalypticism and science fiction. The Earth, they said, was a stepping stone to a higher evolutionary state. They were convinced the planet, which they likened to a garden, was so full of weeds that God (actually an alien from the evolutionary level above human) would plow it under, or recycle it. In March 1997, 39 members committed suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, outside San Diego, California, to escape the prophesized doom. They believed a spaceship, traveling alongside the comet Hale-Bopp, would transmit their souls to their evolutionary destination.

Some Christians thought the end date would be May 21, 2011. That's when their biblical calculations told them the Rapture would occur, when the righteous remnant of the world's population would be saved. But that date would also bring an enormous earthquake, draw bodies up from graves and mark the beginning of five apocalyptic months before the world would finally end on October 21. The best-known proponent of this belief was Harold Camping, founder of Family Radio, a Christian broadcasting ministry. Camping previously claimed that the world would end on September 6, 1994.

According to the 2012 theory, data recorded in the Mayan "Long Count" calendar suggested the present age would end on December 21, 2012. The 2012 prediction combines old-school apocalyptic notions with a nonbiblical (Mayan) timetable. Some expected a cosmic calamity on the order of Revelation. Others anticipated an alignment of the planets or the sudden inclusion of a new celestial body. Still others thought 2012 would usher in a spiritual transformation. The Internet -- not to mention Hollywood -- played a huge role in shaping the 2012 message, allowing people around the world to participate in what became a global, multicultural phenomenon.

From biblical times to the present, the end of the world has been anticipated many times. CNN asked Lorenzo DiTommaso, religion professor and author of the book "The Architecture of Apocalypticism," to describe end of the world predictions throughout history.

The Bible's book of Genesis tells how the wickedness and corruption of humankind saddens God to such a point that he unleashes a huge flood to wipe out almost all life on Earth. But before he does, he commands Noah to build an ark to save his family and two of each living creature -- one male, one female. The rain lasts 40 days and 40 nights, after which the floodwaters cover the Earth for 150 days. In some Christian views, Noah's flood was the deluge of the world by water, and it will be followed by future judgment and destruction by fire.

The most famous Jewish apocalypse is the book of Daniel, the final part of which was written about 165 B.C. The book is both an apocalypse and apocalyptic. It contains predictions about the end of time and foretells the rise and fall of four great empires. Daniel chapters 2 and 7 claim the end will come after the fall of the fourth empire. Daniel 8 and 9 lay out specific timetables, while Daniel 12 offers a brief description of final judgment and a promise of individual resurrection. Along with the book of Revelation, Daniel has had great influence on subsequent apocalyptic speculation and end-time timetables.

This final book of the New Testament dates from the last decade of the first century A.D. It describes the coming doom in great detail, laying out a sequence of plagues, pestilence, chaos and cosmic catastrophe. Its themes and images are an indelible part of the apocalyptic idiom. Some examples include the number 666 as the "mark of the beast," the expectation of a final battle (Armageddon) and a New Jerusalem that will descend from heaven. Unlike much apocalyptic literature, Revelation does not pinpoint a precise doomsday date. This has allowed people of later centuries to interpret the book's message in their own way and to believe, in some cases, that the end will come in their time.

The "Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius" is arguably the most influential of hundreds of apocalyptic texts composed by Christians, Jews and Muslims during the Middle Ages. Written in Syriac (an Aramaic dialect), almost certainly in the seventh century, it was quickly translated into Greek, Latin and other languages. Pseudo-Methodius coincided with the rise of Islam, and its message comforted Christians living in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern lands. It promised the coming of an end-time emperor who would vanquish Muslims, confound the enemies of Christ and restore the glories of Rome.

The Anabaptists were Reformation Christians in 16th- and 17th-century Europe. Melchior Hoffman, an Anabaptist visionary and prophet, proclaimed that a new era would begin in 1533. Strasbourg, now in France, would be the epicenter of the event and the location of the New Jerusalem. When the apocalypse didn't happen, some followers blamed flawed calculations. They said Munster, now in Germany, would be the second coming site, and this led to the Munster Rebellion of 1534-35, when Anabaptists tried to establish a radical theocracy in the city. The Amish and the Mennonites are among the groups that descended from the Anabaptists.

Sabbatai Zevi, a young Kabbalah scholar, lived in Smyrna (now Izmir in Turkey). In 1648 he announced he was the long-awaited messiah. Jews believed the messiah would come that year and shepherd in the end of days. When 1648 came and went without incident, rabbis censured and then banished Sabbatai Zevi from Smyrna. He traveled for 15 years and adopted the Christian apocalyptic speculation that the end would come in 1666. Anticipating the overthrow of the sultan in Constantinople, he and his followers headed that way in early 1666, only to be imprisoned. Taken before the sultan, he converted to Islam on the spot, as did many followers, thereby ending his mass movement.

doomsday 01

 

 

 

 

The eclipse is said to be the last of a "tetrad," four consecutive total lunar eclipses, each separated by six lunar months, that took place on Jewish holidays. (The first three in the current series took place April 15, 2014; October 8, 2014; and April 4, 2015.) Some Christian ministers have theorized that the sequence has earth-shaking significance, noting that other tetrads took place in key years in history, including 1492 (Jewish expulsion from Spain) and 1948 (a Mideast war).

Road trip to the end of the world

In promotion for his 2013 book "Four Blood Moons," Christian minister John Hageeclaimed that the tetrad was a signal being sent by God.

"The coming four blood moons points to a world-shaking event that will happen between April 2014 and October 2015," he said.

And Mark Blitz, head of El Shaddai Ministries and the author of "Blood Moons: Decoding the Imminent Heavenly Signs," says God is trying to get humanity's attention -- and we ignore it at our peril.

"There are always the naysayers and the agnostics when it comes to God trying to reach mankind in His urgent message to repent," he told World News Daily, which has been charting the eclipse's arrival with headlines such as " 'Blood Moons' expert: Get on God's calendar" and "Coming solar eclipse seen as 'judgment.' "

"Here we have had four total lunar eclipses in a row on Passover and Tabernacles," he said. "And just look what is happening in the world today!"

Skeptics have pointed out that claims made of "blood moons" -- a term that has arisen only in the past few years, Hammergren says -- should be taken with at least a few grains of salt. After all, their coincidence with Jewish holidays is logical, since the Jewish calendar is a lunar calendar, and some tetrads' occurrence in significant historical years is an example of confirmation bias: looking for connections that fit preconceived notions.

"Some people look at it as being a portent of doom. That is not uncommon," said the Griffith's Danly. "But it really isn't. It is the alignment of the sun and the moon."

Added the Adler's Hammergren, "People have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years in recorded history, and not a single time has that come about."

 

'It's a great entry point'

 

One prediction that's still being refined is one of the most basic: the weather.

On Sunday afternoon, CNN Weather reported that viewing conditions will be poor in the Southeast with low visibility stretching along the Gulf Coast up into parts of the Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic.

New England will be the exception in the East, with clear skies mostly north of Massachusetts.

The Midwest through most of the lower Central Plains should offer fair to good conditions for viewing, but a front is expected to move through the Northern Plains, bringing clouds to the front's boundary from Minnesota through the Dakotas.

Out West, where the eclipse will be partial, clear conditions are expected.

Hammergren points out the supermoon eclipse is one of those events best viewed with the naked eye (though binoculars can come in handy), so anywhere there's a clear sky will do the trick.

Danly concurs. "It is a beautiful sight," she said.

It's also a great chance for astronomers to educate folks who may spend more time staring down at a screen than looking up at the sky.

"It's a great entry point," Hammergren said. " 'You think the lunar eclipse is neat? Let me tell about this other stuff going on.' "

But don't miss your chance at Sunday's supermoon eclipse. The next one isn't due until 2033.

News Courtesy: www.cnn.com

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