witnessing Lunar Eclipse now !!!

 

Bright shining beautiful moon is visible now as today is Pournami – in a few minutes  there is to be Lunar Eclipse .. .. there could well be  a few people who jump to comment on all beliefs as ‘superstitious nonsense’ – but when the Western World reports, most of them would readily  accept all such theories !! 

 

Slightly more than a  century ago, in Feb 1919 -  two teams of astronomers from the Greenwich and Cambridge observatories set out for Sobral, Brazil, and Príncipe (an island off the coast of Africa), respectively, with sophisticated equipment that would allow them to photograph – a celestial phenomenon. !!  - Imagine what ?

நிலா அது வானத்தின் மேலே என்று அழகாக தெரிவது சந்திரன்.  நிலா,  நிலவு, அம்புலி, திங்கள், மதி, சந்திரன்- என பல பெயர்களில் அழைக்கப்படுவது  புவியின் ஒரேயொரு நிரந்தரமான இயற்கைத் துணைக்கோள். "நிலா' என்பதற்கான பொருள் "ஒளி' என்பதாகும் (நிலா-ஒளி) என்று உ.வே.சாமிநாதையர் தெளிவுபடக் குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளார். சிலப்பதிகாரம் காதையில் , "அங்கண் வானத்து அணிநிலா விரிக்கும்; திங்களஞ் செல்வன்' என்று கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது.  இடமகன்ற அழகிய வானில் குளிர்ச்சி பொருந்திய நிலவை (ஒளியை) பரவச் செய்யும் திங்களாகிய (சந்திரன்) செல்வன் என்பது இதன் பொருள்; சந்திரனால் பரவச் செய்யப்படும் ஒளியே "நிலா'.  இன்று பௌர்ணமி - சந்திர க்ரஹணமும் கூட. 

 

First something on Eclipse across Mythologies. 

In ancient Greek mythology, an eclipse was seen as a sign of the gods' anger, a terrible crisis, and an existential threat. The word "eclipse" itself comes from the Greek word ekleipsis, meaning "abandonment," as the sun was believed to be abandoning Earth. Eclipses were considered bad omens, with the potential for kings to fall, widespread misfortune, or even a demon swallowing the sun. 

In Mayan culture, an eclipse was feared as the Sun god, Kinich Ahau, was dying, and required ritualistic bloodletting by the nobility to strengthen and restore him. The Maya possessed advanced astronomical knowledge, enabling them to meticulously record and accurately predict solar and lunar eclipses using complex calendar systems and observations of celestial bodies. These astronomical events were incorporated into their calendrical and ceremonial practices, with predictions documented in their hieroglyphic writings and codices.  

In Aztec culture, an eclipse was a terrifying omen that signaled the sun was being devoured by demons, threatening a permanent darkness and the end of the world. This belief prompted a societal uproar, the singing of special chants, and blood sacrifices of captives to offer energy to the sun god, hoping to avert disaster and prevent the world's destruction by the Tzitzimime, or star demons. Eclipses were considered particularly dangerous for pregnant women, who were advised to take precautions to prevent their unborn children from being harmed 

In Nordic culture, particularly among the Vikings, a solar eclipse was believed to be caused by the giant wolf Sköll catching and biting the Sun (Sól). To prevent the Sun's complete consumption by the wolf, which was seen as a harbinger of the world-ending event Ragnarök, Vikings would make loud noises by banging shields and blowing horns to scare Sköll away.

 

Tonight it is Lunar Eclipse called ‘Blood Moon’ set to occur in India (7^th Sept night) -  the total eclipse phase is expected to begin at 11.01 pm and is expected to last 82 minutes; the partial phase will end at 1.26 am and the eclipse will conclude at 2.25 am on September 8, 2025 

Anywhere from four to seven times a year, our Earth, Moon and Sun line up just right to create the cosmic-scale shadow show known as an eclipse. The Moon's orbit around Earth is tilted relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun. This tilt is the reason why we have occasional eclipses instead of eclipses every month. 

There are two types of eclipses: lunar and solar. During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow obscures the Moon. During a solar eclipse, the Moon blocks the Sun from view.  Lunar eclipses occur at the full moon phase. When Earth is positioned precisely between the Moon and Sun, Earth’s shadow falls upon the surface of the Moon, dimming it and sometimes turning the lunar surface a striking red over the course of a few hours. Each lunar eclipse is visible from half of Earth. 

Pic credit :  Sciencedirect.com 

 

The famed Ithihasa purana  Mahabharata describes a series of celestial events, including a lunar eclipse followed by a solar eclipse, occurring within a 13-day period shortly before the Kurukshetra War. While interpretations vary, with some researchers claiming the event in 3067 BCE involved a lunar eclipse on September 29 and a solar eclipse on October 14 of that year, this astronomical evidence is crucial for determining the historical timeline of the epic. 

The longest total lunar eclipse visible from India since 2022 will occur tonight and  is the first time since July 27, 2018, that an entire total lunar eclipse will be observable from all parts of the country.  

Unlike a solar eclipse, which can only be viewed from a relatively small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere on the night side of Earth. When the Moon is totally eclipsed by the Earth (a "deep eclipse"), it  takes on a reddish color that is caused by the planet when it completely blocks direct sunlight from reaching the Moon's surface, as the only light that is reflected from the lunar surface is what has been refracted by the Earth's atmosphere. This light appears reddish due to the Rayleigh scattering of blue light, the same reason sunrises and sunsets are more orange than during the day.  

Celestial phenomenons have found mentioned in our Ithihasa puranas ~ during Mahabaratha war there were two of them .. ..  perhaps the interim period when we could not have darshan of Emperuman are to be seen as eclipse or occultations.   The fourteenth day of the Mahabharata war was a crucial one for both sides. On the evening of the thirteenth day, Arjuna, devastated by the death of his young son, Abhimanyu, had vowed that he would kill Jayadratha  - by divine interference, Bhagwan Sree Krishna briefly shadows the Sun enabling Arjuna to complete his vow.    

The Sun always illuminates half of the Moon while the other half remains dark, Anywhere from four to seven times a year, our Earth, Moon and Sun line up just right to create the cosmic-scale shadow show known as an eclipse. The Moon's orbit around Earth is tilted relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun. This tilt is the reason why we have occasional eclipses instead of eclipses every month. There are two types of eclipses: lunar and solar. During a lunar eclipse, Earth’s shadow obscures the Moon. During a solar eclipse, the Moon blocks the Sun from view. 

                  The orbit of the Moon around Earth is inclined about 5.1° to Earth's orbit around the Sun. As a consequence, the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic at two points or nodes. If Full Moon takes place within about 17° of a node, then a lunar eclipse will be visible from a portion of Earth.  The Sun makes one complete circuit of the ecliptic in 365.24 days, so its average angular velocity is 0.99° per day. At this rate, it takes 345 days for the Sun - and at the opposite node, Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows - to cross the 34° wide eclipse zone centered on each node. 

If you remember the 2^nd  para of this post about astronomers traveling to Sobral in Feb 1919  - it was to photograph a solar eclipse as it cut across South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and Africa.  The purpose of the expeditions, arranged by Frank Dyson of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and Arthur Eddington of Cambridge University, was to test Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which had been published in 1915 and was regarded with skepticism by many scientists at that time.  

In 1916, Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity in full mathematical detail. That opened the window on a radically new framework for physics, abolishing established notions of space and time and replacing Newton’s formulation of the laws of gravity. Einstein’s revolution was to change the course of science; but in the years immediately after publication, there was no definitive observational evidence that his theory was correct. Enter Arthur Stanley Eddington took on the task of proving it. By harnessing a total solar eclipse, he argued that the deflection, or bending, of light by the Sun’s gravity could be measured. This was a critical test, because Einstein’s theory predicted a deflection precisely twice the value obtained using Isaac Newton’s law of universal gravitation. The needed eclipse came 100 years ago, in 1919. Eddington is now forever associated with two expeditions to view it: from Sobral in northern Brazil, and the island of Príncipe off the coast of West Africa.  Einstein’s theory, eight years in the making, sprang from insights he had developed after he published his theory of special relativity in 1905. 

The two photos at the start  taken at around 21.45 hrs (full moon) and  the last two here [eclipsed ones] taken at 22.21 hrs.

Regards – S. Sampathkumar

7^th Sept 2025.