Total Eclipse of the Moon

My time was all screwed up anyway, after the weekend, so I staggered outside at 4:00 in the morning to witness this.

Made me curious about what the ancients thought of such a strange phenomenon. In China, they apparently believed a dragon ate it and flooded it with blood before ingesting it. How it came back was somewhat of a mystery though.

The Greeks were spoil sports, and figured it was because the earth was blocking the sun and the nature of shadow proved the earth was round.

Columbus apparently used the knowledge of a pending lunar eclipse to his advantage. Stranded on Jamaica for over a year, the natives got tired of feeding him and his crew. He knew a lunar eclipse would occur February 29, 1504 and told the natives their gods were mad at them for their stinginess and would cause the moon to disappear. Suitably freaked out, the natives begged Columbus to return it. Which he finally relented too, upon which the viddles returned as well.

Stolen from one of Bright-eye's shots.