Eclipse

I’ve now had the privilege of witnessing total eclipses of both the sun and moon during optimal viewing conditions. Although solar eclipses are somewhat more spectacular, watching the earth’s shadow move across the moon was still a great experience – as was hearing our neighborhood screech owl’s reaction, and getting a better view of the Pleiades than I had before.

I remember the dismay I felt hearing a Baptist preacher in Romania claim that the 1999 eclipse was a “supernatural event”, and that if it had been a natural event, it would never have gotten light again. How can anyone in our day and age still think of the darkening of the sun and the moon becoming as blood as signs and portents?