By Len Wallick. Eric will be back with an entry in the early afternoon.
In spite of Guy Lombardo’s best efforts, “Auld Lang Syne” is the hands down winner of the Kurt Cobain Award for most often mangled lyrics. Of course it does not help that most of us sing it but once a year after consuming alcohol for hours on end. This year, as a bonus, synchronicity makes it a legitimate subject for an astrological column. Plus, as befits the occasion, we can have a little fun. Jupiter knows we could afford to lighten up. It’s New Year’s Eve after all.
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The big news, of course is the partial lunar eclipse (visible from Africa, Europe, Asia and Australia) on New Year’s Eve. This does not happen every year (although, in 2010 we do get a total lunar eclipse for the Winter Solstice). Given that our Gregorian calendar is based on the Sun, it’s an extraordinary coincidence. As Eric is fond of saying, however, there are no accidents. So, pour yourself a lemonade, open a box of vanilla wafers and let’s see how the event fits with the song.
First, some basics. Lunar eclipses take place during the Full Moon. A Full Moon is an opposition between the Sun and the Moon with good old planet Earth someplace in between: someplace, as in precisely aligned in a direct line. Think of being in a movie theater. The projector (Sun) is behind us and the screen (Moon) is in front of us, but no film in the projector (a movie by John Cage, if you will). That’s a normal Full Moon.
Now, let’s say you stand up and your head blocks the light from the projector. That’s just like a lunar eclipse with the Earth exactly between the Sun and Moon, casting a shadow on the Moon. But this one is a partial eclipse. Because the Sun is so big, so bright and so far away, and the Earth imprecisely aligned, it does not block out all of the light, just the higher frequencies, rendering the Moon reddish in color rather than completely dark.