lots of lunar activity

Posted by dana at 7:19 pm on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009.

Moonit wants to take a moment to call out all the lunar activity going on right now because, as you may have guessed, we're all about the moon in all its glory. Forty years ago this week, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step foot on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission, a giant step for mankind indeed. And we have to give a shout out to Buzz Aldrin, the most underrated astronaut, commonly referred to as "that second guy who landed on the moon. You know, the one right after Neil Armstrong" (meanwhile, the first object to land on the surface of the moon did so ten years earlier, as part of the Soviet Union's Luna 2 unmanned mission on September 13, 1959, but we won't dwell on that part). 

So not only is this the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, but the solar eclipse is happening this week, too. That means the moon will come between the sun and earth… entirely blocking out the sun. And this isn't just any eclipse. At 6 minutes and 39 seconds, it's the longest eclipse that will occur during the 21st century and won't be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132! This event has caused quite a stir, with a lot of superstitious people around the world ready to hole themselves up in their houses and pray to every god known to man. Since ancient times, Hindus associated malicious forces with the eclipse, assigning demonic creatures responsible for extinguishing the light and making food and water unfit for consumption. And today, pregnant women in areas like India still stay inside on the day of the eclipse to reduce the risk of birth defects. 

Some astrologers are portending doom while others, like Siva Prasad Tata who runs the site Astro Jyoti, are taking a far less alarmist approach. He says there's no need to worry as eclipses are a natural phenomenon. On the contrary, "during the period of the eclipse, the opposite attracting forces are very, very powerful. From a spiritual point of view, this is a wonderful time to do any type of worship. It will bring about good results, much more than on an ordinary day."