Tonight is history in the making. With a lunar eclipse that has only occurred once in the last 2000 years (1638 a.d) and a meteor shower to complement it, the fact that it just so happens to be on the night of the winter solstice makes this astronomical event a spectacle to be seen. According to NASA:“This lunar eclipse falls on the date of the northern winter solstice. How rare is that? Total lunar eclipses in northern winter are fairly common. There have been three of them in the past ten years alone. A lunar eclipse smack-dab on the date of the solstice, however, is unusual. Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years.
“Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21,” says Chester. “Fortunately we won’t have to wait 372 years for the next one…that will be on 2094 DEC 21.”
Sadly enough, due to possible cloud issues, some people may not get to enjoy these rare astronomical events so NASA will streaming live video of the eclipse, recorded from the Marshall Space Flight Center.
http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/lunar_eclipse.html
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