Ballyhooed lunar eclipse

When the rain came down in sheets this morning, I was quietly calling on it to stop soon. It wasn't because I needed to go out for lunch. Rather, it was because of tonight's much publicised total eclipse of the moon which I wanted to watch.

But what happened?? The rain did stop but the sky was full of clouds. Clouds that completely obscured the heavens. And the lunar eclipse? A total wash-out, I tell you. If there's anyone in Penang that tells you that he saw the partial eclipse from here, you'd better take his tale with a grain of salt. Then chase him away.

However, just because we didn't see it from Penang doesn't mean that it did not happen. The lunar eclipse did happen and millions of people around the Pacific basin saw it except us, like for example, in Auckland:


Lunar eclipses happen when the moon moves into the shadow of the earth. It only occurs at the full moon and it turns the colour of the moon into rusty red. I was hoping to see that. Lunar eclipses are not that uncommon and I've witnessed a few before. But I've never experienced a total lunar eclipse.

There are many old wive's tales associated with eclipses but one story that has been going round and around in recent years is the association of lunar eclipses with earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.

It's postulated that when the sun, the earth and the moon are roughly aligned in a straight line, the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon on the earth are the strongest. The forces exert a lot of pull on the tectonic plates and occasionally, when the plates slip, seismic tremors are felt along the earth's rings of fire.

So will we witness another natural disaster within the next few hours? I can only hope that this story will remain just that: a fanciful story. The world doesn't need more disasters. There are already more than we can handle presently.