A total lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth casts its shadow on the full moon, blocking the sun's rays that otherwise reflect off the moon's surface. Some indirect sunlight still pierces through to give the moon its eerie hue.
The 3 1/2 hour celestial spectacle was visible from North and Central America where skies were clear. Portions of Europe and Asia only caught part of the show.
The totality phase — when the moon was completely immersed in Earth's shadow — lasted 72 minutes.
The above was taken from a N.Y. internet news report. Our earlier e-mail was in error since it will occur again in 2014 and it occurred in 1638, 372 years ago. Nevertheless, it is a rare experience and referred to in scripture as a sign in the sky. For us, it began around 10:00 p.m., as we had a perfect view of the moon through the skylight in the kitchen. We watched as it changed from a bright moon to smaller and smaller slivers until it totally disappeared around 11:30 p.m. Our kitchen which was bright enough for us to see and walk into, slowly turned totally dark as the eclipse occurred.
We praise God for the opportunity to see this sign in the sky and we accept this one more evidence of the soon return of our Lord and Savior. Earlier we thought we read it would not occur again for some 400 years but it will happen in 2014. Significant, nevertheless. Praise God.