THREE ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS Dec. 21, 2010.

LOOK  UP

There is a good chance you have already caught a glimpse of December’s moon. She’s a beauty. The full moon of December 2010 is more than special. In this fall season, in the year 2010, the moon reaches fullness four times. Usually, because there are three months in a season, you will see only three full moons in a season.  The special full fall moons of 2010 where on display September 21, October 23, November 21, and December’s moon will reach fullness on December 21. The third full moon, (November 21) was a true  “Blue Moon.”     The Algonquin Tribes named the December moon “Cold Moon.” Northern Europeans named it The Long Night Moon or Moon Before Yule.

A few hours after the Full Cold Moon reaches fullness,  the season of Autumn will end. Fall ends and winter begins on December 21, in the year 2010. The Winter Solstice has long been considered a special event, cheered throughout the world, it being natural for humans to celebrate the end of the longest and the darkest night, with a renewed hope for more light in our world. 

A total eclipse of the moon, also being called by some The Christmas Eclipse, will occur on December 21.  If you are willing to stay up late or to rise early, it is possible you will view the eclipse.  It will be the first time since 1993 that a total eclipse can be seen all across the United States, throughout North America, including Hawaii and Alaska.   This eclipse will be even more visible throughout most of eastern Asia, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, (Hawaii and Alaska,) and including both North and South America and Europe.

The eclipse will be visible after midnight, Eastern Standard Time on December 21 in North and South America and will be almost directly overhead.  

This December, 2010,  eclipse will be the first total lunar eclipse to occur on a fourth full moon in a season, on the day of the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere since 1638.

http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?nc&vid=23549392