UPDATE December 20, 2010…

The moon is seen during a total lunar eclipse from new York, Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2010. 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 red hue. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

“While it is merely a coincidence that the eclipse falls on the same date as this year’s winter solstice, for eclipse watchers this means that the moon will appear very high in the night sky, as the solstice marks the time when the Earth’s axial tilt is farthest away from the sun.” –NASA

This bears relevance with the Christmas story. You already know the theological significance connecting Christmas and Good Friday. did you know there is a celestial connection? we know about the Star of Bethlehem. the Blood Moon was noted in the sky when Christ died. Tonight is the Blood Moon occurring during Christmas week on the longest night of the year when the sun is farthest away.

Path of the Moon through Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows during the Total Lunar Eclipse of December 21, 2010- Credit: Fred Espenak/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

A lunar eclipse produces a “Blood Moon.” Bethlehemstar.net explains the Biblical significance.

Celestial dating “fixes the date of the crucifixion with precision. Beyond reasonable doubt, in fact, because a ‘blood moon’ has a specific meaning. In ancient literature, not only the Bible, it means a lunar eclipse. why bloody? because when the moon is in eclipse it is in the Earth’s shadow. it receives no direct light from the sun, but is lit only by the dim light refracted and red-shifted by the Earth’s atmosphere. the moon in eclipse does glow a dull red, as you know if you have seen it.

This matters, because with Kepler’s equations we can determine exactly when historical eclipses occurred. Perhaps it will not surprise you to learn that only one Passover lunar eclipse was visible from Jerusalem while Pilate was in office. it occurred on April 3, 33 AD, the Day of the Cross.”

Fox News (December 20, 2010)–

For a few hours on the night of Dec. 20 to Dec. 21, the attention of tens of millions of people will be drawn skyward, where the mottled, coppery globe of our moon will hang completely immersed in the long, tapering cone of shadow cast out into space by our Earth.

If the weather is clear, favorably placed skywatchers will have a view of one of nature’s most beautiful spectacles: a total eclipse of the moon.

Unlike a total eclipse of the sun, which is only visible to those in the path of totality, eclipses of the moon can usually be observed from one’s own backyard. the passage of the moon through the Earth’s shadow is equally visible from all places within the hemisphere where the moon is above the horizon.

The total phase of the upcoming event will be visible across all of North and South America, as well as the northern and western part of Europe, and a small part of northeast Asia, including Korea and much of Japan. Totality will also be visible in its entirety from the North Island of new Zealand and Hawaii — a potential viewing audience of about 1.5 billion people.

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Here are the details from NASA:

Early in the morning on December 21 a total lunar eclipse will be visible to sky watchers across North America (for observers in western states the eclipse actually begins late in the evening of December 20), Greenland and Iceland. Viewers in Western Europe will be able to see the beginning stages of the eclipse before moonset, and in western Asia the later stages of the eclipse will be visible after moonrise.

From beginning to end, the eclipse will last about three hours and twenty-eight minutes. For observers on the east coast of the U.S. the eclipse lasts from 1:33am EST through 5:01 a.m. EST. Viewers on the west coast will be able to tune in a bit earlier. For them the eclipse begins at 10:33 p.m. PST on December 20 and lasts until 2:01am PST on Dec. 21. Totality, the time when Earth’s shadow completely covers the moon, will last a lengthy 72 minutes

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