Moon eclipse

[Alana]

Last week i had a very vivid dream:

I am standing on a cliff, way below is a dark blue sea, and other people are there. We are waiting for something. We all look alike: tall, slim, and have a dark skin color but unusual. as if purple/red/light brown. IT is full moon night. Suddenly i realize that it is the eclipse we've been waiting for when a shadow appears on the left of the moon. We know is as prophesised, there's nothing we can do about it so we calmly watch. Then the fool moon is completely covered giving rise to a very cold wind. But the complete darkness is only momentarily, because after the light of moon is gone, the sky becomes red and orange. We know is the comet dust preceding the comets. We know it is the end. We always knew it would be like this so non is stressed or worried. We are just watching.

After i woke up i did not pay attention. It is pretty much a dream salad of everything stored in my mind, things currently reading and from the past. But today i read this:

Lunar eclipse to light up Saturday night sky

A lunar eclipse on Saturday night will give people around Greece several hours to experience a dazzling array of colors in the sky, astronomers said yesterday.

The eclipse will be visible in Greece from 10.30 p.m. on Saturday to 4.30 a.m. on Sunday. The effects of the eclipse will be most visible at 1.20 a.m. on Sunday, according to astronomers.

During a lunar eclipse, the Earth passes between the sun and the moon, blocking the sun’s light, which produces red, orange and yellow colors. Observers can also see the Earth’s shadow creep across the moon’s surface.

Lunar eclipses last for much longer than solar eclipses and can be seen from any part of the Earth’s surface where the moon is above the horizon.

The last lunar eclipse was in 1982 but the next ones are due next February and in December 2010.

Not to insinuate that the dream means anything or that the saturday eclipse will reveal comets, but i was surprised to see that the mention of the colors produced during the eclipse, are like the colors in my dream during a lunar eclipse. Weird...

 

[thorbiorn]

The idea in your dream is that knowledge and acceptance of an event takes away the fear of the consequences. If the following dream is related to yours, or has anything to do with what is happening somewhere I am still wondering:

A few days ago, some character claiming to be an astronomer from Northern Europe came in a dream and began to explain about the structure of comets using a few rough models. Then he wanted me to know about the fastest moving comet in the universe that had as yet been observed. The scene and continent changed and I stood in front of the entrance to a fenced area in a forest, which resembled a nature reserve. Black and white striped tigers!? were guarding/living on the other side. He told me they would not harm me and that I should just come along. Next to the gate was the observatory that he wanted to show me, but I was hesitating and woke up before I had made up my mind.

In the afternoon the same day I came across a friend who began to tell me of his own accord of a disturbing dream, he had had that morning. It was about our area being flooded and hit by an earthquake. We exchanged dreams. Interestingly he had always held the conviction in the back of his mind that cometary hits can happen.

One application of the above including the first post is that I am going to be more regular in printing out a monthly star map as to keep an eye on what is going on. The Website http://www.skymaps.com prepares a chart in A-4 pdf format which includes the most interesting objects that one can locate with the naked eyes or using binoculars.

An astronomical almanac I have, mentions that a typical comet has a diameter of 5 km. The book does not consider impacts too much so we will have to think on our own.

How such an object would impact would depend on speed, angel, shape, composition, structure, as well as all the variables related to the area that it would fly over or hit.

For example the speed of the planet is not equal all over as seen from the perspective of a comet. If it comes from a point above the poles, then the rotation is perpendicular to it's own movement. If it comes in the plane of the Earth's rotation, then one part of the planet near the equator would move away from it with a speed of 1600 km per hour. The other side of the rotating globe would move toward it with 1600 km per hour, whereas the area of equator in the middle would move with a speed perpendicular to it.

Also since the planet is moving around the Sun, the comet may come from behind or from the front or from above. One factor is the atmosphere, which over equator is thicker and warmer than over the poles, where the air is colder and denser. And the layer of the atmosphere is not all air. In some areas the mountains are up in thin air. A comet strike in the Himalayas is not the same as in an area 100 meters above sea level not to mention Holland.

The gravity of the Earth would help to attract and accelerate and object. And because of the atmosphere being rotating with the Earth it does not everywhere have the same speed, so if a 5 km object comes in, would it spin or tumble like water running out of a bathtub?

Would heating of the side that is falling in first lead it to break up or to explode? And even though comets are famous for their tails, the size of a tail also depends on where the Earth is in relation to the path of a comet. Are their blind angles from where a comet could come but not easily seen beforehand?

Another factor is the time of the day and the season of an impact. For example if it happens in the spring it could affect differently than in the late autumn or mid winter. And dust would settle quicker in an area where it rains than in a desert.

If a comet would come very fast the kinetic energy would be much greater, since Ekin = 1/2mv2, that is double speed makes four times the energy and three times the speed would make nine times the energy!

The good news would be that, if one compares 100 hypothetical slow speed comets with 100 fast speed comets all crossing the orbit of the planet in a random way, during a time interval t; then everything else equal, there should be a lesser probability of striking a fast comet. If one compares the bad news with the good news though, it appears the good news is less, because if a fast comet would hit, then it would have a LOT more energy. But if a LOT more energy would necessarily result in a LOT more destruction, that is to be seen if!

- Well hopefully not! … Anyway there is very little one can do about such events anyway except to stay alert and remain collected, just as described in the first post.

thorbiorn