Lunar Shadow Follows Solar Eclipse

Starting today, following yesterday’s partial solar eclipse, expect a unique and wonderful phenomenon: a lunar shadow will be moving across the planet, working its way across the international date line.

Yahoo! News reports:

Wednesday brings a partial solar eclipse to parts of Asia and North America, but it comes with an odd twist: At one point, the eclipse will be occurring at “midnight” between the two days this week.

During the eclipse, the outer shadow of the moon (called the penumbra) will first fall on northeast Asia as the eclipse begins, and then work its way east across the International Date Line. Because of that timing, this eclipse will have the quirky circumstance of beginning on the morning of Thursday (June 2) and ending on the evening of Wednesday (June 1).

For this partial solar eclipse, the axis of the moon’s shadow, the dark cone we call the umbra, actually never hits the Earth’s surface, passing about 843 miles (1,358 kilometers) above Cheshskaya Bay and the Bolshezemelskaya Tundra of far northwestern Russia. There, the sun will be seen to dip right to the northern horizon — at the “midnight” point of its 24-hour Arctic day — before climbing again.

During the few minutes in which the eclipse will reach its peak, with the top three-fifths of the sun bitten away by the moon, the sun will take on the appearance of a huge boat sailing out over the icy Barents Sea.

Greenland and Iceland are also within the eclipse zone, the latter getting a view just before the sun begins to set in their late evening.

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes in front of the sun as seen from the Earth’s surface. Total solar eclipses occur when the moon appears to completely block the sun, but occasionally the moon’s only in front of a portion of the sun. These events can create partial and so-called annular eclipses.

What do you think—is there a deeper spiritual significance to this event?