In the wee hours of the early morning on October 8, the second and final lunar eclipse of 2014 occurred.

For all of us non-lunar scholars out there, that basically means that the moon was almost entirely covered by

the Earth’s shadow (a.k.a. the umbra), save a glowing ring on the borders of the moon. Due to the reflections of the Earth’s sunrises and sunsets onto the moon’s surface, a light is cast with a reddish-coppery glow onto the moon’s crater-riddled face, hence the term “blood moon”.

The Hunter’s Moon, the first full moon after the Harvest Moon, happened simultaneously with

the Blood Moon this time, which is ironic considering that the full moon was up all night long only to

be covered by the Earth.

This phenomenon could very well be irrelevant to many of us here at Dougherty Valley, unless you were up studying like a good student (in which case looking up at a rock in the sky isn’t going to get you an A), since the eclipse occurred at about 3:30 a.m. on a school day.

The question is: was this “blood moon” really just your run of the mill lunar eclipse? Two pastors, John Hagee and Mark Blitz, don’t think so. These two study and teach a theory called the Blood Moon Prophecy, a theory that states that an ongoing tetrad, which started in April of 2014, is a sign of the end of times. What’s a tetrad you ask? In astronomical terms, a tetrad is four consecutive lunar eclipses with six full moons in between, which are also uninterrupted by any partial eclipses along the way. But back to our supposed impending doom. These two pastors are essentially explaining that this ongoing tetrad is the sign of our upcoming apocalypse. Ooooooh. Spooky.

You probably just scoffed and/or rolled your eyes just now, and with good reason. Can you

guess how many ‘apocalypses’ were predicted from 1996 up until now? You might be surprised. A whopping 43 doomsdays. It’s probably safe to say that the world isn’t going to end in the fall of 2015. Wouldn’t it be awful if the whole world started crashing down in the middle of your SATs? No way you would get that 2400 that you’ve killed for with all that racket.

Rest easy, a lunar eclipse is still just a lunar eclipse. Be on the lookout for the next one on April 2015

After all, what better way to welcome the Halloween month of October than with the beauty of a Blood Moon?