When the Sun or the Moon Disappears

22 When the Sun or the Moon Disappears In the prescientific age, humans understood nature in a way that seems strange and foolish to us in our modern world. Without the benefit of high-tech instruments, they were unable to fully understand what was happening around them. Ignorance can lead to fear. Nowhere was their fear greater than when strange events such as eclipses of the sun or the moon occurred. Today, we know that the earth and the moon move in a regular pattern. Sometimes, the earth's movement puts it between the sun and the moon. When this occurs, the earth blocks the sunlight and we see the earth's shadow on the moon. The moon gets dark-sometimes black, sometimes a scary orange colour. This is nothing strange at all to our modern minds. It's simply a lunar (moon) eclipse.

When the moon moves between the earth and the sun, it blocks some of the sunlight. As the moon travels in front of the sun, the sun seems to disappear. This is a solar (sun) eclipse. When the moon, the sun and the earth are positioned in a straight line, the sun is completely blocked and the earth gets very dark. This is a total solar eclipse, and it's rare. It's easy to see how these strange events frightened our ancestors. The word eclipse means “ to devour" or “ to eat" something. Long ago, humans believed that the sun or the moon was being eaten. If this were true, it would really be a reason to be scared. Imagine how you would feel even today, if you thought that the sun was going to disappear forever. Think of early humans standing outside in the middle of the day, as the sun slowly grew dark and then disappeared for an hour or more. It would certainly scare the daylights out of you. The sun brings warmth, light and life! Today, science helps us understand strange occurrences. When we understand something, we no longer fear it. You can easily go on the Internet and find out when the next lunar or solar eclipse will happen. You can even go out and watch one.