The total eclipse of the moon that will begin in the early hours of Nov. 8 will be the last one until 2025.
In this class, we’ll discuss the physical influence of our moon on our planet. There are larger moons out there, so why is ours the most influential moon in the solar system? What would happen if the moon disappeared tonight and didn’t come back? What if we’d never had a moon at all? Would we even be here? Next, we will look at the influence of the moon on us as human beings—the mystical, spiritual, practical, and inspirational influences of our moon, with a bit of special attention to Jules Verne, who wrote about a journey to the moon just one hundred years before the real thing. Finally, we’ll discuss together how we observe our moon—what we see and what other people and cultures see (the Man in the Moon, the Woman in the Moon, the Rabbit in the Moon). Is the moon upside down in Australia? How and why do eclipses happen? Why do we call it a Blood Moon? We’ll also review the timetable for tonight’s eclipse.