The Blood Moon Prophecy is the idea popularized by Christian pastors John Hagee and Mark Biltz that said that the ongoing tetrad i.e. a sequence of four consecutive total lunar eclipses, with six full moons in between, and no superseding partial lunar eclipses which started with April 2014 lunar eclipse is sign of important things to come. Biltz thinks that Second Coming will coincide with final eclipse of tetrad, as Hagee only thinks eclipses are sign of coming change in course of history for Israel.
Sky gazers caught the sight of "blood moon" crossing Earth's shadow 15 April in all its magnificence. Moon took on reddish shade as it seemed in different phases between 2 and 4:30 a.m. In North and South America, where blood moon was most famous, observers indicated at spectacle with binoculars, telescopes and cell phones.
On April 15, 2014, moon passed through southern part of Earth's umbral shadow. That was noticeable over most of Western Hemisphere, comprising east Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific ocean, and the Americas. In western Pacific, first half of eclipse happened before moonrise. In Europe and Africa, eclipse start just before moonset. Mars, which had immediately gone by its opposition, visible at magnitude -1.5 about 9.5° northwest of moon. Spica was 2° to west, whereas Arcturus was 32° north. Saturn was 26° east and Antares 44° southeast.
Moon came into Earth's penumbral shadow at 4:54 UTC and umbral shadow at 5:58. Totality lasted for 1 hour 18 minutes, from 7:07 to 8:25. Moment of greatest eclipse happened at 7:47. At that point, Moon's peak was about 3,000 kilometres southwest of Galápagos Islands. Moon left umbra shadow at 9:33 and penumbra shadow at 10:38.
Peak umbral magnitude was 1.2907, at which moment northern part of moon was 1.7 arc-minutes south of centre of Earth's shadow, whereas southern part was 40.0 arc-minutes from centre. Gamma of eclipse was -0.3017. The eclipse was a member of Lunar Saros 122. It was the 56th such eclipse.
‘Blood moons'
In the total lunar eclipse, full moon turns into coppery red as it goes by into Earth's shadow. In process, moon's bright glow dims, taking on red hue due to shimmers of sunlight and sunsets seeping through Earth's atmosphere.
Dust and sulphur dioxide in Earth's atmosphere can influence size of shadow. Moon has to be full for total lunar eclipse to happen. As more of moon appears from shadow, its red shade becomes paler as it obtains lighter and transitions to its normal silver colour. Whole reddening process takes about hour. South and North American residents watched whole spectacle, where as observers in Western Pacific caught second half of event. Central Asia and some parts of Europe and Africa did not see much - moon was setting in most of those continents during eclipse.
The fact that there are four lunar sequences coming this year and next is strange. But it is not type of thing astronomers get worked up about. It doesn’t really mean anything. It is a chance arrangement of gravity and motions of objects in solar system, mainly the Earth and moon." The unusual sight was almost unheard of few centuries ago. Before 20th century, there was 300-year period when there were no blood moons. The most exclusive thing about 2014-2015 tetrad is that all of them are noticeable for all or parts of USA.
Historic Significance
In past, unusual appearance of four blood moons on these feast days has agreed with main events for Israel and Jewish people. In 1492, Spain excluded the Jews. Columbus also found America, which became safe refuge for Jewish people. In each of these blood moons, you have something which starts in tragedy and ends in triumph. For case, in 1948, Israel was reborn as the nation. After 2,000 years, God supernaturally brought them from 66 nations and nation was born in day. That again was supernatural something which occurred following tragedy of Holocaust. In 1967, Israel won Six-Day War and recaptured Jerusalem. For first time in 2,000 years, Jerusalem and State of Israel were together again.
If you failed to spot it on Tuesday, there will be more chances. North America will see the blood moon four times – called as a tetrad -- between now and September of next year. Additionally to Tuesday, it will make another appearance on October 8 of this year, and April 4 and September 28 of next year. If you again fail to spot those, then you will have to wait till 2032.