Blood Moon aka Tax Day Lunar Eclipse

I don't know about you, dear followers, but I'm really excited about this lunar eclipse. It's going to be the first total lunar eclipse in a while and frankly the first one I'll ever see in the young 15 years I've been alive. While kids my age are freaking out about Coachella, or just recently getting back from the hectic music festival, my friend and I are researching charts and articles to send to eachother and basically anything else having to do with this "Blood Moon". (I know, we're pretty nerdy) I'll be able to see the eclipse tonight (April 14) to early morning (April 15). If it's cloudy outside, NASA will have live coverage during the eclipse so you can still watch this rare event! IT'S HAPPENING RIGHT NOW SO GO WATCH QUICKLY. THE LIVE STREAM IS EQUALLY COOL AND THEY'rE PLAYING RAD MUSIC TO GO WITH IT if YOU FEEL like you're missing out!

I'm sorry this is really spazzy and most likely badly written, but I need to go watch the eclipse now. Basically the the moon will be covered by the Earth's shadow/umbra and the United States won't be able to witness this again until 2019. I'll update this more after the eclipse and fix anything later!

The Solar Eclipse and the Adventures of Tintin

Yesterday, May 20, 2012, we witnessed a solar eclipse. As seen from the Earth, a Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, and the Moon fully or partially blocks the Sun.  (Def. by Wikipedia.) Even though it is a natural phenomenon, people in olden days regard it as a bad omen.

Solar Eclipse as seen in Los Angeles outside our house

Witnessing this rare event allows us to smoothly (or maybe not so smoothly) segway into a mention of "Prisoners of the Sun" in the Adventures of Tintin, (one of our favorite comic book series). In this comic book, our hero Tintin uses his knowledge of the timing of a solar eclipse to foil some modern day Incas' plan to sacrifice him and his friends. By timing his sacrificial hour to coincide with the solar eclipse, Tintin made the Incas believe that he can command Pachacamac, their Sun God.  The Inca prince implores Tintin to make the Sun show his light again. At Tintin's command, the Sun obeys, and the fearful Incas quickly set their prisoners free.

Prisoners of the Son-Tintin in South America

The Adventures of Tintin is a comic book series by artist Remi Georges (aka Herge) that debuted almost a century ago in 1929.  The stories feature Tintin, a young newspaper reporter who travels the globe and solves nefarious plots and crimes. His adventures take him to Africa, China, Turkey, America, the moon, South America, the Himalayas, under the sea, and many other exotic locales.  The comic books were translated into dozens of different languages. There are 24 of the Tintin comic books and we've read every one of them.

A panel from The Blue Lotus: Tintin in China

Our parents are such fans of Tintin since their childhood that they took us to Belgian to visit Musee Herge when it first opened back in 2009. That museum, designed by Christian de Portzamparc has all the original Tintin artwork and an awesome gift shop well worth visiting.

Outside the Herge Museum (We were a bit small then)

Tintin comics are amazing. We highly recommend it for their thoughtful stories, fantastic art, and endearing characters. It's a comic book series for both adults and kids alike.