Partial Lunar Eclipse
Medieval astronomers witnessed the May 1453 lunar eclipse, during which approximately two-thirds of the Moon was covered by the Earth's umbral shadow. The residual illumination the Moon during an eclipse, can often be red. This may explain why it is said a "red moon" took place during the eclipse, and was taken as an omen or prophecy of the city's transfer of power.
Read more about this topic: Fall Of Constantinople
Famous quotes containing the words partial, lunar and/or eclipse:
“We were soon in the smooth water of the Quakish Lake,... and we had our first, but a partial view of Ktaadn, its summit veiled in clouds, like a dark isthmus in that quarter, connecting the heavens with the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A bird half wakened in the lunar noon
Sang halfway through its little inborn tune.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“He who does something at the head of one Regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)