But what makes this so remarkable is that it comes precisely a week before everyone on earth will see the first of FOUR dark red 'blood moons', an extraordinary event some Christians believe represents the End of Days and the second coming of Christ.
The King James Bible predicts: "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD comes," [Joel 2:31].
And, according to NASA, a highly unusual 'Tetrad' - four successive total 'blood-red' lunar eclipses each followed by six full moons - will, indeed, start a week today and finish on September 28 next year.
The incredible alignment has only happened a handful of times in the last two thousand years but, remarkably, on each of the last three occasions it has coincided with a globally significant religious event.
Pastor and author John Hagee, from San Antonio, Texas, has written a book on the phenomenon. He believes tonight marks the dawn of a 'hugely significant event' for the world.
He says: "This is not something that some religious think tank has put together.
"NASA has confirmed that the Tetrad has only happened three times in more than 500 years - and that it's going to happen now."
The first Tetrad since the Middle Ages, in 1493, saw the expulsion of Jews by the Catholic Spanish Inquisition, which rocked western Europe.
The second coincided with the establishment of the State of Israel - after thousands of years of struggle - in 1949.
Strangely, the last one occurred in 1967 - far earlier than expected - precisely at the time of the Six-Day Arab–Israeli War.
A spokesman for NASA said: "This is the first eclipse of the year and is well placed for observers throughout the Western Hemisphere.
"It will occur at the lunar orbit's ascending node in Virgo.
"This is the first of four consecutive total lunar eclipses in 2014 and 2015 - a series known as a Tetrad."
He added: "The frequency of Tetrads is variable over time.
"Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli first pointed out that Tetrads were relatively plentiful during one 300-year interval, while none occurred at all during the next 300 years.
"The 565-year period of the Tetrad 'seasons' is tied to the slowly decreasing eccentricity of Earth's orbit.
"Consequently, the Tetrad period is gradually decreasing.
"In the distant future Tetrads will no longer be possible."
READ MORE AT: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world...rth-and-Sun-mean-the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh
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