At the start of John Wyndham’s sc-ifi novel ‘The Day of the Triffids’, an apocalyptic meteor shower turns the whole world blind. It’s a nice idea, but we can’t imagine a Danish TV production company snapping up the rights.

“It’s far too cloudy,” they would say. “If you want bright lights at night, head to Norway. There’s a reason why we reinvented noir.”

Black as night, black as coal
But for once there’s a lunar phenomenon tonight that doesn’t require clear skies. A ‘Black Moon’ is the second occurrence of a new moon in a calendar month. It occurs when the side of the moon we can normally see gets caught in Earth’s shadow.

So it’s there, but you can’t see it, which makes it very dark indeed. Tonight’s Black Moon will reach its fullest darkness at 12:11.

Foretelling of the Donald?
As an added bonus, tonight’s Black Moon is being linked to the apocalypse – or as it’s known stateside: the US presidential election – due to its proximity with a solar eclipse on September 1 and the red moon on September 16.

Conspiracy theorists are warning that Jesus Christ is coming – or even worse,  Donald Trump?

Thank Jehovah for the Daily Express
A version of the Bible cited by Signs of the End Times claims the Gospel of Matthew warns: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.”

But don’t worry as British newspaper the Daily Express has some reassuring news.

“However, scientists say there is nothing to fear, and the Earth will carry on as normal during and after the Black Moon,” it wrote at the end of its fear-mongering report.

Amen, and thank Jehovah for that.