From one of last week’s Astronomy Picture Of the Day:

Early morning dog walkers got a visual treat last week as bright stars and planets appeared to line up. Pictured above, easily visible from left to right, were the Pleiades open star cluster, Jupiter, Venus, and the “Follower” star Aldebaran, all seen before a starry background. The image was taken from the Atacama desert in western South America. The glow of the rising Sun can be seen over the eastern horizon. Jupiter and Venus will continue to dazzle pre-dawn strollers all over planet Earth for the rest of the month, although even now the morning planets are seen projected away from the line connecting their distant stellar sky mates.

While I was unfortunately unable to see this in person, I happened to go to the planetarium the other day and was shown this configuration by James Albury, co-host of PBS’s Star Gazers. It was all the fun of seeing it without the rolling out of bed at 5am!

From one of last week’s Astronomy Picture Of the Day:

Early morning dog walkers got a visual treat last week as bright stars and planets appeared to line up. Pictured above, easily visible from left to right, were the Pleiades open star cluster, Jupiter, Venus, and the “Follower” star Aldebaran, all seen before a starry background. The image was taken from the Atacama desert in western South America. The glow of the rising Sun can be seen over the eastern horizon. Jupiter and Venus will continue to dazzle pre-dawn strollers all over planet Earth for the rest of the month, although even now the morning planets are seen projected away from the line connecting their distant stellar sky mates.

While I was unfortunately unable to see this in person, I happened to go to the planetarium the other day and was shown this configuration by James Albury, co-host of PBS’s Star Gazers. It was all the fun of seeing it without the rolling out of bed at 5am!

We have been so blessed this winter.

This morning when Alvin and I were outside the stars seemed extra shiny.

Perhaps they were doing so just for me….. I would like to think so.

It is always wonderful when the morning sky is clear so that I can take in the stars and the moon.

It fills me with wonderment and awe.

I wonder how many other folks are standing outside at that very moment gazing up at the sky.

What are they thinking?

Are they as awe struck as I?

I hope that you take a few moments in the early morning or in the evening to take in our gorgeous sky….

Special Hello to: all those star gazers.

Always, Carol and Alvin (who lays on the floor outside my office waiting for me)…….

Live from Palm Coast, Florida, in A Spirited Christmas

Here comes Christmas! For your listening pleasure, below is Manger Medley, Jonathan’s arrangement of Away in the Manger, which closes with him singing his gorgeous song, Messiah.  Looking forward to the holidays with you!

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To see books written by Jonathan, click the link below! You can peruse and order if you like!

http://www.janethan.com/tour_store.htm

On this Wednesday morning my thoughts have been mainly on my dog Alvin.

He has taken to wanting up on my lap while I am doing my morning writing.

I might have mentioned this to you before now.

He really isn’t a lap dog as he weights 20 pounds and is quite long but nevertheless, he is one.

I love watching him get into his comfortable position.

Generally it takes him a couple of minutes.

I have to put my legs up onto a chair so that he has the length otherwise he would fall onto the floor.

But it is so nice to have him snuggling while I write.

It brought back memories of when my daughter was small and used to curl up on me.

I love that closeness.

I hope that everyone out there has the opportunity to share that with someone whether a child, spouse, or pet.

It is a great way to begin your day.

Special Hello to: all the star gazers out there.

Always, Carol

We have the finest collections of telescopes and binoculars that money can buy.

Come see why were rated #1

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And along with the Perseid meteor shower in August, the Orionid shower in the latter part of October, and the Leonids in November, now we have what the astronomers and star-gazers predict should be the best shower of 2010 – The Geminid meteors peaking in the next few nights, about December 13-14.  To observe, look to the eastern horizon, about to the left of the constellation Orion, where the meteors seem to radiate out from the  Gemini constellation.  If really clear at peak, there can be 50-80 sighted per hour.  As is usually the case, best chances are after midnight, approaching dawn (although, again, not likely for my viewing unless I have to get up to let Bessie or Aurora out).

This weekend the sun will be setting just a bit later – daylight extending ever so slightly later into the afternoon….starting us on the way toward June, when it sets the latest in the year, on those wonderful summer nights.

The winter solstice will be December 21 – marking the shortest day of the year, least total daylight and most total darkness (more on that when it arrives).  As you may know, or can quickly deduce, the reason it’s the shortest day – despite the sun setting later for over a week by then – is that the sun continues to rise later, all the way through December.  Averaging out the later setting with the later rising, the 12/21 solstice has the least hours and minutes of daylight.

December 21 also happens to be the full moon for the month, known quite appropriately as the Cold Moon.  Native American folks would traditionally use the Cold Moon to mark their year-end.  And like most ancient and native cultures, rituals and prayers would seek a merciful winter and the return of the sun to more northern climes.

Joining that hope is a remarkable phenomenon in the northern forests where I grew up:  the beginning of nesting for the great horned owls.  By now, a third of the way through December, they may well have their mate.  Not long after the solstice, usually sometime in January, they are nesting.  For someone who tramps the January snowy woods, it is possible to see one sitting on the nest that they likely confiscated from crows or red-tailed hawks, keeping its eggs warm, even while snow builds up on its head!

Great horned owls are dominant avian predators – on rare occasion even defeating or killing an eagle in a fight. The adults really have no predators themselves – mostly just other great horned owls in territorial squabbles.  And while their fearlessness and hunting  efficiency earn them “tiger of the skies”….to me they are about the first sign of the spring that is yet so far off.

Even in the dead of winter, new life and hope is born!

Looking up into the night sky you probably wonder how ancient star gazers were able to navigate using the stars in the night sky as their guide. One of the first things ancient star gazers did to help them navigate the night sky, and the surface of the Earth, was to create a coordinate system to pinpoint relative positions of the stars in the night sky in relation to one another.

Looking upward into the night sky, imagine the sky above you as a sphere of infinite size, centered on the Earth. This technique works in general because distances to the stars above you is not discernible using your naked eye, so the objects you see above you in the night sky all appear to lie on a great sphere at an infinite distance in relation to you.

Modern astronomers use two coordinate systems to determine the relative positions of objects in the night sky; the altitude-azimuth coordinate system and the equatorial coordinate system. We will talk a little about both coordinate systems currently being used by modern astronomers to help them plot the positions of the objects they view in the night sky and using celestial objects you view on your “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” to navigate your way through the universe.

The altitude-azimuth system works fine

In the altitude-azimuth coordinate system altitude indicates the number of degrees from the horizon to the object in the night sky you’re viewing, and ranges from 0 degrees at the horizon to 90 degrees at the zenith above you. Modern astronomers measure azimuth along the horizon from north to east, to the point where a line passing through the object in the night sky intersects the horizon at a right angle, and azimuth varies between 0 degrees and 360 degrees. Astronomers also subdivide each degree of azimuth into 60 arcminutes and each archminute into 60 arcseconds, which helps to further subdivide the immense distances between each degree of measurement in the night sky.

Navigating the night sky becomes a lot easier using a coordinate system

The altitude-azimuth coordinate system doesn’t take into account the rotation of the Earth, though, and astronomers have solved this problem by fixing coordinates to the celestial sphere you imagine above you in the night sky. Celestial cartographers have created “celestial globes”, similar to the globes of the Earth that cartographers have devised for centuries to show the Earth and all of its features. On these celestial globes you’ll find terms like the celestial equator and North and South celestial poles.

The equatorial coordinate system works even better for navigating the night sky

In the equatorial coordinate system astronomers use two aspects called declination and right ascension to fix a star’s position on the celestial sphere you picture above you. Declination is analogous to Earth’s latitude and represents the angle between the object you’re viewing in the night sky above you and the celestial equator. Declination varies between 0-90 degrees, North and South of the celestial equator, and is measured in degrees, arcminutes, and arcseconds, while a minus sign is used to designate objects south of the celestial equator.

The equatorial system is more widely used today

The lines of circles that run through the celestial poles perpendicular to the celestial equator represent the hour circle of objects in the night sky above your head, and are analogous to the meridian of longitude on the Earth. In order to fix an objects position in the celestial sphere above you we’ll also need to set the zero point of the longitude coordinate of the object, which astronomers call the objects right ascension. In order to accomplish this we need an intersection point between the Earth’s equator and its orbital plane, the elliptic. Astronomers call this intersection point the vernal equinox and the sun appears to travel through the intersection point annually around March 21, as it moves South to North crossing the celestial equator.

The angle that lies between the vernal equinox and the point where the hour circle of the celestial object in question intersects the celestial equator is the right ascension of the object you see in the night sky. Right ascension is measured in hours (h), minutes (m), and seconds (s), from west to east, and the vernal equinox is zero-hour. There are about 24 hours in each day on the Earth, so each hour of right ascension in the night sky corresponds to 15 degrees of longitude.

The movement of the Earth and the objects in the night sky above you mean the appearance of the night sky is dynamic in nature, so celestial objects will appear to circle the celestial poles as you watch the night sky. A star with a greater distance from a celestial pole than your latitude will only be visible to you during a portion of its orbit. In this case the star will rise in the east and set in the west. Stars that are always above your horizon are circumpolar for your latitude and you’ll see these stars for their entire orbit.

The Earth’s rotation and the movement of the stars also means the constellations in the night sky above you travel slowly westward during the year. Pinpoint a star you know well in the night sky at exactly 9 P.M. tonight. This same star will be in the exact same position in the night sky tomorrow night, only 4 minutes earlier, at 8:56 P.M. Check the time this same star is in the same position on the next night and you’ll see this occurs at 8:52 P.M.

Do a little math and you’ll verify that in one month this set up would leave the stars in the night sky 2 hours out of phase with our first positional reading in the night sky for this same star. In 3 months, generally one season, the stars in the night sky above you will have traveled a quarter of the way across the night sky. After four seasons, this would bring the star in question back to the same position in the night sky as twelve months before.

One way to estimate distances in the night sky above you and give yourself a tool to help you navigate the universe on your “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” is to use star pairs in the night sky as your guide. Star travelers can learn by using star pairs in the Big Dipper, for example.

On a star atlas you’ll see objects on the map described as 12 degrees from such-and-such a star. If you study the separations between the stars of well-known stars, like the ones in the Big Dipper, you can train your eyes to visually estimate distances between stars. Take a look at a star chart of the Big Dipper and you’ll see that Alpha Ursae Majoris is about 5 degrees separated from Beta Ursae Majoris. Delta Ursae Majoris, on the other hand, is 10 degrees from Beta Ursae Majoris, while Beta Ursae Majoris is about 25 degrees from Eta, and this trend continues. Star gazers can learn to visually estimate graduations less than 1 degree in the night sky as well. Use the Full Moon, which measures 1/2 degree across. This distance is close to the distance between two stars in Scorpio’s stringer and if you use it as your measuring stick, you’ll see other pairs with about the same separation in the night sky above you. Search the night sky as you “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” for road markers and celestial objects you can use to navigate your way to infinity. This will help you find your way back from your trip and navigate the night sky to the objects you want to view.

Color like this only grows and expands the further you travel on your Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time

Fall is in full bloom in the Northern Hemispheres of planet Earth and lovers of the reds, oranges, and bright reds on the leaves of fall will enjoy the rich, warm and colourful hues in the night sky of September and October.

If you’re heading out into the wild to enjoy Mother Nature’s bounty at this time of year? After the day walking through the forest watching the leaves on the trees turn color, from drab green to mixed shades of yellow, orange, and red. Take the time to lay back on the cold ground or your sleeping bag and check out the colors in the night sky. Even better, set up your binoculars or time machine to the stars, and enjoy the colors in the night sky by taking a “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time.”

Star gazers have witnessed the colorful displays in the night sky for generations and our ancestors surely spent many a night staring upwards in wonder at the various colors they could see in the night sky. It was 19th-century Irish astronomer John Birmingham, who first made note of the colorful hues of light in the night sky. His ideas and the thoughts of Danish astronomer Hans Schjellerup, who had compiled a catalogue of red stars in 1866, were mentioned in Birmingham’s work “The Red Stars: Observations and Catalogue”. This catalogue contains a total of 658 red and orange stars colorful enough to delight the human senses and make your imagination dance a lively step.

Reading the introduction of Birmingham’s catalogue of red and orange stars, one notes he mentions a region of space and time he refers to as “The Red Region”. This region includes parts of the Milky Way Galaxy, between Aquila, Lyra, and Cygnus, that are filled with orange and red stars that will make the eyes dance and entice the human imagination to create possibilities beyond anything we as humans have imagined.

September is the perfect time for you to board your time machine to the stars and “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” to experience the Red Region. The Red Region will be well above the southern horizon, once the sun goes down. This region of space and time has eye-gems for star gazers to view in September, with reds and oranges that will make lovers of fall smile, and turn up their color sensitivity. The colorful stars in the Red Region warm sequentially through spectral classes: G (yellow), K (orange), M (red) and rare carbon class C (deep red). Astronomers have subdivided star classes from 0 to 9, with a G9 star being a little closer to orange, than yellow, and a K5 star having a color somewhere between orange and red.

All star gazers will see varying hues of red, orange, and yellow during their “Journey to the Beginning of Space and Time” that will depend on each star gazers own particular biology. In fact, we all view color slightly differently, so individual star gazers shouldn’t rely on a star’s spectral class for a visual clue to a star’s true color. Take for example, the strikingly colorful, double star Albireo (Beta Cygni) in Cygnus. Star gazers through the centuries have described its magnitude 3.1 K3 primary star as yellow, topaz, gold and orange. Its magnitude 5.1 B9 (blue-white) secondary star (34″ away) on the other hand, has been described as deep-blue, azure, sapphire and even green.

The perception of color for humans is subjective and depends on varying individual parameters that can also be a product of physiological and psychological effects, such as the strong contrasting colors of a double star, like Albireo. The colors star gazers view through their time machine to the stars can also be obscured by dust and pollutants in the air, which will redden a stars color. Stars that are low on the horizon, in comparison to higher stars, will also appear redder to viewers, just like the sun turns redder as it falls toward the horizon.

The Moon goes through the same cycle it has since the time of our ancestors

A Last Quarter Moon will step onto September’s celestial stage on September 1, at 1:22 P.M Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and start September’s celestial dance. Heavenly Venus will join the dance at 2 P.M. EDT on September 1, as she passes to within about 1.2 degrees south of Spica and will form a line with Mars on one side and Spica spinning in the middle.

Mercury will be in inferior conjunction at 9 A.M. EDT on September 3. Mars will dance to within 2 degrees north of Spica at 10 A.M. EDT on September 4, but this dance pair will slowly fade from view over the next few days, as the Moon moves closer to the Earth.

Mercury is the hardest of the planets to view, but if you look late in September, you have the best chance of seeing Mercury.

The Moon will light up the night sky at 11:58 P.M. EDT on September 7. Earth’s satellite moves to within 221,948 miles of spaceshipearth1 on this date and the show on this night can light up the night sky. A New Moon will greet star gazers at 6:30 A.M. EDT on September 8 and on September 9 the moon will pass to within 8 degrees south of Saturn at 6 P.M. The celestial dance between Saturn and the Moon can light up your imagination as the Moon makes a pass by Saturn.

On September 1, Saturn will set an hour after the Sun and will stand about 5 degrees high in the west sky 30 minutes after sunset

Asteroid Flora will be in opposition on the tenth of September at 11 P.M. EDT. Asteroid Flora is a difficult celestial body to view for beginning star gazers. Should you desire to take a look at asteroid Flora at her finest on this night, it might be wise to obtain the help or advice of a veteran star gazers in your search.

The Moon will also be dancing in the night’s sky on September 10. The Moon will pass to within 5 degrees south of Mars at 4 A.M. EDT and will then dance across the night sky and pass within 0.3 degrees south of Venus at 9 A.M. EDT.

Asteroid Laetitia will be in opposition on September 14 at 6 A.M. EDT. This is your chance to view a celestial body that has been entertaining star gazers and filling them with awe and wonder for thousands of generations.

The third week of September begins with a First Quarter Moon 1:50 A.M. EDT on September 15. Four days later, on September 19, Mercury will be at its greatest western elongation of 18 degrees at 1 P.M. EDT. The Moon will pass within 5 degrees north of Neptune at noon EDT on September 20, viewers should see both Neptune and the Moon in the night sky, but this will depend on environmental conditions at the time of viewing.

Asteroid 8 Hebe is at opposition at 2 A.M. EDT on September 21. The thirteenth biggest asteroid by mass in the known solar system and the fifth brightest celestial body in the asteroid belt, asteroid 6 Hebe is believed to be the source of H chondrite meteorites and IIE iron meteorites, which account for about 40 percent of the meteorites that land on Earth.

The Moon is at apogee (252, 379 miles from Earth) at 4:02 A.M. EDT on September 21. Apogee is the point at which the Moon is at its farthest distance from the Earth in its orbit.

Mighty Jupiter rules the night on September 21, the largest planet in our solar system will be in opposition at 8 A.M. EDT on this day and Neptune will follow into opposition at 1 P.M. EDT. Jupiter shines at magnitude 2.9 on this night and will look bigger visually than at anytime since October 1963, at about 49.9 ” across.

Jupiter will be as visible as it has since 1963 during opposition on September 21.

Jupiter will still be one of the brightest celestial object in the night sky on September 22 and viewers should be able to get a great view of mighty Jupiter in all its glory using their time machine to the stars throughout the month. Jupiter will pass within 0.9 degrees south of Uranus on September 22, at 3 P.M. EDT, and this is a great time to take a look at two of the biggest celestial bodies in the solar system. Watch for a few hours, before Jupiter passes to within 0.9 degrees south of Uranus, and you can see the Earth enter autumnal equinox at 11:09 P.M. EDT.

A Full Moon will occur at 5:17 A.M. EDT on September 23. The Moon will travel toward Neptune and Jupiter during the next hour and forty-five minutes and will pass within 7 degrees north of Jupiter and 6 degrees North of Uranus at 7 A.M. EDT. Viewers that watch throughout the day will get to see Venus at her brightest at 4 P.M. EDT, at this time Venus will shine at magnitude 4.8, the perfect time to view demure Venus in September’s night sky.

Venus is once again the main attraction on the night of September 29. Venus will pass within 6 degrees south of Mars at 2 A.M. EDT on this night and will shine bright enough for good viewing using your time machine to the stars or good viewing binoculars.

September 30 will see Saturn enter into conjunction with Sol, at 9 P.M. EDT. This is a great opportunity to view the ringed-planet and have a look at a celestial body that has fascinated the human imagination for generations. Keep watching until 11:52 P.M. EDT and you’ll see a Last Quarter Moon appear in the night sky at 11:52 P.M. EDT.

September’s celestial dance enters the month of October, next, read about October’s celestial dance in our article on October’s night sky. We’ll tell you about October’s dance partners and the beautiful moves they’ll make as they travel across the night sky in October.

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Mighty Jupiter rules the night sky in September 2010

Mighty Jupiter will rule the night’s sky in the Northern Hemisphere during September, especially after he reaches the point in his orbit opposite the sun as seen from SpaceshipEarth1, which space scientists call Jupiter’s opposition. This celestial event will occur on the last day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, on this day the 24 hour period of the day will be evenly separated into night and day, and the evening temperature will still be warm enough to make star-gazing comfortable. The perfect time to set up your celestial time machine to the stars or to just lay back on the cold Earth and watch the celestial dance above you unfold before your eyes as millions of your ancestors have since mankind first perceived the possibilities the night’s sky creates in the human imagination. This will be the most comfortable and best time to view Jupiter in the past 47 years and it will definitely be more comfortable viewing than during Jupiter’s next opposition on October 29, 2011. During Jupiter’s opposition on October 29, 2011, the weather will be a lot of colder than on September 21, 2010, and you’ll have to wait another year to have a look at the largest planet in our solar system.

Mighty Jupiter will be at his brightest when he reaches opposition on September 21, 2010 and on this night the King of Sol’s planets will shine brighter in the night’s sky than during anytime in the past 47 years. Jupiter will also appear bigger during its September 21, 2010 opposition, subtending an angle of almost 50 “, and shining at magnitude 2.9. This means that after Venus sets at around 8 P.M., mighty Jupiter will be the brightest star like object in September’s night sky.

Venus fluctuates in visible size in September

Mighty Jupiter will travel near the border between the constellations of Aquarius and Pisces for several months on both sides of opposition. This region of space-time has few bright stars to outshine Jupiter and the contrast allows viewers to get a good look at Jupiter. The nearest 1st magnitude star, Fomalhaut (Alpha) Piscis Austrini, is over 30 degrees away and mighty Jupiter is easily observed in the night’s sky at this time.

Star gazers in the mid-northern latitudes will find that due to their location mighty Jupiter only climbs halfway up the night’s sky in September, 2010. This doesn’t make for the best viewing during Jupiter’s opposition and Jupiter’s altitude will be at its greatest at local midnight time. Star gazers at latitude 40 degrees north will therefore see Jupiter at 48 degrees above the southern horizon. In the northern hemisphere of Earth, star gazers will view Jupiter 1 degree higher in the night’s sky, for each degree of latitude south of 40 degrees north at which they’re viewing Jupiter. In contrast, for each 1 degree north of 40 degrees north at which you observe Jupiter, you’ll see Jupiter 1 degree lower in the night’s sky.

Star gazers that want to view mighty Jupiter as he dances across September’s night sky can so so without a pair of binoculars. Star gazers will need a pair of binoculars or telescope to see Uranus, Sol’s seventh planet will lie within 2 degrees of Jupiter throughout September, and can be difficult to view Uranus at this time. Sol’s eighth planet, Neptune, will be found about 30 degrees west of Jupiter and Uranus during September. Star gazers that want to view Venus and Mars should look in the evening twilight near Virgo’s brightest star, Spica.

Neptune can be found 30 degrees west of Jupiter and Saturn in September's night sky

We’ll begin our journey across September’s night sky during the first week of Earth’s ninth month, at this time Saturn will be dancing in the twilight of the low horizon of September’s night sky. We’ll board our time machine to the stars and planets on September 1 and start the first leg of our celestial “Journey to the Beginning of Time and Space” in human terms by traveling across space and time to Saturn. Sol’s ringed planet will set an hour after the sun on this day and can be found dancing in the sky about 5 degrees above the horizon, after the sun goes down.

Venus and Mars can be found dancing in the evening twilight close to Spica in the constellation Virgo

To locate Saturn, use Venus as your visual guide. Earth’s evening star will be visible a few minutes after the sunsets. Look for Spica in the constellation Virgo, to the right of Venus. Saturn and Spica glow at the same relative magnitude, so if you take your time and can find Spica, you should be able to see Saturn in the night’s sky above you. Saturn will be found 20 degrees to the right of Venus in September’s night sky and at around half the distance from the horizon as Venus. Saturn will continue to be viewable from Earth, throughout the first week of September, 2010, and viewing Saturn from SpaceshipEarth1 will become increasingly difficult after this time.

On September 1, 2010, Venus will be dancing in the night’s sky in line with Spice and Mars. Spica will be in the middle of this dance, and if you continue to watch this celestial dance unfold for two more nights, Spica will dance toward the center of the trio. The trio will begin to fallback from each other as September enters the second week and will form an ever-widening triangle. Venus will shine the brightest during this celestial dance across September’s night sky, while Spica will outshine Mars as the trio does their nightly dance across the skies of September.

On September 10 a crescent moon will join this celestial dance. Mars will be viewable about 6 degrees above the Moon, while Venus will be to the lower left of Mars. Continue to watch this dance unfold and you’ll see the Moon travel 6 degrees to the left of Venus by the time September 11, 2010 arrives. The Moon will also grow in visible size each night after September 11, 2010, until reaching full moon at 5:17 A.M. EDT on September 23.

Venus will continue to be viewable in September’s night sky as she dips closer to the horizon each night during September. Venus will shine her brightest on September 23, 2110, when the evening star will shine at magnitude 4,8 and will set an hour after Sol retires for the night. Watch Venus during this time and she’ll draw you into her nightly dance and fascinate you as she goes through obvious changes in visible size and phase. View Venus on September 1 and you’ll see a planet with a disc 29 ” across and at 41 percent illumination. By the time the dance reaches September 30, Venus has slimmed to 19 percent illumination and swelled to about 45 “, a change that can be easily discerned by patient star gazers.

Mars will appear small and dim compared to the Evening Star, the Red Planet will shine at magnitude 1.5 throughout September 2010, which is around 300 times dimmer than Venus will shine. Mar’s disk also measures only 4″ and very little detail will be seen by viewers looking at Mars through a telescope. Mars will become more visible late in 2011, so if you want to have the best view of Mars, you’ll have to wait until this time.  

September will be a great time to view Sol’s ninth planet though as Pluto will dance an elegant loop in northwestern Sagittarius, close to an 8th magnitude star that’s only 2.6 degrees north-northwest of 4th magnitude Mu Sagittarii. This will make this 14th magnitude dwarf planet, which many claim isn’t really a planet, easier to view due to its proximity to this relatively bright star. You’ll still require an 8-inch telescope and a dark sky to be able to see Pluto in September’s night sky, but the view is spectacular, and you can get a good idea of the distance involved.

Easter Island (Rapa Nui: Rapa Nui, Spanish: Isla de Pascua) is a Polynesian island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeastern most point of the Polynesian triangle. A special territory of Chile annexed in 1888, Easter Island is widely famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapanui people. It is a World Heritage Site (as determined by UNESCO) with much of the island protected within the Rapa Nui National Park. In recent times the island has served as a cautionary tale about the cultural and environmental dangers of overexploitation. Ethnographers and archaeologists now argue that the introduction of diseases carried by European colonizers and the slave raiding that devastated the population in the 1800s had a much greater social than environmental impact.

Many entrepreneurs and professionals who attend networking events tend to take pride in “working the room” to see how many people they can meet; how many business cards they can collect in the shortest amount of time. This can lead to the unintentional condition that I like to call “star gazing.”

Like an amateur astronomer scanning the night sky for recognizable star patterns, the “Star Gazer” in networking terms is that person who is half-heartedly involved in a conversation while scanning the room to see who else they would like to talk to before leaving the event. “Star gazers” do not realize how rude and disrespectful this behavior actually is. More importantly, it may be counter-productive to the extent they are at the event – ideally to meet people who can help them grow their business by word-of-mouth marketing; by being a resource or even a client.

It is rather easy to recognize “star gazers.” They have wondering eyes while you are talking to them or sharing with them what you do. They give half-hearted answers to your questions because they’re simultaneously scanning the room. Worse case, they give you the impression that you’re in a monologue because they are not responding to your questions (not listening to you), therefore leaving you to feel like you are being ignored, as they continue to scan the room. In short, “star gazers” are incapable of giving you their undivided attention.

As a strategic networking specialist, I want to share with you several options you can use to counteract the rude behavior of “star gazers.” First of all, you remind yourself that you want to be a good referral source and that first impressions are very important. This awareness should serve as a reminder to not retaliate by becoming rude.

Option #1: Bring the behavior to the other person’s attention by asking them if they would like to finish the conversation a little later during the event, as it appears that they are focused elsewhere in the room. Sometimes this awareness brings the “star gazer” back down to earth long enough to see the rudeness in their behavior.

If the “star gazer” persists after your attempt at raising their awareness, then it is time to simply end the conversation.

Option #2: “John (use the person’s name here), it appears there are other people you would like to meet, it was a pleasure to meet you. I wish you much success this evening.” At which point, you both move on separately to continue networking.

Option #3: “John (use the person’s name here), it was a pleasure meeting you. I apologize, but my time is limited and there are a few other people I need to catch up with before I leave. I wish you much luck in making new connections this evening.”

The difference in the three options is that option #1 puts the ball in the “star gazer’s” court and gives them an opportunity to apologize for their rudeness and a choice on whether they would like to continue the conversation. The second and third options allow you to take control over the situation and make your graceful escape.

In closing, remember that strategic networking is about building positive, long-term, trusting relationships. It is about listening. And it is very difficult to trust your business to someone who is incapable of focusing on the human being standing in front of them.

As a strategic networker you should question how likely is it that the “Star Gazer” will get your order correct, deliver the service they promise, or serve as a dependable referral source later in your relationship if they can’t even stay focused through a brief introduction. So, the next time that you attend a networking event, leave the “star gazing” to the astronomers and give your undivided attention and respect to the person in front of you. Happy Networking!

Copyright © 2010 – Emmy Vickers. Emmy Vickers Enterprises, LLC would like to help you “raise your net worth through strategically networking TM.” Teach you how to create and cultivate your business relationships. We listen, motivate, encourage, educate and guide you. Emmy M. Vickers is a national corporate trainer and speaker specializing in teaching others how to strategically network for business success. She is also the creator of the country’s first entrepreneur network kit. Please visit her at www.emmyvickersenterprises.com. To schedule a consultation contact her at 301-593-2072.

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Painted live at the preview night to the *gazers art show at the Ortego Art Gallery on 11/5/09.

My blogging intent was to blog about healthful things, exercises, nutrition, but I keep thinking that readers might like other things too.  And I keep thinking of things I want to share.  I have so much I keep learning about Nia, we are doing more things in San Jose, and life is just full of stuff.   I am going to try to start posting three times a week instead of two.  I think that I am going to keep up with my opinion on healthful things on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but on Thursdays my posts will be different.  We will see how this all goes.

With my first post that is less-in-the-realm-of- wellness-and-the-like will be simple.  I wanted to share, that my house smells like flowers.  I love Star Gazers** and recently (almost two weeks ago), my husband bought me some.  He bought roses and Star Gazers, but the Star Gazers have lasted longer.  And they make our living room and dining room smell so nice.

You cannot walk down the stairs or sit on the couch without getting a big whiff.

They are so gorgeous.  What is your favorite flower?

**Lilium “Stargazer” (the Stargazer lily) is a hybrid lily of the Oriental group according to Wiki

To mark this milestone, more than one hundred nations across the globe are collaborating to make the international community more aware of the universe we live in.

A highlight of the International Year Of Astronomy, is the “100 Hours of Astronomy” project planned for early April. The project will feature live web casts, and observing events during its 100-hour long program.

One of the key goals of “100 Hours of Astronomy” is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago. The program will take place from April 2, 2009 through April 5, 2009, when the Moon goes from first quarter to gibbous and provides excellent early evening viewing. Saturn will also be a highlight of early evening observing events during this period.

Indeed, there are many exciting events to observe in Astronomy throughout 2009. People in China and India can witness the longest solar eclipse of this century in July. An early evening sighting of Jupiter in October in the Northern Hemisphere should give some spectacular views. Also, the Leonid Meteor Shower in November 2009 is predicted to be one of most vivid ever.

2009 will also feature the final mission to repair and upgrade the aging Hubble Telescope. The shuttle mission that will take astronauts to the Hubble is currently scheduled for launch on May 12th. NASA intends to upgrade the Hubble Telescope, so that it will have more capability than ever before. It is a servicing mission with considerable danger to the astronauts, but one that has the potential to provide science and astronomy with dramatic rewards for at least the next five years.

A lack of sunspot activity will continue to be of scientific interest during 2009. There were 266 days without a sunspot during 2008. It was a year that featured the second highest number of days with a blank sun since 1900. A lack of sunspot activity was also the trend during 2007.

Its the International Year Of Astronomy. So, set up the telescope, adjust the focus and let the observations begin. For those of us that are less hands-on, there is even a blog of professional astronomers to keep us properly informed.

About the Author
James William Smith has worked in Senior management positions for some of the largest Financial Services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Visit his website at http://www.eworldvu.com or his daily blog at http://www.eworldvublog.blogspot.com

Subheading: From Babylonian stargazers to Liz Greene.

Looking back in time in search of the origins of astrology, we are faced with the question, what is astrology? Is it an advanced scientific hypothesis, based on the premise that the heavenly bodies give off an ‘influence,’ which affects individual events on earth, or is it primarily a universal language, as argued by Giovanni Pontano, the Italian Renaissance astrologer? Pontano’s treatise, On Celestial Things, published in 1512, stated that astrology is “a language of the stars and planets that formed the letters of a cosmic alphabet that conformed in all essential ways to the language of humans.” In my experience as an astrologer, it has been the latter definition, which has made most sense to me and encouraged me to take the journey of life guided by the stars above.

It is generally agreed that humankind’s look to the stars has been one that all the tribes of earth – indeed, every culture – has shared in. Evidence of this remains today on ancient cave and wall paintings, and on surviving archaeological tablets and texts in museums around the world. To look up at the night sky and witness the incredible changes of the celestial light show would have been profoundly awe-inspiring. It would also have stimulated the formation of a number of basic philosophical questions like: why are we here? What is nature of time? Who controls the movement of the stars across the heavens? When we ask, what is the history of astrology? We must consider that, incredibly, there once was a time when the inhabitants of this world did not know what time it was! Imagine how that would affect everything you did or wanted to do.

The quest to calibrate time is paramount to an understanding of humankind’s history of astrology. Which leads us to the twin sister, astronomy and astrology – one now the realm of science’s greatest achievements and the other, now considered a shabby con for the naïve and ignorant. It has not always been thus; in fact, both ‘girls’ started out from the same family, a Babylonian family. For it was in the latter stages of the Mesopotamian civilisation, around 1500 BC, that the emergence of mathematical astronomy made possible the journey towards the creation of the first ‘star chart.’ It would not be until the fifth century BC that Babylonian ‘star gazers’ would cast that first recognisable individual horoscope.

Within the Assyrian Empire there was a class of scholar-priests called the Ummanu, who served the Babylonian royal family. They would observe and correlate the patterns of the stars over scores of decades. It was their job to watch out for omens in nature and to advise how to ritualistically act to cleanse sin and thus avoid calamity. Eclipses, shooting stars, conjunctions and the like were, according to surviving Babylonian instructional texts in the British Museum, signs placed in the natural world by the gods to warn the king of impending dangers.  This was, at the time, a divine science that was exclusively in service to the king, the god’s representative on earth, and not for the general use of the larger population.

The Mesopotamians had a written history, like the Greeks and Egyptians (see Hermes and Thoth), that tells of divine teachers from ancient times who passed on special knowledge of the sciences, philosophy, law and wisdom to the Ummanu. The work of the Ummanu is also confirmed in certain passages within the Christian Bible’s, Old Testament; for example, in the scornful words of Isaiah towards the Babylonian stargazers and soothsayers (Isaiah 47: 12-13) and in the Book of Daniel: “There is in your kingdom a man who has in him the spirit of the holy gods, a man who was known in your father’s time to have a clear understanding and a godlike wisdom. King Nebuchadnezzar, your father, appointed him chief of the magicians, exorcists, astrologers and diviners. This same Daniel is known to have a notable gift of interpreting dreams, explaining riddles and unbinding spells” (Daniel 5: 11-12).

Three Stars Each

Astrology, as we know it today, clearly had its birth in Babylon, although it was to be influenced substantially on its journey through Egypt, Persia, Greece, Rome, Islam, India and then the Western world. It was injected with certain vital elements from each culture it spent time with and those strands have come together to make up what we know today as astrology. The mathematical astronomical foundation was developed in Mesopotamia, indelibly contributing to the technical ability to cast a horoscope.

Surviving tablets from around 1000 BC, known as the “Three Stars Each”, are circular diagrams divided into 12 equal parts representing the 12 months of the year. For each month, three stars are listed as rising and becoming visible just before dawn – the ‘helical rising’. The tablets are also split into three sections that show the northern sky (nearest the centre of the wheel), the sky directly overhead (in the middle) and the southern sky (the outer zone). The whole circular tablet is then a calendrical star-wheel that links each month to an astronomical event.

There is still the puzzling question, however, of whether the Babylonian astronomers thought of the heavens as a sphere itself and why they did not create a model or working paradigm of the heavens in motion. This would be left to the Greeks and their cosmic theory of the celestial sphere. The “Three Stars Each” tablets also show that at this time the yearly passage of the Sun through the constellations of the zodiac has not yet been recognised by the Babylonians, for if it had they would have surely been used to mark the months.

The Babylonians were primarily interested in the Sun, Moon and Venus and believed they were manifestations of their gods Shamesh, Sin and Ishtar. The Sun and Moon were important, of course, because of their affect on the measurement of time. In the Babylonian creation epic, “Enuma Elish”, the heavens are said to have been created in order to mark the passage of time and to give order to humanity’s cosmos. This learning through recorded observation of the initial three solar entities led them to expand their search to include the motion of the five planets of the classical cosmos.

Babylonian astronomy was cross-fertilised by the Babylonian’s astral religion and the planets all had shared identities with their gods:

Marduk – Jupiter – creator and ruler of the heavens and god of life and justice.

Nergal – Mars – god of war and the Underworld.

Nabu – Mercury – god of writing and intellectual pursuits.

Ninibe, or Ninurta – Saturn – god of the hunt.

The linking of the planets with these deities that affected everyday life was the primary motivator in the development of Babylonian astronomy. It was important to know the celestial positions of these gods/planets to aid in the prediction and understanding of their divine intentions. It can be posited that the development of mathematical astronomy would not have occurred without the astrological desire to know the will of the gods on earth.

Mesopotamians knew the planets as the gods of the night. By the seventh century BC, the extent of their astronomical knowledge was featured in a new series of tablets known as “Mul Apin”, meaning ‘the stars of Apin’. This is a complete compendium of their study of the stars, listing up to 70 individual stars with helical rising dates and tracing a lunar path through 18 constellations. It shows they used the movement of the Moon rather than the elliptic path of the Sun. Here are the constellations and their modern equivalents:

Mul (the Mane) – the Pleiades

Guanna (the Bull of Anu) – Taurus

Sibzianna (Anu’s Shepherd) – Orion

Sugi (the Old Man) – Perseus

Gam (the Sickle Sword) – Auriga

Mastabbagalgal (the Great Twins) – Gemini

Allul (meaning unknown) – Cancer and Procyon

Urgula (the Lion) – Leo

Absin (the Furrow) – Virgo

Zibantitum (the Scales) – Libra

Girtab (the Scorpion) – Scorpio

Pabislag (the Archer) – Sagittarius

Suhurmas (the Goatfish) – Capricorn

Gula (the Great Star or Giant) – Aquarius

Zibbati (the Tails) – Pisces

Sirmmah (the Great Swallow) – Pisces and part of Pegasus

Anunitum (Goddess Anunitum) – Pisces and part of Andromeda

Luhunga (the Hired Man) – Aries

The Babylonians shared with the Egyptians the belief that the Sun spent the hours of darkness in the Underworld, only to emerge from out of the earth at dawn. Likewise, the stars returned to this Underworld at the rising of the Sun. It was some time around the sixth century BC that the step was taken to subdivide the path of the Sun into 12 sections, each named after a constellation and corresponding to the passage of one month of the calendar year. Interestingly, however, there is no surviving evidence linking the figures of the zodiac with Mesopotamian myths or particular deities. The only obvious connection is that the ancient sages who handed down the sacred knowledge to the Ummanu were described as having the forms of animals, or as being half man, half animal (like the centaur). Now, with the zodiac circle divided into 360 degrees and with each section evenly covering 30 degrees, we have the referencing system that can locate any celestial body.

There has survived a small number of tablets from the fourth to the first century BC that list the positions of the stars in the zodiac for individuals other than the king, telling us that the influence of astrology had by this time expanded into the wider Babylonian community. A horoscope from 235 BC reads: “Year 77 (of the Seleucid era), the fourth day, in the last part of the night, Aristokrates was born. That day: Moon in Leo, Sun in 12 degrees 30 minutes of Gemini, Jupiter in 18 degrees Sagittarius. The place of Jupiter means his life will be regular, he will become rich, he will grow old, his days will be numerous. Venus in 4 degrees Taurus. The place of Venus means wherever he may go it will be favourable to him. He will have sons and daughters….” From this we can see a clearly recognisable, albeit brief, chart and interpretation. An immense journey had already been made in the formation of astrology, from basic observation of celestial omens to a vast and complex star chart – that had begun to calibrate time in space while simultaneously weaving religious meaning into the movements of the cosmos. This placed humankind at the very centre of the universe.

Astrology’s time in its Babylonian birthplace was, however, coming to an end. In 539 BC, King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon and for the next two centuries it formed part of the Achaemenid Empire. It was during this period that much of the meaning behind astrology’s symbolism was engendered through its exposure to the mysterious cults of Zoroastrianism and Mithraism. Indeed, it can be argued that these two mystery schools have profoundly influenced the spiritual nature of all the great Western religions of the world. Astrological knowledge had also by this time crossed into Egypt, where many wrongly thought it had originated. The historian Herodotus wrote of his visit to Egypt in 450 BC, “I pass to other inventions of the Egyptians. They assign each month and what disposition a man shall have according to the day of his birth.”

The Graeco-Roman world

Alexander the Great was the military ruler and political force who brought Babylon under the rule of Greece. By 330 BC the social landscape of the region had undergone enormous shifts through resettlement, opening the way for cultural and scientific exchanges. It was during the Hellenistic period that the science and mathematics of the Greeks merged with the esoteric religions of the East, and this was especially seen in astrology’s development.

The underpinning concept to emerge in Greek astronomy was the celestial sphere, which could be geometrically charted. Parmenides was first to put forward that the earth itself was spherical. To Pythagoras the sphere was the most perfect shape in nature, and both Plato and Aristotle taught that the universe was a system of interlocking spheres. The Greek mathematicians, Eudoxus and Hipparchus, postulated that the language of geometry could be used to describe the movements of the stars. It was the visual quality of this model that proved to be such an epiphany. One name, Ptolemy of Alexandria, stands out in Hellenistic astrological history as the crowning executor of this new geometric paradigm that could plot the position of any known star or planet in time.

Once again, astrology was imbued with the philosophies of the culture in which it flourished, this time with Stoicism. The Graeco-Roman world embraced the concept that fate or destiny was identified with divine reason. “Apatheia” was the Stoic ideal, a state of acceptance of the unfolding of a divine purpose in life, and astrology provided an individual map of that unfolding. Posidonius, who was teaching in Rhodes in the first century BC, was a leading figure in the spread of Stoicism throughout the Roman world. Seneca and Cicero were influenced by Posidonius and they shared in the belief that nature offered signs of future events to those who could read them. Astrology was becoming acknowledged as the science that gave that code-breaking ability.

In the cities of Antioch, Pergamum, Athens, Rome and, in particular, Alexandria, astrology was well established in a form that would be recognisable to today’s astrologer. There are surviving papyrus horoscopes, written in Greek and Demotic between the first and fourth centuries BC, that tell us astrologers were aware of exaltations, lots of fortunes decans. Marcus Manilius and Vettius Valens, in the first century AD under the rule of Emperor Tiberius, were the authors of the first two systematic treatises on astrology. Manilius’ Astronomicon is written in verse, of all things, as apparently it was part of the literary challenge of the time to versify scientific work.

An important consideration of horoscopes of this time is that when they speak of the native being born under a certain sign, they are not referring to the location of the Sun within the chart. Rather, they indicate the particular sign that is present at the rising or contains a stellium of planets, or some other important point in the horoscope. The focus on the Sun sign in astrology is entirely a twentieth century phenomenon. There is also at this time no clear interpretive connection between planets and signs, unlike today’s astrology. Aspects between the planets and points of interest were, however, of fundamental importance to the Graeco-Roman astrologer and expressed the Hellenistic mathematical ideals in the relationships of trines, squares and sextiles. The development of the astrological houses, or ‘loci’, originates here, following from the splitting of the heavens into quadrants. Two central axes cross the 360 degree circle of the chart, from the Ascendant to the Descendant and from the Midheaven to the Imum Coeli; these quadrants are then trisected into a total of 12 houses.

Astrology’s time in Rome was punctured by its use and abuse by emperors; it was debated in the senate by proponents and opponents and generally embraced by its citizens. Emperor Tiberius (14-37 AD) employed a ‘secret police’ of astrologers to identify possible political rivals. He also enjoyed testing astrologers by inviting them to predict the time of their own deaths, before proving them wrong by executing them on the spot. It was a time when astrologers needed to do a lot of quick thinking on their feet if they were to remain on them for long. The evidence of astrology’s popularity in Roman society can be seen in the naming of the seven day week after the planetary gods.

A thousand years in the darkness

With Emperor Constantine’s official endorsement of the Christian faith in 312 AD, astrology was plunged into “a thousand years of darkness”, and removed from Western consciousness. The new church state began a program of eradication, which included any pagan practices that were not prescribed by the theological authorities. Astrology became a crime punishable by death. Rome and the Church were divided into two distinct areas, the east and west, with the eastern Byzantine sector far more forgiving of its pagan past. Here astrological study managed to continue until around 549 AD, when the last pagan school of learning was closed in Athens.

Christian theological thinkers such as Tertullian (160-220 AD) and St Augustine (354-430 AD) were fiercely uncompromising in their condemnation of astrology and their attacks were characterised by the notion of Christian ‘free will’ versus the classical idea of ‘fate’. The real closure on astrology, along with many other ‘sciences’ in the Latin West, can be attributed to the decline of classical learning as the Christian Church ushered in the “Dark Ages”. Many of the classical texts were in Greek, and the Church’s control ensured they were not translated into Latin. Ptolemy’s treatise on spherical astronomy, Almagest, was not translated, nor were any tables of pre-calculated astronomical positions. Without these texts it was near impossible for aspiring astrologers.

Islam

As with many things in life, if something is suppressed in one region, it often moves to where it can still flourish; in this case, astrology moved to the Islamic world. From available evidence, astrological knowledge journeyed to India around the second century AD. The recorded sources are Hellenistic, although there are also signs of earlier Babylonian -influenced celestial omens. Persia was the cultural point where the classical Hellenistic world and India crossed, and the adaptation caused some interesting new ideas to bloom. Five elements instead of the usual four, plus the transmigration of souls, were added to the astrological mix. The lunar nodes became a more important focal point of the horoscope and new calibrations of the zodiac were made, dividing it by seven and nine into saptamas and navasamas. Astrology continued to flourish in India, unharmed by state or religious persecution, and is widely practised to this day.

The Islamic culture embraced astrology as much for its philosophical qualities as for its predictive usefulness, and it was here that many consider it reached its highest state. “As above, so below,” the old maxim tells of the oneness of existence, encapsulating astrology’s appeal to Islamic thinkers. It was here that the astrolabe and the “Zig”, two devices for calculating the time and the degree of the elliptic in the ascendant at any time from celestial positions, were perfected. Abu-Mashar (787-886 AD) is known as the founder of Islamic astrology and his theories on planetary conjunctions have been immensely influential. His work on the importance of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions throughout history has filtered down to us today.

Astrology returned to the Latin West from Islamic sources via Toledo in Spain when, during the Reconquista, Islamic cultural centres fell under Christian control in 1085 AD. Here scholars were able to translate the major works of Greek science that had never before been translated into Latin. A new font of learning was opened and this would feed down through the centuries. As Christianity became a little more magnanimous, now that it was long established and felt far less threatened, Church scholars absorbed the new learning and sought to integrate it with their religious principles. Leading thinkers such as Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas were all in agreement that the movements of the stars affected life on earth. Geoffrey Chaucer had a special interest in astrology and composed the first English treatise on the astrolabe. His poetry is full of references to the stars and a few of his stories are actually allegories for particular astrological star groupings.

Astrology still trod a dangerous path during the rule of Christian kings, and burning at the stake and astrologers being hung, drawn and quartered (still very mathematical) were not uncommon occurrences. Astrologers were often in service to kings as advisers for when was the best time to go into battle, and to ‘would be kings’ for advice on their chances of succession. It was, I imagine, a job fraught with danger when things did not work out according to the stars, or to the king’s desire. Shakespeare is a great source of historical evidence for the role astrology played in the Middle Ages. Astrological almanacs were published every year in most cities throughout Europe, proving popular with the general community and listing likely weather for the growing of crops, the phases of the Moon and fortuitous times of the year.

The Renaissance

The Renaissance in the 15^th century was the culmination of the rediscovery of the treasure trove of classical knowledge. The Medici rulers in Florence were the greatest political supporters of this unfettered exploration but it also flourished in many other European cities. Rome, Paris, London and the like all sported intellectuals and artists who once more began to stretch the limits of humankind’s knowledge. Astrology flowered here like it had not done so for an age, as great thinkers discovered the pearls of wisdom that had been hidden for hundreds of years in the obscurity of the East.

The Hermetic texts, then thought to be ancient writings purporting to be the words of the Egyptian deity, Thoth, to his disciples, were translated by Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499). These made a huge impact on the thinkers of the day, and it was experienced as a validation of the concept of a lineage of philosophers and teachers passing on wisdom down through the ages to the present time. (It was later suggested by Isaac Casaubon, in the 17th century, that the Hermetic writings, because of the language used, dated from the second century AD and not from antiquity, a view universally subscribed to today.) Also, the words of Plato and Aristotle were resonating through the halls of learning for the first time in nearly a thousand years.

Astrology was at this time being taught in universities all over Europe and, in particular, had great appeal to doctors for use in diagnosis. Paracelsus and Ficino both considered astrology the core of medical doctrine. The popular practice of bleeding patients (phlebotomy) was usually undertaken in conjunction with knowledge of astrological medicine. In fact, the various veins, along with parts of the human body, all fell under certain astrological signs. You would not, for example, bleed someone from the thighs if the Moon was in Sagittarius, as it was considered dangerous, even fatal. The Moon, ruling the tides in nature, was seen to be the major influence over the body’s internal fluids.

Of course, astrology’s uneasy relationship with the Church continued. Girolamo Cardano, the brilliant Italian mathematician, physician and astrologer, was but one of many who fell victim to the Inquisition. His crime, was having the audacity to publish the horoscope of Jesus Christ, in his treatise on Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos. Although the date of the chart 24 December 1 BC – is thought to be incorrect, that was not why he was eventually prosecuted. Rather, it was blasphemy to say that Christ’s body was subject to the will of the stars.

It was not the Church, however, that would this time play the decisive role in the fall of astrology from its lofty intellectual position, but the rise of the ‘new god on the block’ – science. Galileo’s revolutionary discovery that the earth and all the other planets in our solar system, rotated around the Sun , not around the earth as previously believed, was a fatal blow. So too was Copernicus’ idea that the universe might be infinite, making the closed concept of the zodiacal constellations obsolete. Prior to this, scholars had invoked the names of the great classical thinkers to add weight to their treatises; with these revelations, much of what came before was suddenly incorrect; it was suddenly ‘a new world’. All these revered ancient texts became wrong in their most basic assumptions. Of course, this did not happen overnight; it took many years for the dismantling. Indeed, it was not until the 17^th century that the split between astronomy and astrology was clearly seen in academic circles. Astrology was on its way to that dirty ‘fairground’. The later discoveries of the planets Uranus and Neptune were also seen as further discrediting the astronomical ‘facts’ of the classical universe.

Rebuilding

From the 1800′s onwards, astrology in the West entered the ‘underworld’ once more, existing on the streets in trashy books and in secret societies like the theosophists and other groups of spiritualists. It was from these groups that astrology reinvented itself as an adjunct to spiritual growth. The old, negative, classical interpretations were junked in favour of character building ones. Astrologers like Englishman Alan Leo (1860-1917) contributed to rebuilding interest in a new, positive astrology that used esoteric knowledge for growth. German astrology was another driving force in the rebirth of astrology.

It has been astrology as a psychological language, however, that has kept my interest. In particular, the work of Carl Jung (1875-1961) has mined a fertile vein of mythological information. Astrologer Liz Greene continues this exploration today and her books are a rich source of old knowledge seen through new eyes – discovering philosopher’s stones to alchemical equations.

The history of astrology is like the history of humankind itself- enormous. I have only been able to give you the broadest of outlines and a few bon mots. I would like to acknowledge Peter Whitfield’s History of Astrology (The British Library 2001) as my main source of information and encourage those who have enjoyed this introduction to pursue it further with Mr Whitfield.

©Sudha Hamilton

Appeared in WellBeing Astrology Magazine.

Eco Living Magazine

Midas Word

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,589081,00.html

Some notes concerning Wednesday, November 12, 2008:

Meanwhile in the heavens, asteroid Hopi is lined up with the transiting North Node (the Head of the Dragon, the path or destiny) at 13AQ. This will be in effect on November 12 when Venus and Pluto conjunct although Venus will still be out-of-bounds and able to act on her own without interference - and possibly – in an outstanding way.) Venus represents values, relationships, art, culture, and money (usually smaller amounts, with larger amounts being in Jupiter’s realm and untold riches in Pluto’s.)

Venus-Pluto contacts may indicate karmic emotional involvements, intense passion, possible rape or sexual indulgence, dramatic and transformative art and music; plus, their connection can have a tinge of bankruptcy to it. Their conjunction takes place at 12:54 am est at 29Sag32 in Washington, and occurs in the 4th house when the chart is set for the White House.

At Midheaven 5Gem08 is asteroid and trickster, Pan 5:16 Rx. Midas is up there, too, 8Gem07 Rx, and the Mars/Pluto midpoint 13Sag18 is conjunct US natal ASC (Sibly or Rudhyar charts), 3rd house Sun 20Sco13, 9th house Moon 6Tau02 (in the Venus/Pluto conj chart.)

Mars/Pluto = ASC: showing the hero image; the fighter who dares the impossible; aggression; daring and temerity; the desire to face danger; an accident. (Tyl; Ebertin.) Any, all, or none may apply.

And Venus to Pluto in 4th house may relate to the ongoing mortgage crisis and to a large amount of money changing hands…being ‘gifted’ perhaps. Issues of blackmail and ransom money cannot be ruled out.

At the Venus/Pluto conj, Sun 165 degrees 49 mins Moon, so they are in a quindecile aspect of obsession-compulsion – security is sought through recognition; there can be a lack of objectivity, along with self-centeredness which is oblivious to the rest of the world. (‘Quindecile’ by Ricki Reeves.)

Hope for Hopi?

In Astrology, Hopi’s keywords are ‘ambush’ and ‘prejudice’ and of course, it sounds like HOPE, a word we’ve heard a lot lately – and much needed. The asteroid’s heliocentric North Node is 18/19Cancer, and Pluto’s NN is 19/20 Cancer.

~:~This may be why, as I’ve wondered aloud previously, ’19Can’ turns up in many of the charts I’ve studied related to violent events or murder. Pluto and Hopi’s NNs may answer my question (whether Castor and Pollux are involved in the case or not.) And Saturn’s heliocentric NN is 23/24Can.

As you know, the Hopi tribe of southeastern North America is famous for carving Kachina dolls, with the word ‘Kachina’ meaning ‘God.’

Kachina dolls are used in traditional Hopi ceremonies which they continue to hold on behalf of the entire human race. So Thanks, Peaceful People! (‘Hopi’ is short for Hopituh Shi-nu-mu which means ‘Peaceful People’ or ‘Peaceful Little Ones.’ They are, as you may imagine, anti-war, as is this blogger.)

Hopi beliefs are tied in with the Pleiades constellation (‘the seven sisters’) and they consider themselves to be direct descendants from the Pleiadians. Petraglyphs are found across the southeast and relate to the mystic Hopis’ astronomical focus with discs of light appearing on many of them. The Hopi have an intricate ceremonial calendar and are possibly related to the Aztecs of Mexico…star-gazers all!

To view my drawing, ‘The Pleiades Sisters’ click: http://www.lulu.com/content/2280099

To read more on the very interesting Hopis and Kachina dolls, here are two links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hopi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kachina

This post brought to you by a spirit of audacious Hope (that you’ll glean something of value from it!)