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Jul 9, 2007

Green Comet and the sunspot

Space Weather News for July 9, 2007:


PHOTOGENIC SUNSPOT: During the weekend new sunspot 963 emerged, and it is putting on a remarkable show for onlookers with solar telescopes. Images featured on today's edition of SpaceWeather.com include must-see footage of a fire-fountain-like eruption plus snapshots of the International Space Station (ISS) transiting the active region. The big double-sunspot is just beginning a two week journey across the face of the sun, promising many more photo-ops in the days ahead.

GREEN COMET: This week, comet Linear VZ13 is gliding through the constellation Draco not far from the North Star. The 8th magnitude comet is too dim for the naked eye, but it is an easy target for binoculars and backyard telescopes. Observers say it has a beautiful green atmosphere and a stubby fan-shaped tail. Closest approach to Earth: July 14th at a distance of 86 million km. Visit SpaceWeather.com for daily sky maps and photos.#

Now the circumpolar constellation Draco, the Dragon, has its brightest star, Thuban, "to make or protect a treasure" mentioned by Ptolemy to be related to Mars and Saturn influences. Not so good, although Thuban may be indicative of immense treasures flowing to the world (Brady, Fixed Stars.)

Thuban culminated with Pablo Picasso's Sun which shows his prolific output of a body of artwork which was valuable while he was still living...treasures indeed.

And Sir Isaac Newton's Moon set as Thuban culminated so he had an emotional attachment to his acquisitions. He guarded his treasures--his ideas and theories--and resisted publishing his invention, calculus, perhaps because he feared theft of his genius and was known as a miser.

Thuban can also be about sacred matters which have degenerated into jealously guarded treasure--or it can bring immense riches.

Then there is Polaris, the North Star, mentioned in the SpaceWeather dispatch above, keywords: "to point the way; and, a protective or nurturing mission."

Polaris is the star at the end of the handle of Ursa Minor, the Little Dipper or Bear...hard to miss.

Older traditions connect Polaris with evil or with illness, but most allow a sense of guidance, pioneering, and path finding. Ptolemy asserts influences of Saturn and Venus for Polaris.

Actually, due to precession, Thuban was once the pole star in 3,000 B.C.E., fancifully making Ursa Minor the wings of Draco the Dragon.

So it's Little Bears, Dragons, and Green Comets!

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