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Showing posts with label meteors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meteors. Show all posts

Jan 3, 2012

1st Meteor Shower of 2012: Quadrantids peak Morning of Jan 4 2012

Just what I always wanted: a lovely yet 'elusive' meteor shower for my birthday tomorrow!

Space Weather News for Jan 3, 2012

FIRST METEOR SHOWER OF 2012: The annual Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on Wednesday morning, Jan. 4th, when Earth passes through a narrow stream of debris from a comet thought to have broken apart some 500 years ago.

The shower is expected to be strong (as many as 100 meteors per hour), but elusive, with a peak that lasts no longer than a couple of hours. The shower's radiant near Polaris favors observers in the northern hemisphere.

Images, live audio from a meteor radar, and more information are available on today's edition of SpaceWeather News.

~:~

Glad to say I'm not quite feeling 500 years old for this annual personal event--the Sun returns to natal position in my horoscope on Jan 4, 2012 around 5:30 am est!

And Polaris. Ah yes, path finding pioneer Polaris, our 'Pole Star' or 'North Star' by which we find our way...aka, Alpha Ursa Minor (Little Bear) and to which Astrology assigns a theme of 'an emotional or nurturing mission'.

As described in Brady's Book of Fixed Stars, "Polaris is always at culmination as it is the point of stillness, the celestial pole."

Now that's what I'll be pondering in the crisp, still morning air if I should manage to shuffle my bunny slippers outside around 5 am tomorrow and look up...

Jan 3, 2011

Quadrantid Meteors and a Solar Eclipse Jan 4, 2011

Space Weather News for Jan 3, 2011

QUADRANTID METEOR SHOWER: Sky watchers in the northen hemisphere should be alert for meteors before sunrise on Tuesday, Jan. 4th. Earth is about to pass through a narrow stream of debris from shattered comet 2003 EH1, the parent of the annual Quadrantid meteor shower. Forecasters say the encounter could produce a fast flurry of 100 meteors per hour during the early hours of Jan. 4th.

Details and observing tips may be found at SpaceWeather.com.

GOT CLOUDS? No problem. You can stay inside and listen to the Quadrantids. Tune into SpaceWeather Radio for live meteor echoes from the US Air Force Space Surveillance Radar in Texas.

PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE: After the meteor shower, observers in Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia can witness a partial eclipse of the sun. In western Europe, as much as 86% of the solar disk will be covered by the Moon at dawn, producing a fantastic crescent sunrise on Jan. 4th.

Check SpaceWeather News for details, animated maps and live webcasts.

May 5, 2008

Aquarid meteors, the Moon, and the Dem nominee

Oops! this alert is a day late, but timely for Tuesday--

Space Weather News for May 4, 2008

ETA AQUARID METEOR SHOWER: If you see a meteor flit across the sky tonight, it could be a piece of Halley's Comet. Earth is crossing a stream of dusty debris from Halley and this is causing the annual eta Aquarid meteor shower. Sky watchers in the tropics and southern hemisphere (where the shower is most intense) could see as many as 70 meteors per hour during the dark hours before dawn on Monday, May 5, and Tuesday, May 6.

The show is diminished at northern latitudes where rates may be 15 meteors per hour or less. Check SpaceWeather.com for sky maps and more information.

MERCURY AND THE MOON: Innermost planet Mercury is emerging from the glare of the sun and putting on its best show of the year. A good time to look is Tuesday evening, May 6, just after sunset when the crescent Moon glides by Mercury in the darkening western sky.

A sky map and photos are available at SpaceWeather.#

~~:~~

With today's New Moon in Taurus (15:22) on the downside by Tuesday, a new cycle of activity is underway and will culminate with the Full Moon of May 19, 29Sco27.

And May 19's Full Moon is at the same degree as Jan 2009's Inaugural Moon, so perhaps Dem nominee results will be known or decided by then, although June has been mentioned in this regard.

Is it possible that someone will know the nom's identity in May, but not spill the beans until June? Timing really is everything, just ask Astrology.

Will Tuesday's 'Primary' Moon (a woman) "glide by" Mercury, the orator, inside the voting booths of Indiana and North Carolina's "darkened skies"?

Stay tuned "just after sunset" to find out--and look up, m'peops, look up!

Aug 30, 2007

Auriga, the Charioteer cometh

Space Weather News for Aug. 30, 2007


WEEKEND METEORS: On Saturday morning, September 1st, a flurry of bright and colorful meteors might come streaming out of the constellation Auriga. The source of the shower is ancient Comet Kiess, which has laid down a trail of debris that Earth will cross this weekend.

But will a shower really materialize? Forecasters are divided. Some expect a brief but beautiful display rivaling the Perseids. Others say the debris stream is too empty for significant fireworks. Either way, the peak is due around 4:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 UT) on Saturday morning. This timing strongly favors sky watchers in Hawaii and western parts of North America all the way from Mexico to California to Alaska.

Spaceweather's full coverage of the Aurigid meteor shower begins Friday, Aug. 31, with links to live audio from a meteor radar, which will monitor activity throughout the weekend.

Sky maps and more information are available now at SpaceWeather.com#


The constellation Auriga, the Charioteer, is the harnesser of the horse (Sagittarius.) It is the next cluster out from the North Pole and is associated with the beginning of cultivation and the domestication of plants and animals.

Various images have been used in different cultures for this constellation from a man holding a whip and reins to a man riding in a chariot with a goat slung over his left shoulder. This image is believed to have originated in the Euphrates River region centuries ago.

Some myths have crippled Hephaestus as the chariot-maker and the rider being his deformed son, Attica, whose coils-of-snakes-for-legs were hidden within the chariot.

In Biblical times it is linked to a shephard watching over his flocks and so is linked to Christ, the Good Shephard.

Macha, the great Celtic goddess, is referred to as the Charioteer and brings a nurturing flavor to the Auriga myth for she is nursing twins. Another Celtic figure is Arianhrod, the goddess of the star-wheel, the wheel or chariot in the sky who gave birth to twins as well.

Macha has always resonated with me personally because the myth addresses the line between the patriarchal and matriarchal in Celtic society. Whether or not this meteor shower amounts to much visually, the archetype has been brought into the collective's consciousness, hasn't it? Macha's pregnant condition was disrespected when she was ordered to race in spite of her condition--she won, but with great pain and difficulty, giving birth in the middle of the road.

I don't know too many women who can't identify with Macha in some way!

Auriga symbolizes the fertile horse goddess who, as Macha, cursed the men of Ulster because of their lack of respect for her. She is still honored in Ireland today as a living memorial existing in the history of Ulster and Northern Ireland.

The brightest star in Auriga is Capella which may bring honors, wealth, and renown. There is a love of learning, curiosity, and ambition if this star is linked to your natal chart, yet others may consider you 'odd.'

Capella gives a nurturing but free-spirited quality and the horse embodies a love of movement and of action. Amelia Earhart has this star connected to her natal Venus...her airplane was a modern-day chariot. Her love of speed and flight is shown with Capella.

Freedom and independence tend to be expressed in a non-threatening way with Capella and one may have reason to wonder if the myth's above-mentioned association with patriarchal-matriarchal themes will express in US society bwo a woman being installed in the Oval Office--and supported by the US natal Mars gone retrograde by progression!

But hey--it's only a possible meteor shower...right? ;p



star lore: The Book of Fixed Stars, Bernadette Brady

May 3, 2007

Space Weather News for May 3, 2007 SpaceWeather.com

HALLEY'S METEORS: Earth is entering a stream of dust from Halley's Comet,
and this will produce a meteor shower (the "eta Aquarids") peaking on
May 6th. Unfortunately, moonlight will interfere with the display, wiping out all
but the brightest meteors. People who wake up before dawn on Sunday and look east
might nevertheless catch a few specks of Halley's Comet disintegrating in Earth's
atmosphere.

SPARKLING SUNSPOT: Sunspot 953, which emerged one week ago, has proven to be one
of the most photogenic sunspots in years. For one thing, it is crackling with micro
solar flares (sometimes called "Ellerman Bombs"); this makes the sunspot
appear to sparkle when viewed through the eye piece of a backyard solar telescope.
There's also an active magnetic filament winding outward from the sunspot's
dark core. So far, no major solar flares have issued from this active region, but
it's still a great show. Check SpaceWeather.com for the latest pictures
and movies.