Messenger Orbits Mercury tonight as Mercury opposes Saturn 3.17.11

And a Happy St. Patrick's Day 2011 to you and to NASA whose space probe Messenger is to go into elliptical orbit around speedy Mercury tonight and for one Earth year after.

Here's a Timeline of the 6-year+ project to investigate Mercury.

NASA's Messenger page has lots of info (apt for anything to do with Astrology's mental planet, Mercury!) and says that Orbital Insertion begins tonight at 8:45 pm EDT when in the Tropical Zodiac, Mercury will be @ 14Ari20.

Mercury opposes Saturn Rx 15Lib10 w US natal Saturn 14Lib48, therefore Mercury opposes US n Saturn as well. This is a period of time when ideas, activities, and information are prone to diametric opposition to structures, tradition, and organization as other voices with dissenting opinions critique our authority and experience. Normally under this transit, travel is delayed or curtailed, good news is not forthcoming, other people don't tend to say what we want to hear, and conflicting information is all around us.

(This sounds a lot like the House speakers rising this morning to speak for or against public funding of NPR. No ideas in Congress for jobs creation, just attacks on the only nearly-balanced news outlet the American people have left, and the only one still maintaining an office in Afghanistan. Plus, defunding NPR will mean loss of jobs, so Thanks, Republicans. As usual, you're misdirecting your zealous energies. A majority of Americans are polling a resounding, No! to defunding NPR, so get over it. The procedural vote in the House is expected this afternoon. Even if you think NPR is 'left-wing', in America we desperately need a left to counterbalance the abundance of 'right-wing' info we're being inundated with 24/7, otherwise the US butterfly tilts crazily into Fascism as it hits the ground.)

NASA's Mercury Messenger Mission was launched on August 3, 2004 from Cape Canaveral FL and tonight begins the mission's big pay-off. You may wish to check out a 2008 post published just before a flyby. In the post you'll find I used *Adriano Carelli's degree for Mercury's position then (14Lib) where Saturn Rx soon returns 2011 - and, again, it's America's natal Saturn position. But you may be surprised to read at post's end of another entity's 14 Libra Saturn as stated by Mr. Carelli, so I'll let you click and sleuth it for yourself in your best mercurial fashion!

Tonight at 8:45 pm edt with Sun 27Pis05 and Moon 2Vir26, the muddy Water-Earth Sun-Moon blend's Images for Integration may be revealing concerning NASA's Mercury Messenger Mission, its cutting-edge photography of the planet, and other conditions going on now as well:

"A mosaic picture of the universe, each piece perfect in itself...Small events bring enormous consequences...Faith and reason shake hands." (Sun Sign-Moon Sign, Charles & Suzi Harvey.)

Yes, faith (Jupiter) and reason (Mercury) should shake hands much more often in this polarized, at-odds world and I hope NASA's Mercury Messenger Mission proceeds successfully tonight, and that the partisan GOP attack on NPR is beaten back once again.

~:~

*Source: 360 Degrees of the Zodiac, Adriano Carelli.

New Scientist photo of Mercury's mysterious Rembrandt crator

Woo hoo! Not sure how I've missed the New Scientist website before but it has such a plethora of interesting articles you'll want to discover them for yourself.

From H1N1 (Swine) Flu's genetic analysis to a near-Earth asteroid 2009HC82 recently found orbiting our Sun in retrograde orbit (rare, and should have already been seen) to an article about NASA's possibly abandoning its plans for a Moon base, this site really rocks!

And if you're in a jurassic mood, you may wish to check out "First dino 'blood' extracted from ancient bone" while you're visiting.

Oh, and my personal favorite, "Mysterious spokes found in crator on Mercury" in a fly-by photo from Oct 2008 courtesy of NASA's Messenger spacecraft - click to view an Astrology chart-with-details of Jan 14, 2008, the day of Messenger's launch.

The strange spokes and troughs are seen in a photo (included) of Mercury's Rembrandt crator so fly-by the New Scientist when you can!