This Jan. 29 panorama of much of the East Coast, photographed by one of the Expedition 30 crew members aboard the International Space Station, provides a look generally northeastward: Philadelphia-New York City-Boston corridor (bottom-center); western Lake Ontario shoreline with Toronto (left edge); Montreal (near center). An optical illusion in the photo makes the atmospheric limb and light activity from Aurora Borealis appear “intertwined.”
Image Credit: NASA
Discover the cosmos!Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2012 February 3
Inside the Eagle Nebula
Credit: Far-infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium;
X-ray: ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger
Explanation: In 1995, a now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured Pillars of Creation, star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula. This remarkable false-color composite image revisits the nearby stellar nursery with image data from the orbiting Herschel Space Observatory and XMM-Newton telescopes. Herschel’s far infrared detectors record the emission from the region’s cold dust directly, including the famous pillars and other structures near the center of the scene. Toward the other extreme of the electromagnetic spectrum, XMM-Newton’s X-ray vision reveals the massive, hot stars of the nebula’s embedded star cluster. Hidden from Hubble’s view at optical wavelengths, the massive stars have a profound effect, sculpting and transforming the natal gas and dust structures with their energetic winds and radiation. In fact, the massive stars are short lived and astronomers have found evidence in the image data pointing to the remnant of a supernova explosion with an apparent age of 6,000 years. If true, the expanding shock waves would have destroyed the visible structures, including the famous pillars. But because the Eagle Nebula is some 6,500 light-years distant, their destruction won’t be witnessed for hundreds of years.
by Jeff Jawer
Friday, February 3, 10:52 am PST, 1:52 pm EST
Spiritual Neptune settles into its sensitive home sign for a 13-year stay that inspires faith and stimulates our fantasies. The planet of compassion in sympathetic Pisces softens the barriers between us, spurring compassion and arousing our charitable instincts. Dreams without borders dissolve differences among individuals and can even unite religions in a growing desire to reconnect with the soul of humanity.
In-depth studies and investigations are promoted via a Mercury-Pluto parallel (9:11AM PST). Parallels and contra-parallels are alignments taking place as celestial bodies move north or south of the Celestial Equator. Their potency can be equal to the usual aspects that are calculated via the zodiacal circle. Mercury and Pluto are hooking up as a dynamic duo this morning because they are both 19+ degrees south of the Celestial Equator. Meanwhile, as mentioned in yesterday’s calendar entry, the hard-to-grasp, elusive and far-out planet Neptune enters Pisces (11:04AM PST) for its official 14-year journey in this last, hard-to-understand zodiacal sign. If Neptune in Pisces sounds vaguely familiar, it is because from April 4 to August 4 last year, this planet and sign offered you an introductory lesson on what the next 14 years might contain. Were you listening to and tuning into that solar systemic, galactic and universal dissertation in 2011? If not, you now have a golden opportunity to dust off your old Beatles records (relating to the trip to India and the aftermath) and get back into the Be Here Now vibes of Richard Alpert (aka Baba Ram Dass) in order to comprehend the reality behind all of our many materialistic illusions. Strengthen your creative imagination and psychic sensitivity. Be more compassionate and empathic to the truly needy and disenfranchised. Experiment with a digital or video camera. Sing, dance and make merry as major planetary shifts don’t happen that often. Finish old business later on when the Moon in Gemini is in a void uncertainty cycle from 9:07PM PST to 10:05PM PST. Once the Moon enters its home base of watery Cancer (10:05PM PST), family and nostalgic themes run rampant, and the lunar orb makes an instant, harmonious trine to Neptune in Pisces (10:07PM PST). Keep a notebook by your bed overnight to record nocturnal soul-wanderings.
Calendar of the Moon
Rowan Tree Moon
Color: Orange-red
Element: Fire
Altar: Upon a cloth of orange-red set a row of red candles, Brigid’s cross, and a bell.
Offerings: Votive candles. Quicken a newborn idea into birth.
Daily Meal: Hot drinks with every meal. Keep food warm.
Luis/Gamelion Invocation
Call: Now is the quickening of the year.
Response: Now is the time of the first movement.
Call: Now the child stirs in the womb.
Response: Now the seed stirs in the earth.
Call: Now the plains flood and our fire is threatened.
Response: Now the cold water drowns our spark.
Call: Now is the time of the hard struggle.
Response: Now is the month of desperation.
Call: Now is the time of desperation to live.
Response: Now is the time of desperation to be born.
Call: We turn in our sleep as the earth turns.
Response: We dream with the sleeping earth.
Call: Each of our dreams is a lit candle in the dark.
Response: Each of our dreams is a single point of hope.
Call: They shine faint and alone in the night of struggle.
Response: They are alone as we are alone.
Call: Yet we are not alone in our dreams.
Response: We are not alone!
Call: We will keep our fires burning.
Response: We will burn against the night!
Call: We will warm our dreams with the force of life.
Response: We will not die alone in the cold!
Call: We will ward off all evil.
Response: Only good shall pass our gates.
Call: We will care for each other.
Response: We will never cease to care!
Call: We will survive the winter.
Response: We will survive!
(Repeat last two lines twice more.)
Chant:
Protect the flame that warms your dreams
And dreams shall never die.
Calendar of the Sun
3 Solmonath
Festival of Sulis Minerva
Colors: Blue and white
Element: Water
Altar: Set with a blue cloth and lay upon it a great earthenware bowl filled with well water, in which are laid several crystals. Around it place a dipper and many cups, and a blade.
Offerings: Secret offerings whispered into the cups and poured back into the bowl.
Daily meal: Nothing to drink but spring or well water all day. Light, cold, raw vegetarian food except for fresh-water fish and crayfish.
Invocation to Sulis Minerva
Lady of the sacred well
And holy spring,
You whose cold waters
Cleanse our hearts
And clear our minds
Of the collected grime
Of everyday life,
You who inspire us
With one sip from your flowing stream,
You who hold our secrets
And give us respite,
Keep us clean and flowing,
Water bearer, water giver,
Like the purest spring,
And may our depths
Echo with your song.
Chant: Sulis Minerva Aqua Vitae
(All circle about the altar and receive cups, into which water is ladled out from the bowl. Each takes a sip of the water, whispers, “Hail Sulis Minerva”, and then whispers into their cup some private personal offering that they agree to make to Her. They then pour the water back into the bowl, and it is poured out as a libation to Sulis Minerva.)
Lunar Moon Almanac for Friday, February 3rd
Waxing, First Quarter Moon Age: 11 ¾ days.
Ascending Node is at 11° Sagittarius.
Moon in 28th degree of the Sign Gemini, the Twins;
also in 36th deg. of the Constellation Taurus, the Bull.
Moonset: 3:45 morn. Moonrise: 1:29 eve. Midheaven: 9:05 eve.
Februa in Februarius
The transition from January to February heralded the arrival of a major Sabbat, but now that Imbolc has been celebrated, there is time to reflect on the name of the second month of the solar year. “February” is ultimately derived from the Latin word februum, which means “purification” or “purgation” and is linked with the Februa (or Februalia) festival of purification, expiation, and atonement that was held in Rome on February 15. It is thought that both the Roman month of Februarius an Februa, during which sacrifices were made to he dead were dedicated to Febuus, a god of the underworld.
“Many Happy Returns”
On this day, ponder upon the Wiccan threefold law of return, which holds that any magick that you do unto others will rebound three times as strongly upon yourself. Think hard before casting a spiteful spell lest you later have personal cause to rue its consequences.
“I have only to believe that I have no fear, and all my fear will melt away. I have only to believe in myself, and all my obstacles will lose their threat.”
Our fear is of the unknown. Let go, throw yourself into the adventure of the self. The fear fades into the air you breathe.
Releasing Fear
If we allow them their way, our fears can exert a powerful influence over our thoughts, feelings and actions. Perform this meditation to loosen their grip.
The Witchcraft Chronicles 
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