Tag: Astronomy

Astronomy Picture of the Day for June 15

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 June 15

M65 and M66

Image Credit & Copyright: Bill Snyder (Heavens Mirror Observatory)

Explanation: Nearby and bright, spiral galaxies M65 (top) and M66 stand out in this engaging cosmic snapshot. The pair are just 35 million light-years distant and around 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own spiral Milky Way. While both exhibit prominent dust lanes sweeping along their broad spiral arms, M66 in particular is a striking contrast in red and blue hues; the telltale pinkish glow of hydrogen gas in star forming regions and young blue star clusters. M65 and M66 make up two thirds of the well-known Leo Triplet of galaxies with warps and tidal tails that offer evidence of the group’s past close encounters. The larger M66 has been host to four supernovae discovered since 1973.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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 June 13

A Venus Transit Over the Baltic Sea  

Image Credit & Copyright: Jens Hackmann  

Explanation: Waiting years and traveling kilometers — all to get a shot like this. And even with all of this planning, a good bit of luck was helpful. As the Sun rose over the  Baltic Sea last Wednesday as seen from  Fehmarn Island in northern  Germany, photographer  Jens Hackmann was ready for the very unusual black dot of Venus to appear superimposed. Less expected were the textures of clouds and haze that  would tint different levels of the Sun various shades of  red.  And possibly the luckiest gift of all was a flicker of a rare  green flash at the very top of the Sun. The above image is, of course, just one of  many spectacular pictures taken last week of the last  transit of the planet Venus across the face of the Sun for the next 105 years.

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Astronomy Picture of the Day

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 June 9

Venus at the Edge

Image Credit: JAXA,  NASA, Lockheed Martin  

Explanation: As its June 6 2012 transit begins Earth’s sister planet crosses the edge of the Sun in this stunning view from the Hinode spacecraft. The timing of limb crossings during the rare transits was used historically to triangulate the distance to Venus and determine a value for the Earth-Sun distance called the astronomical unit. Still, modern space-based views like this one show the event against an evocative backdrop of the turbulent solar surface with prominences lofted above the Sun’s edge by twisting magnetic fields. Remarkably, the thin ring of light seen surrounding the planet’s dark silhouette is sunlight refracted by Venus’ thick atmosphere.

Today’s Tarot Card for June 6th is The Moon

The Moon

 

This Tarot Deck: Royal Thai

General Meaning:    What has traditionally been known as the Moon card refers to a deep state of sensitivity and imaginative impressionability, developed within a womb of deep relaxation. Here we dream and go into trance, have visions and receive insights, wash in and out with the psychic tides, and experience deep mystical and/or terrifying realities beyond our ordinary senses. The full moon and/or eclipse cycle charted by the Magi (as in some of the earliest Moon card images) exemplify this as a mechanism that Nature uses to expand consciousness.
The variants of the courtly lovers (representing skillful use of the sex force) or the man sleeping it off under the tree (use of drugs to alter consciousness) are also traditional avenues for tapping this primal force. Human interest in higher states propels us to the frontiers of consciousness, where we cannot always control what happens. The Moon card represents the ultimate test of a soul’s integrity, where the membrane between self and the Unknown is removed, and the drop of individuality reenters the Ocean of Being. What transpires next is between a soul and its Maker.

Calendar of the Moon for Monday, June 4th

4 Huath/Thargelion

Arianrhod’s Day

Color: Silver
Elements: Air and water
Altar: Upon a white and silver cloth lay several silver moons, in order from new crescent to full to old moon, four white candles, and incense of myrrh.
Offerings: Clean something white.
Daily Meal: Cool white food.

Invocation to Arianrhod

Silver Wheel that spins in the sky,
Keeper of the Spiral Tower,
Keeper of deep mysteries,
Unforgiving moon that stares down
Upon our hapless dreams,
Lover of the ocean and its spirits,
Lover of the sky and its spirits,
Lady of the night horizon,
The point where starry sky touches starry sea,
We call you forth upon this day
To ask for your blessing on us,
As you blessed your son Llew Llaw Gyffes.
And even as that blessing was not easy
In forthcoming, we know that you will not
Give out your benedictions at our will.
So this we say, Lady: We have worked,
And willed, and created a dream
And made it reality, and here we stand together,
And if that is not worth something to the world,
Then nothing is. Arm us well, Lady of the Silver Wheel,
With weapons sharp and keen,
Tongue and mind of steel that yet yields
To the spear of Truth that strikes.
Bless each name that we have taken,
As you gave your son his name,
And bless us with divine inspiration
That we might bring more beauty
To the world and all its beings.

Chant:
Light up the night
Light up the night
Bring your dreams into the circle

[Pagan Book of Hours]

Your Magickal Spell for Monday, June 4 – A Full Moon Wish

A Full Moon Wish

Go outside during a full moon, hold a glass of water up to the moon, so the moon reflects on the water. Close your eyes, make your wish, then drink all the water while wishing all the negative things in your relationship dispersing with the flow of the moon. The waning moon will carry away all the negative emotions.

 

Spell For Rid Mud Nasty Astral

 

Spell For Rid Mud Nasty Astral

 

Keep a stone or an object that you see and feel is appropriate and build all the unpleasant feeling of viscous ink and he chose the person inside. Really concentrate on leave all your emotions about this as well and let them sink into the rock. When you have done what he said: “I post this astral mud and darkness that is not mine, I lower everything that may have affected my brilliant aura of negativity is released and I feel happy” now shooting in stone water, preferably in the sun disappears over the horizon and be aware of their dim light you take away your bad feelings for that person. You can do this spell on the first night of the waning moon, after a full moon for seven nights, if you’re contaminated. Instead of vinegar try a bouquet of fresh rosemary and 1 tablespoon of salt in your bath. Light a white candle and one blue. Imagine yourself surrounded by light blue, gives you positive energy. View all negative energies and astral mud, leaving your body through every pore.

Dragons of the Zodiac: Cancer

Dragons of the Zodiac: Cancer

 
Note: Perform during bright noon or the hour of the Moon, and during the waxing Moon, with the Full Moon being strongest.

Color: Silver, pastels
 
Ruling Planet: Moon

Stone: Pearl

 
Flower: Larkspur
 
Description: Caring nurturing, moody, clinging, dependent, lazy, retentive memory, receptive, changeable, sensitive, pack rat, emotional, overprotective, messy, money-oriented.
 
Chant:
 
Make me caring with nuturing ways.
Receptive with good memory.
Teach me control of emotions and life.
Thank you. So mote it be.
 
Dancing with Dragon
D. J. Conway

Moon Phase for February 14 – Last Quarter (Waning/90-45 degrees)

Moon Phases By Jan Spiller:

Last Quarter (waning/90-45 degrees)

February 14, 2012 — The time of reaping is at hand. There is a feeling of completion infused into the atmosphere during the Last Quarter Moon. The opportunity opens to recognize how far you’ve come in various parts of your life. This is not a good time for new beginnings, but rather a reflective period suited to evaluating how you have been using your time and what has been accomplished. Issues of authority may arise. This Moon phase supports taking responsibility for actively tying up the loose ends of projects that are already underway.

New Moon Report for February 13 – Mercury in Pisces

New Moon Report for February 13

By Jeff Jawer

Mercury in Pisces

Monday, February 13, 5:38 pm PST, 8:38 pm EST

Minds meander with Mercury moving through Pisces, going off course to places that words cannot adequately describe. This transit serves poets, artists, healers, spiritual seekers and all those who don’t rely on objective evidence to shape reality. Facts may grow fuzzy, but conversations grow tender as intuition becomes the most valuable source of information.