Night Sky Tour: January 1 - 15, 2012

From January 1st - January 15th Venus's movement in the evening sky is along the tail of Capricorn into the constellation Aquarius. Mercury's movement in the morning sky is from Scorpio to Sagittarius. The Moon joins Jupiter and Mars in the night sky and we have a meteor shower. The video below will show you where to find it and where to locate the planets.

The Quadrantid Meteor Shower Peaks on January 4th. The Quadrantids Meteor Shower is active from 12/28 – 1/12 and peaks on the morning for January 4th from about 5:30 AM until dawn blots some of the shooting stars from view. The Quadrantids are compliments of parent comet 2003 EH1. They have an extremely variable rate of 25 – 200 meteors per hour and their radiant lies just north of Bootes. Now this is a rather curiously named shower isn’t it? We know that meteor showers are named after the constellations they radiate from, but we have no Quadrantid constellation, so how did this shower get its name? The Quadrantids are actually named for a now defunct constellation called Quadrans Muralis, a constellation named after a medieval instrument the measured the altitude of stars by French astronomer Jérôme Lalande in 1795. Quadrans Muralis contained stars belonging to Bootes, Hercules, Ursa Major and Draco to form the shape of the quadrant murillas used to plot the stars.

To find out what happened to this constellation watch the video - and at the end you'll hear about two reclassification events with the IAU (International Astronomical Society) that resonate with the Uranus cycle! Ahhh the synchronisity! :)



Happy New Year everyone!!!

Namaste,
Julene

Sky Tour - New Year's Eve

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Locate the planets from Sunset on New Year's eve until the morning when Mercury rises before sunset on New Year's day in this quick 3 minute video tour of the sky.

Night Sky Tour December 21 - 31, 2011

Happy Solstice Everyone!

Join me on a guided tour to locating Mercury, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter & Venus from December 21-31, 2011. Plus find out where to locate the Ursid Meteor Showers that peak on December 22nd/23rd. Also get a good visual explaination of winter solstice, the sun's ingress into Capricorn, the tropical zodiac, and the height of the sun durring the various seasons.



Have a blessed holiday season filled with love, laughter, and the warmth of family and good friends. Cheers to a great 2012!

Julene

Sky Watch Night Tour - Week of Nov 18 - 24, 2011

Take a sky tour to help you locate Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars and Saturn in the night sky this week. Also I have a solar system view that explains why Mercury appears to move westward when retrograde. I explain that the inferior conjunction of Mercury and Sun occurs at the midpoint of the retrograde period and the midpoint between the greatest eastern and western elongations. The greatest elongations are as far as Mercury can be from the Sun. The maximum greatest elongation Mercury can have is 28 degrees. This doesn’t mean he always gets to 28 degrees from the Sun at these times. For instance, Mercury’s greatest eastern elongation on November 14th was 22.74 degrees which is an orb of about 22:45 between the Sun & Mercury.



I have a special offer for a FREE Astronomy for Astrologers DVD. This is a 90 minute video lecture of astronomy basics that relate specifically to astrology. Click here for more information on that.

Sky Watch Night Sky Tour - Nov 11 - 18, 2011

Locate Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars & Saturn in the night sky this week. Tune in to learn about celestial latitude, which explains why Venus appears above Mercury in the night sky even though they are traveling in the same zodiacal degree (celestial longitude). Also Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation on November 14th and is slowing down as it prepares to station retrograde next week. Venus will separate from Mercury this week as she remains at a relatively steady speed of motion. The Leonid meteor shower peaks on November 18th but is active from Nov 6 – 30. This video also explains why meteor showers happen and when to look for the shower.

Night Sky Tour of Nov 4 - 11, 2011

This week’s Sky Tour shows Mercury & Venus in the west passing up Antares. Jupiter is in the east at sunset and the Moon conjoins Jupiter this week. Mars rises after midnight and approaches Regulus. Saturn rises before dawn near Spica.

Plus I talk about the story of the Clash of the Titans that plays out in the sky every night in the northern hemisphere and a few fixed stars associated with the stellar cast of constellations. This is always a favorite around those autumn bon fires.

Night Sky Tour: October 28 - November 3, 2011

Venus and Mercury are visible in the west during the evening twilight. Mercury sets just before 7:00 PM and Venus just after 7:00 PM all week long. Jupiter rises in the east at 6:40 PM on October 28th in the constellation Aries. Each night he will rise a bit earlier. By November 4th Jupiter will rise around 6:20 PM. Jupiter will be visible all week night setting shortly before sunrise. Mars rises around 2:00 AM on October 28th and like Jupiter will rise a bit earlier each night. On November 4rd Mars rises around 1:50 AM. Mars is traveling through the constellation Leo above Regulus. Saturn rises just before the dawn in the constellation Virgo above Spica. Saturn rises around 6:45 AM on October 28th and around 6:25 AM on the morning of November 4th.

I talk about apparent magnitude in this blog as I compare Saturn’s brightness to Spica’s. Apparent magnitude is how bright planets and stars appear from Earth - the brighter the object the lower its numerical value of magnitude. So Saturn at 0.73 magnitude is brighter than Spica at 0.96 magnitude. The sun, the brightest object in our sky has an apparent magnitude of -26.7. Venus is the brightest planet and her brightness varies based on her phase and proximity to earth which has to do with proximity to superior & inferior conjunction. In fact all planets have varying degrees of brightness when observed from Earth for similar reasons. Right now Venus’s apparent magnitude is -3.81. Jupiter is next brightest with an apparent magnitude of -2.76. Mercury has an apparent magnitude of 0.22. Mars is currently the dimmest planet with an apparent magnitude of 1.11. This is different than absolute magnitude.

Absolute magnitude is how bright stars would be if they were all placed 10 parsecs from Earth. A parsec is 3.262 light years, or about 19 trillion miles or 31 trillion kilometers. Right we can’t even fathom that distance! In fact there is no star other than our Sun that is within a parsec of Earth. Absolute magnitude is where the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram comes in. This diagram measures the temperature of the star and its spectral class along the bottom. These two factors are related because blue stars are brighter than red stars, just like the bluish-white tips of any flame is hottest. Down the side it measures a stars luminosity and absolute magnitude. What emerges when we plot all the stars on this graph is a main sequence of stars. Most stars, like our Sun, are main sequence stars. However we also get super giants like Antares and Betelgeuse, giants like Aldebaran, and white drwarfs like Sirius B. The Sirius we know as the dog star of summer is a main sequence star.

Observational Astrology Week of October 21 - 27, 2011

This week Venus & Mercury are visible in the west just before sunset. Jupiter rises in the east just after sunset and is visible all night long. Mars rises around 2:00 am and is visible until dawn blots him from view. Saturn rises just before dawn. We also have the opportunity to watch the Moon with Mars on Oct 21st, the Moon with Saturn on the 26th and the Moon with Mercury & Venus on the 27th. It’s a great week for sky watching!



The Orionid Meteor Showers peak this week! Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through the trails of dust & debris left behind by comets. Earth passes through the dust trails of Haley’s Comet from October 17 – 25. Some of the debris will enter our atmosphere and Earth will burn it up. This is what causes the shooting star of effect of meteors. Meteor Showers are named after the constellation in which the shooting stars occur. So we will locate the Orionids in the constellation of Orion. Orion is fully above the horizon around midnight. Orion reaches the Zenith around 4:00 am. Around 4:00 a.m. is the peak viewing time. At 4:00 a.m. on October 21st the Orionids peak with about 20 meteors expected to enter our atmosphere at speeds of 41.6 miles per second. The shower is active until October 25th so you can see meteors up until then and you may have noticed some already. Orion sets around 10:00 a.m. and is possible to see meteors in the daylight if the meteors are very bright.

I want to also say that the time is LOCAL TIME. These times work in ANY time zone because it is relative to the sunset. Remember that constellations are not the same as signs and if you have any confusion about why your ephemeris lists the planets in different signs than you see them appearing in the constellations watch my first Observational Astrology Video where I explain why that is. No zodiac is wrong. Constellations are different than signs.

Watch the video to locate the planets and Orion in the night sky this week. Happy Sky Watching and thank you for tuning in!

Please leave me comments if this helped you to locate the plants and to let me know if there is something else you’d like to see in this video blog.

Here’s to clear nights!
Julene

Observational Astrology - Week of Oct 14 - 20, 2011

This is my first blog of the night sky tours which I intend to put out every Friday. This week you can locate Venus, Jupiter & Mars in the night sky. Jupiter will be visible all night long from just after sunset until sunrise. Venus sets around 7:15 p.m. and Mars rises around 2:15 a.m. The Moon moves about 13 degrees and 20 minutes per day and we can watch her travel from Aries through Cancer. Since the Moon travels throught the zodiac in 27.3 days, it will move though 3-4 constellations a week.

Thank you for watching and please let me know if this helped you locate the planets.

Observational Astrology - Intro: Difference Between a Sign & a Constellations

Watch this video to hear the difference between a sign and a constellation. It is important to know that the constellation a planet is in the night sky will not be the same zodical sign on an astrology chart for the corresponding date. Neither one are wrong! Signs are NOT constellations. They were the same around the 1st century BC but precession of the equinoxes has changed that slowly over time since then and will continue to do so.

What will remain the same is where the planet is relative to the horizon (the line on the chart wheel that runs from the Ascendant to the Descendant). Everything above the horizon is visible in the sky, exactly where the chart says it is. Planets in the 7th house of a horoscope are about to set. Planets in the 12th house of a horoscope have recently risen. Planets in the 1st house will rise soon. Planets at the Midheaven are culminating. The horoscope is a map of the sky. The only difference is, the consetllation will not be the same as the sign.

Relationships & Our Quest for Intamacy

Relationships are the mirror to our self. We look for the reflection of our self in the eyes of another. You attract someone who makes you feel good about you, whether they make you feel pretty, smart, confident, sexy, empowered, adventurous, or whatever it may be. All reflections cast shadows. Eventually the other person starts reflecting back your shadow nature as well. This is when the relationship moves from the magic and butterflies of the 7th into the murky depths of the 8th.

Relationships need to have the safe space at a deeper level of intimacy and enough trust to allow for self exploration so the relationship can evolve as the individuals evolve.

So many relationships get stuck in the 7th house and don’t make it to the 8th where there is a choice to “evolve” instead of just “die a slow and painful death” because no one is willing to roll up their sleeves and delve into the muck in the dark, recessed, cobwebbed corners of the psyche. You can’t stay in the reflection process forever, eventually you have to get intimate or you’ll start looking for another connection, not realizing that new connection won’t work either if you just stay in the reflection process of the 7th house. And so it goes… a new relationship and inevitable unfulfillment once the shadows emerge in the 8th house… over & over… round the hamster wheel you go.

Why?

Because you seek deep intimate connections not merely surface connections of self reflection through the mirror of other. But you don’t know that’s what you really seek because most of us don’t even know what the heck real intimacy is. Intimacy is not sex, though sex is often mistaken for intimacy. So when we get sexually bored we look for someone else because the “magic” is gone. Only the magic wasn’t in the sex, that’s the grand relationship illusion. The real magic was in the promise of intimacy and sex only ignited the flame. The flame that when unfanned with the oxygen of intimate conversational exchange - of truly being loved for our whole self, flaws and shadows and all – quickly goes out unfulfilled. Then, hungry for a new promise, in search of the next grand illusion like a moth to a flame.

It is a fact that self security and self worth don’t come from someone else; that’s why it is “self” worth. Other people don’t make us happy, yes we can argue they make us miserable sometimes, but guess what that is a 7th house projection too. Happiness is a state of mind, of beingness that emulates from the inside and radiates out into the world. It doesn’t work the other way around from the outside in. And yes we can radiate out misery too. This is why like attracts like, dogs aren’t attracted to cats, self secure people don’t attract insecure people.

You get back what you put out because only those tuned into your same frequency will pick up your signal.

When security comes from within you then there is no fear of the intimacy of bearing your soul to another. You aren’t afraid of sharing the less desirable shadow parts of yourself because you aren’t dependant on someone else’s acceptance of them to make you feel secure or ok. We are all multi-faceted individuals. Even diamonds under a microscope reveal flaws and diamonds were once lumps of coal that underwent alchemy inside the fire in the belly of Earth. Once you have fully accepted yourself, flaws, inner demons and all, then others will too, because the non acceptance you perceive from them is paradoxically your own non acceptance being reflecting back to you. Yeah think about that one! And if they don’t fully accept you once you have fully accepted you then you really could care less; you aren’t attached to their acceptance. It makes no difference either way because you are ok with you just the way you are. Technically at this point their non acceptance of your flaws would be the reflection of their non acceptance of their own same flaw. Think about that one too! So, Mr. or Mrs. Wrong who we could more precisely name Mr. or Mrs. Unconsciously Projected Piece of Me I Refuse to Own can’t possibly be attracted to you if you’ve made inner peace with that signal and signed off from the broadcast. And THAT is how you send out a new signal that attracts an also whole Mr. or Mrs. Right who is operating at the same frequency.

So if today is the day you want to take the first step toward healthy & empowered relationships...

hear my story of how I went from relationship horror stories to my dream come true relationship that I've had for seven years now. I've helped myself & I can help you!

Namaste,
Julene