Planetary Movements, Spring Tides and Equinox

Joseph Proskauer gives us an equinoctial update on the movements and visibility of the planets and the effects of full Moon and spring tides.

March brings Mercury's best evening apparition of the year (worthwhile, as few of us have knowingly seen Mercury):

Mercury also happens to spend the week through Friday March 18th within 5° of Jupiter. (That's half the width of your fist at arm's length.)

All you need is a clear evening and a viewing site with an good view down to the west horizon. Note the spot where the Sun sets, and then start scanning above (and slightly to the left) of there for Jupiter. Jupiter may be visible immediately if the air is very clear, but it will be more obvious 15 or 30 minutes later when the sky is darker (though Jupiter will also be lower).

Once you've found Jupiter, look for Mercury near it. These are by far the brightest objects in that part of the sky, so there's no chance of mistake. (The only possible confusion would be from airplanes; but airplanes will shift within a minute or two, while Jupiter and Mercury stay put except for their gradual descent toward the horizon.)

In a remarkable coincidence, both planets pass through perihelion this week (closest to the Sun in their orbits). Mercury has a perihelion every 88 days, but Jupiter has one only every 12 years.

Mercury appears higher each evening in March until the 22nd, while Jupiter appears ever lower. So by the end of that period, Mercury may actually be the more obvious of the pair, despite the fact that it's slowly fading. Starting around March 25th, Mercury plunges back toward the Sun, fades rapidly, and soon becomes hard to locate with the unaided eye.

Equinox -- March 20th:

One of the two days each year when the sun rises truly in the east, and sets truly west.

What shape does the tip of a shadow trace on the Equinox? Try marking the tip of any shadow (post, roof, tree, or standing stone) every hour or two during the day.

Equinoctial events at Cairn Holy:

Full-moon rise: Around sunset Friday March 18 (before 5:30 PM at Cairn Holy).

Equinoctial sunrise -- the heart of the year at Cairn Holy:

Closest (most perfect) sunrise is Sunday March 20th (shortly after 6:30 AM at Cairn Holy -- allowing for eastern ridge). But all sunrises that week (e.g. Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday) will show the general phenomenon. There are further interesting events which follow throughout the morning.

Midday: Cairn Holy's midday alignment is visible any sunny day; local noon is currently 12:28 -- progressing to 12:26 for the equinox weekend.

Equinoctial sunset: before 5:30 PM (at Cairn Holy).

The Cosmic Dance

Almost sunrise on the solstice, December 2010




Solstice eclipse snow contributed by Hazel Buchan Cameron
















This particular dance combined three acts in one - solstice, full Moon and eclipse.
Then there was a further act - another eclipse.

Joseph Proskauer says:>

It must be very rare indeed to have both an eclipse of the Moon near the start of Christmas, and an eclipse of the Sun near the close. It seems we are experiencing an unusual harmony of Earth, Moon, and Sun. "May human beings hear it."

Apparently, Joseph says, it is very rare that the moon-rhythms (phase and height of path) should coincide exactly on the solstice and it is even rarer that a total eclipse should also occur then as well (although eclipses do always occur on new and full Moons.) He says that, to the best of his knowledge, the last lunar eclipse on the solstice was 372 years ago.

The second eclipse, the partial solar eclipse - along with the new Moon - occurred around 8.50 am GMT on 4^th January 2011.

The powerful rhythms and alignments of the celestial bodies are reflected in our own lives, in our dreams and our waking experiences, and we will express them creatively in different ways. This particular filament of the Golden Thread did not manage to see either eclipse, as they were obscured by clouds, but just going out walking in the hills on those mornings was quite magical, especially on the solstice, when the ground was still covered in snow, and all the trees and plants had their individual coatings of frost.

The photographs are of sunrise on the solstice.

Photographs of Cairnholy © Joseph Proskauer

Two quintas:

22/12/10
Solstice full Moon
hides behind morning clouds -
at evening, edges behind buildings -
finally, on the dark deserted beach -
what took you so long? It says

4/1/11
the Sun on the horizon
behind boat-clouds
pulled by swift rowers -
shielding us perhaps
from the shadow on its face

Morelle Smith

sunrise and solar eclipse

Song for snow

Golden leaf on silver bough -– break

Branches under snow –- shake

A Siberian wind -- flakes

Drift deep below

Black cloud thunder mass -– glow

Of midday outline -– through

To the gleam and glimpse -– blue

Shadows on the hill

Dark and light together -- spill

With birds raucous as they -- fill

The glen and loch and -– will

Skein their way south

Winter now forms our world -– north

Spin the seasons – earth

Works her systems – death

with birth interdwelt

Glaciers may return or –melt

Ice or flood our future – dealt

All beneath Orion—held

As we marvel faithfully

Tessa Ransford (December 2010)

Note: The poem’s form is taken from Gaelic Pibroch music, and in this case the tradition for a ‘call to arms’. The last word in each line is emphasised and leads on in meaning to the next line. Three lines rhyme with the fourth last line of each verse leading onto the rhyme for the first line of the next. I have imitated this from a poem of Hamish Henderson’s called ‘Brosnachadh’.

Portentous

Cloaked in a curtain of cloud

the sun burns

through black fabric

glares like an old woman

in a shroud.

It hovers above us

as we sit in the moving bus,

trying to warm our cockles in winter

willing the sun to shed

her widow’s veil

and shine over our discontent.

Nalini Paul

Approaching the Solstice

At this magical time of year Nature reminds us of its elemental power. In our cities it is sometimes hard to see the stars but away from artificial lights we can see more clearly the subtle illumination of the heavenly bodies.





Joseph Proskauer points out the astronomical phenomena and gives us two winter images of Cairn Holy.

"This year the solstice, which marks the rebirth of light in the darkness, has some added drama: As every winter, the sun's path across the sky is becoming lower and shorter day by day. Meanwhile, the moon is waxing (beginning as a thin crescent on December 9th), as well as travelling in ever higher and longer arcs across the sky; it reaches its highest path -- and becomes completely full -- on the very eve of the winter solstice. And on solstice morning (December 21st) . . . as the full moon gets ready to set . . . just before the sun rises at its southernmost point . . . there will be a total eclipse of the moon!"

































Ruby Elizabeth Littlejohn's photograph is of her painting entitled I am the Weaver of Dreams, she said.