Star Calendar May 2017 Start Calendar Planets: Moon and Sun each elongate the fluid earth and exert tidal stress on the viscous and solid earth. This stress and shape distortion moves around the longitudinal earth in the two periods 12.42 and 12 hours respectively but also change latitude (declination) according… Continue reading
Star Calendar April 2017 Star C alendar Planets: Moon and Sun balance on either side of the solstice point on the 7th. They rise and set at the same point on the horizon on that day and make the same path across the sky. One might observe the pair at… Continue reading
Star Calendar March 2017 Star Calendar Planets: Moon cycles determine, or play a role in, some calendars such as the Islamic and Hebrew. The Islamic year is strictly lunar while the Hebrew is a hybrid luni-solar that inserts extra months so that the seasons don’t drift too far. The… Continue reading
Star Calendar February 2017 Star Calendar Planets: Moon crosses the ecliptic (Moon node) when near syzygy with the Sun twice this month. Neither eclipse will be noticeable to us though. The Full Moon will rise in the penumbra of Earth’s shadow, will only be slightly less bright – but no… Continue reading
Star Calendar December 2016 Star Calendar Planets: Moon begins the month by visiting some planets in heliocentric order, then occults Aldebaran again before making its long-night excursion just after perigee. Solstice evening and Christmas eve will be absent the Moon – hence very dark. Then the last two Classical (visible… Continue reading
Star Calendar June 2016 Star Calendar Planets: Moon crosses the seasonal colures (meridians of solstices and equinoxes) every month. This month Sun and Moon cross opposite colures on the same day. Just as the length of daylight changes with the seasons – so does the time of Moon-Up change rapidly… Continue reading
Star Calendar April 2016 Star Calendar Planets: Moon is very dynamic and has several motions of similar mode. A Frenchman sewed photographs of sequential Full Moons together into an animated GIF that shows very nicely the net effect of the various librations – the nodding and swaying face and changes… Continue reading
Star Calendar January 2016 Star Calendar Planets: Moon rises on the autumnal equinox point and beneath Jupiter as the New Year opens. On the 7th it accompanies Venus and Saturn in morning twilight in the ESE and then begins another week or so of moonless dark nights. On the evening… Continue reading
Star Calendar October 2015 Star Calendar Planets: Moon moves through the stars, eastward, at its own diameter every hour, or, 13 degrees per day, or, one season per week — as noted below. Mercury is pretty bright now and is at greatest elongation mid-month. Those with a clear view to… Continue reading
Star Calendar September 2015 Star Calendar Planets: Moon will be waning as September opens and the ecliptic especially steep to the horizon in the morning. This circumstance will show especially thin and horizontal crescents on the 11/12th. New Moon begins the Hebrew new year (Rosh Hashanah) 5776 Anno Mundi. Moon’s… Continue reading