Entries from page 26 pf Astronomical Calendar 2022:
Mar 20 SUN 7 Moon 4.6° NNE of Spica; 155° from Sun in morning sky; magnitudes -12.1 and 1.0
Mar 20 SUN 9 Venus at westernmost elongation; 46.6° from Sun in morning sky; magnitude -4.4
Mar 20 SUN 15:34 March or vernal (northern spring) equinox<$>
Mar 20 SUN 15:34 Sun enters the astrological sign Aries, i.e. its longitude is 0°
In other words, the morning sky continues to be crowded with action.
See the end note about enlarging illustrations.
Notice the crowded detail up at top right. Earth at this stage of its orbit is traveling toward the wunter solstice e point, that is, the southernmost point of the ecliptic, from which in June Earth will look toward the Sun at the northernmost point. It happens that this is also approximately an intersection with the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, near its central bulge, and the spot is almost marked by two great nebulae, the Lagoon and the Trifid – not, in twilight, visible except to the mind’s eye.
Convoluted geometry, which may be at least partly explained by doctoring an illustration from the book:
“That’s enough for now, thank you!” we want to tell Urania, the muse of astronomy. But she insists on adding to the performance, like following a ballet with an opera singer and a firework display: Venus swings out to greatest apparent distance from the Sun; the red arrow of Earth’s direction happens also to cross, at vastly greater distance, the band of the Milky Way.
Down on Earth, too, too many things happen at once, though of less refined nature.
Deti
Boycott Subway. Four hundred American companies, including McDonald’s, Coca Cola, have pulled out of Russia; Subway refuses.
We’ve been treating ourselves to a Subway sandwich picnic on our visits to Kew Gardens, on sunny days. like yesterday. No more. A small hardship.
Deti, “children,” in Russian, is painted on the ground on both sides of this Mariupol building, a theatre, which people were using as a shelter. A Russian plane bombed it anyway. Rescuers tried to free those buried under the rubble, including a pregnant woman.
Boris Johnson has said that Ukraine’s struggle to defend its freedom from Russia is like Britain’s Brexit campaign to get free from Europe. Particularly fatuous since Ukraine would like nothing better than to join the European Union.
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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format. You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor. One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge. Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it. On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers). Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or you can click ‘Refresh’ to get the latest version.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Yes, Guy, it’s very sad that things are currently so bleak in Ukraine that EU membership is viewed as better than their current situation with its violent military invasion and ongoing attacks on civilian locations, with utter destruction and deaths in the thousands.
Excellent diagrams deserve excellent images, unfortunately I only have mediocre images to offer LOL
http://www.starvergnuegen.com/astropix/2022/2022_03_20_planets_28.html
Medicore? I’d call it magic. Tp see what happens when you mouse-over Eric’s sky.
I am eagerly awaiting the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus later in April and hoping that I have clear skies that morning to get a nice picture. The harmony of Jupiter’s 12 year cycle and Venus’ 8 year cycle, as you have so thoroughly explained, results in similar Jupiter-Venus conjunctions every 24 years, and it occurred to me this morning that 2 of those 24 year periods gives 48 years, which means that in 1974, they could be seen in a very similar configuration those spring mornings. That was also the first year of your Astronomical Calendar, one of the few that I don’t have in my collection LOL. Congratulations on your AC attaining its 2nd “Jupiter-Venus similar circumstance birthday”! I assume you discussed that conjunction in that inaugural calendar. My planetarium software shows that their conjunction that year was on April 14, several weeks earlier than this year.
Thanks, Eric, and we’ll look forward to your photos! When I made the earliest and simplest Astronomical Calendar I knew little about the patterns of conunctions.
I agree with Kevan in that I never could see how Europe was considered to be its own continent.
The blonde Russian TV journalist who held up the sign saying Stop the War during the Russian newscast was interviewed on Good Morning America today . She said a majority of Russians do not support “Putin’s war”. She also mentioned that she understood the reasons for the sanctions but they are mostly harming the Russian citizens. She said her 2 daughters are hungry all day because they have to go without lunch at school; the cafeteria is closed because of sanctions hurting Russia’s economy.
In short, the sanctions are hurting the citizens more than Putin. Maybe that’s why Subway is not pulling out. So maybe you can still enjoy your Subway sandwiches. :)
Boris is talking nonsense since leaving the EU wasn’t a military matter unlike the Ukraine.Although I am indifferent to the EU, the the same plutocrats and car makers still pulling the strings if you are in it our out of it,it always seems strange to me that countries have left one union; the USSR, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and then want to rush into another; the EU.I also see that Georgia wants to join yet it’s not even in Europe but in Asia although I suppose it’s debatable if Europe and Asia are really separate continents.Think if one Indonesia and the British Isles are both archipelagos of EuroAsia.