Archive for May, 2007

Delia New Moon – May 16, 2007

Wednesday, May 16th, 2007

New Moon in Taurus – May 16, 2007, 19:27 UT

The New Moon at 25+ degrees Taurus is right on the descendant of the chart cast for The Hague, Netherlands. The Moon in Taurus and Venus in Cancer are in mutual reception. The Sun and the Moon are conjunct Sedna, an inner Oort cloud object discovered in 2003 by Michael Brown’s team and named in honor of Inuit goddess of the sea. The luminaries are squaring plutino Orcus in Leo and Neptune in Aquarius.

Mercury, the ruler of Gemini, is trining Chiron and Nessus in Aquarius, and the triple conjunction of Juno, Rhadamanthus, and 2003 EL61 in Libra. They form a Grand Air Trine. Mercury is in conjunction with cubewano Chaos and opposes Vesta-Ixion conjunction in Sagittarius. Vesta-Ixion conjunction sextiles Nessus and the aforementioned triple conjunction in Libra and forms thus the apex of a Kite.

Mars at the Aries Point has ingressed Aries the previous day. Mars conjuncts centaur planet Bienor, squares Pluto and semisquares Chiron. Dwarf planets Ceres and Eris are in conjunction with 1992 QB1 in Aries.

Jupiter conjuncts cubewano Quaoar, trines Saturn and sextiles Chiron. Jupiter forms a T-square with Uranus in Pisces and cubewano Logos in Virgo. Saturn opposes Chiron and Neptune, and squares Sedna. Chiron semisquares the Aries Point.

Plutino Ixion in Sagittarius squares the lunar nodes. Pallas is in conjunction with the North Node at 13+ degrees Pisces.

There are two Yods in the chart. The other one is valid only about a week from now. Cubewano Varuna in Cancer is the apex of the pattern and forms quincunxes to Chiron in Aquarius and to Jupiter-Quaoar conjunction in Sagittarius. Another Yod, formed by Neptune in Aquarius, 2005 FY9 at 21+ degrees Virgo as the apex, and the conjunction of Eris and 1992 QB1 in Aries, is valid about three months in all, holding its shape till late July. This is due to long orbits of the planets involved. Neptune is the fastest of these planets.

The Sun and the Moon are forming a novile aspect to asteroid 1862 Apollo at 14+ degrees Aries on the moment of the New Moon. Other aspects of Apollo in the New Moon chart are a conjunction to Icarus; a sextile to Chiron; an opposition to Juno; and a trine to Vesta, to Jupiter, to Saturn, to Quaoar, to Ixion and to the Great Attractor.

Asteroid 1862 Apollo was discovered in 1932, but then lost and recovered in 1973. It is the namesake of the Apollo asteroids, a group of Earth-crosser asteroids, which can get very close to the Earth. Apollo was the first asteroid found to cross Earth’s orbit. It crosses also the orbits of Venus and Mars. Apollo’s orbital period is 1.8 years, it spins every three hours, and it has a tiny binary companion orbiting it closely.

Currently Apollo is moving very fast, because it is now near its perihelion, its closest point to the Sun. It had entered Capricorn just before the Full Moon two weeks ago, and since then it has already rushed through the signs of Aquarius and Pisces, too. Apollo entered Aquarius on May 6th, Pisces on May 9th and Aries on May 13th. It stayed only three days in Aquarius! On May 8th Apollo made a flyby past the Earth at a distance of 10.7 million kilometres, providing stargazers in the southern hemisphere a wonderful opportunity for observations. The current flyby occurs conveniently in May, as the Delia, an ancient Greek festival held in honor of Apollo at the island of Delos, was celebrated annually in May.

In Greek and Roman mythology Apollo was a Sun god. He was the god of light and truth, medicine and healing, poetry and music. He was also the god of divination.

Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto. The birth of Apollo and his twin sister Artemis took place in the island of Delos on the seventh day of the month. The island bathed in golden light and swans made a circle seven times round the island at Apollo’s birth. The number seven was sacred to him. The seventh and twentieth, the days of the new and full moon, were ever since held sacred to him.

Apollo was the leader of the nine Muses and played on a lyre which Hermes had made and given him. When infant Chiron became rejected by his mother, it was Apollo who adopted him. Apollo and Artemis became Chiron’s teachers and taught him many skills. Later on Chiron himself became a respected teacher and tutor for many great heroes including Asclepius, Achilles, Jason, Heracles, and also Dionysus.

The Apollonian and Dionysian is a philosophical and literary concept, a dichotomy or contrast. Apollo represents harmony, order and reason, while Dionysus represents ecstasy and disorder. The Greeks did not consider the qualities that Apollo and Dionysus represented as rivaling, but complementary. Apollo had a famous oracle at Delphi. When he at winter left for Hyperborea — a distant northern land where the Sun was shining twentyfour hours a day — he left the oracle at Delphi to Dionysus.

Eric Francis writes in the Spiral Door Almanac:

“It is strange to think of Apollo as an asteroid. In mythology, he is the Sun god, burning bright, seen riding across the sky with his chariot. The Sun is the center of the solar system, the source of life and the gravitational mass holding everything in place. But this is hardly the condition of an asteroid, particularly this one, a small thing with a strange orbit. So it is plausible to propose that the asteroid Apollo is a light-bringer in other ways, in the strangest of places if you look for it right. He may represent something of the inner quality or talent of seeing the light where others might not see it.”

On March 7th, 2007, news was released telling us that scientists had found a “solar-powered asteroid”. An international research team led by mathematician Mikko Kaasalainen from Finland had found an asteroid whose rotation gets an extra kick from solar radiation. The team found that Apollo’s rotation speed steadily increases, and showed that this is due to the re-radiation of solar energy from its surface. Re-radiation of solar energy acts as if there were small propulsion engines on Apollo’s surface. The effect is tiny, but this study shows that sunlight can make an asteroid spin so fast it eventually breaks up and splits into a binary all by itself. The results of the study are important among other things for understanding binary asteroids.

It is intriguing that asteroid Apollo at the moment is in conjunction with asteroid 1566 Icarus, another asteroid from the Apollo group. At perihelion Icarus is closer to the Sun than Mercury. It is named after Icarus of Greek mythology, who flew too close to the Sun. In the myth Daedalus and his son Icarus were imprisoned. They were able to escape with wings that Daedalus had prepared for them. Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high or the Sun would melt the wax he had used on the wings. Icarus forgot the warning and flew too high, the wax melted, and Icarus fell down into the sea.

Eris = 21 Aries 15
2003 EL61 = 12 Libra 45 r
2005 FY9 = 21 Virgo 46 r
The Great Attractor = 14 Sag 04