Full Moon in Capricorn — June 28, 2018, 04:53 UT

Last night, if the sky was clear, you were able to see a bright spot beside the Full Moon. The Full Moon occurred in Capricorn, and the bright spot was the ruler of the sign, Saturn. The Full Moon is always an opposition of the Sun and the Moon, and now there is also Saturn opposite the Sun, reflecting its light.

There was also a third body with the Moon and Saturn, but so small and distant that you were not able to see it, not even if you had binoculars. It was 330836 Orius.

It is difficult to find any information on 330836 Orius. Still today, after nine years since its discovery and five years since its naming, I am not able to find even a Wikipedia page in English. I think this is due the fact that planetary studies are quite America centered, and 330836 Orius was discovered by Latvian astronomers Kazimieras Cernis and Ilgmars Eglitis at Baldone observatory in Latvia.

330836 Orius is a minor planet which belongs to the centaur class. Its orbital period around the Sun is almost 100 years and its diameter is approximately somewhere between 30 and 80 km. It was discovered in April 2009 and named in January 2013 after a centaur from Greek mythology. Centaur Orius lived in the mountains, and was killed by Heracles in the riot at centaur Pholus’s cave, when Heracles tried to steal the wine, which was common property of the centaur tribe.

Finland’s best-known film director Aki Kaurismäki (born April 4, 1957) has a conjunction of the Sun (identity), Venus (values) and 330836 Orius in Aries. The conjunction is trining his Saturn in Sagittarius and in sextile to his Mars in Gemini. Aki Kaurismäki’s film characters are usually people living outside the mainstream. Despite the melancholy and the setbacks that characters are facing, they are persistent, and there is hope for a better world.

Aki Kaurismäki has twice boycotted the Oscar awards. In 2003 “The Man Without a Past” was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of the best foreign language film, but Kaurismäki refused to attend the Oscar ceremony as a protest against the U.S. war in Iraq. In 2006 “Lights in the Dusk” was chosen to be Finland’s nominee for the best foreign language film, but Kaurismäki refused the nomination as a protest against President George W. Bush’s foreign policy. In an interview Kaurismäki once said: “The meaning of life is to acquire personal moral principles that respect the nature and other human beings and then follow them.”

Other examples of 330836 Orius can be found here:

New Moon in Cancer — June 24, 2017, 02:31 UT

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