Full Moon in Cancer — December 30, 2020, 03:28 UT

The incredible year 2020 started in January with the Full Moon in Cancer. Now when the year is coming to its end, the Full Moon occurs in Cancer again. The Sun in Capricorn is in conjunction with Mercury and trine to Uranus. The Sun and Mercury are in conjunction with asteroid 31 Euphrosyne.

You don’t often bump into asteroid Euphrosyne in astrological writing. This is actually surprising, as astronomically it is quite a special asteroid, and astrologically its message is pleasing.

A quick google search brought me only a link to The Astrology Book: The Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences by James R. Lewis (2003, by Visible Ink Press): “Euphrosyne, whose appellation means cheerfulness or joy, was named after one of the three Graces (the other two are Thalia and Aglaja). Euphrosyne was a daughter of Zeus and Eurynome. Like its mythological namesake, the asteroid confers the ‘grace’ of joy to natives in whose chart it is prominent.”

Euphrosyne was a goddess of good cheer, joy, mirth and merriment. The three Graces were often represented as the companions of other gods, such as Hera, Hermes, Eros, Dionysus, Aphrodite and Apollo. They gave their grace and beauty to everything that delighted and elevated gods and men.

31 Euphrosyne is a Main belt asteroid discovered in 1854 by James Ferguson at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. It is one of the earliest asteroid discoveries, the 31st, and the first one found from North America. 1 Ceres in 1801 was the first, and currently the number is more than a million. Asteroids range in size from 940 km down to small rocks, less than 1 km in diameter. Euphrosyne is one of the biggest objects in the Main belt; it is the 9th- or 10th-largest with its approximately 270 km diameter. It is even larger than Chariklo, the largest known centaur planet.

Euphrosyne is the third-roundest known asteroid (after 1 Ceres and 10 Hygiea). It is not in hydrostatic equilibrium though (like the dwarf planet Ceres). The round shape is thought to have formed because of a collision and the re-accumulation process that followed. Euphrosyne has a high orbital inclination and eccentricity. It orbits the Sun near the asteroid belt’s outer edge. The orbital period is little over 5.5 years.

Euphrosyne is the namesake of an asteroid family of two thousand asteroids that formed in the collision mentioned before. They share similar spectral properties and orbital elements as Euphrosyne. Euphrosyne has a moon, likely resulting from the same collisional event that created the family. The small satellite was discovered in 2019.

The turn of the year is the time to reflect the past. This has been a year of hardships for most of us. The year may have brought achievements to some people though, and some may have discovered joy in helping others. Some have lost their friend or a relative, while others may have a new baby in the family, making their life more meaningful and sweeter than before. Now it is also the time to look forward. In the beginning of a new year the hopes are high. Whatever the year 2021 may bring, Euphrosyne is reminding us that eventually there will be merrier times ahead, for all of us.

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