MAY 5, 2000 .... was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!! You can't EVER say that about
May 14th, this year, 2002 !!!
Ikeya-Zhang Microwave Refraction in its long waxy tail [filamental] pertaining to the 4th Dimension
KNIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN, NEVER REACHING THE END
Comet Ikeya-Zhang
may have experienced just a handful of perihelion passages since it was captured from an initial orbit in the OORT CLOUD
(a nearly spherical swarm of comets that surrounds the solar system stretching halfway to the nearest star).
The dust from Ikeya-Zhang comes from the very extreme far edges of the solar system, and has an oddly spiral sharply slanted orbit, compared to the planets. The information we all hope to gather, this April 28th, as it passes closest to the Earth in its eccentric "orbit," includes the dust particles' size, temperature and composition.
You are probably quite aware of the fact that the Sun's apparent path goes high overhead in the summer at mid-northern latitudes and lower to the south in the winter due to the fact that the Earth is tipped 23.5 degrees on its axis.
The asymmetric nature of this gravitational interaction is also responsible for the fact that the Moon rotates, i.e. it is locked in phase with its orbit so that the same side is always facing toward the Earth.
(Note: there is no "dark side" of the Moon; all parts of the Moon get sunlight half the time (except for a few deep craters near the poles!), even though we never see the "dark side". Strange reality!
A week to never forget begins April 13th, 2002, when a crescent moon climbs up to the elusive Mercury at dusk, like a lover, then passes on to Venus on April 14th, then on to Mars, April 15th, to Saturn on April 16th, and then finally into Jupiter's bed on April 18th. The Moon's conjunction with Jupiter will be so bright as to be eye-popping [so we should say "impregnation" rather than conjunction!]. Preceding this "union" by one day, will be the rare sight of SIX [6] solar system worlds strung tightly across the western sky within a 60 degree arc. [think Noah's Ark and Ark of the Covenant].
This is followed by an expensive appetizer on April 30th, when four of the five planets "cluster" in Taurus [ALDEBARAN], and for the next two weeks Venus, Mars, and Saturn lie within a binocular field of each other, with Mercury a few degrees below the trio.
On May 4th is a most astounding TRIANGLE, where Venus-Mars-Saturn form a TIGHT 2.5 degree triangle, and on MAY 10-th Venus passes just 0.3 degrees above Mars!
This planetary dance reaches a CLIMAX after this planetary congress, on May 14, with the 5 planets at their "tightest" configuration, and ALL WITHIN 33 degrees, and with the crescent moon strikingly close to Venus! They will be in an arc that seems to start at our horizon with Mercury closest to Earth, and stringing in an arc up to the North Pole, where the Moon-Jupiter spotlight conjunction will be the Christmas Tree Star at the top of the tree! This position is as high as Jupiter can go in our mundane human nightsky, that is, 23.5 degrees north of the celestial equator.
Best times to see any of the shows is one to one-and-a-half hours just after sunset.
On April 23rd we have a TRIO in Taurus, near Aldebaran, that forms another configuration between Aldebaran-Saturn-Mars, all hugging each other.
April 28th, 2002: KNIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN, NEVER REACHING THE END!
Comet Ikeya-Zhang
may have experienced just a handful of perihelion passages since it was captured from an initial orbit in the OORT CLOUD
(a nearly spherical swarm of comets that surrounds the solar system stretching halfway to the nearest star).
The dust from Ikeya-Zhang comes from the very extreme far edges of the solar system, and has an oddly spiral sharply slanted orbit, compared to the planets. The information we all hope to gather, this April 28th, as it passes closest to the Earth in its eccentric "orbit," includes the dust particles' size, temperature and composition.
You are probably quite aware of the fact that the Sun's apparent path goes high overhead in the summer at mid-northern latitudes and lower to the south in the winter due to the fact that the Earth is tipped 23.5 degrees on its axis.
The asymmetric nature of this gravitational interaction is also responsible for the fact that the Moon rotates, i.e. it is locked in phase with its orbit so that the same side is always facing toward the Earth.
(Note: there is no "dark side" of the Moon; all parts of the Moon get sunlight half the time (except for a few deep craters near the poles!), even though we never see the "dark side". Strange reality!
April 30th brings a QUINTET!
May 13th puts all the 5-planets on a string that is a 33 degree ARK along the ecliptic, with the planets lined up very nicely on the ecliptic plane.
The MOON also now "skips" along our ecliptic plane, and on May 14th, the CRESCENT MOON [like in Islamic lore] slides until it OCCULTS Saturn, Mars, and Venus, during even some DAYLIGHT HOURS TOO!!
In addition on May 14th, there is a massive CONVERGENCE of the ASTEROID VESTA, with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and the Moon. Just this last March 19th, Vesta flew "superclose" to the planet Saturn, at less than two [2] ARK minutes.
On May 16th there is yet another brilliant conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter, and Asteroid Vesta converges with Jupiter, with mostly all the planets ringing her [those from May 14th]!
Also on the 16th of May, Comet LINEAR WM1 streaks high into Hercules, right past its bright blue white star, VEGA! On May 18th, LINEAR WM1, which could be either a comet, meteor, or asteroid, will have left a trail of cosmic debris and radiation, which the EARTH will pass through [yuk!] when it punctures the nodal area of the LINEAR WM1 from its crossing of the ecliptic on the 16th of May. Be prepared for some NASTY meteor showers!
This same LINEAR WM1 surprised us this last January 30th, 2002, and flared up unexpectedly into a third magnitude OUTBURST, visible only in the Southern Hemisphere, which revealed two bright JETS emanating from opposite poles of its nucleus!
The Kuiper Asteroid Belt lies between Mars and Jupiter. To Earth observers, Vesta moves so quickly because it is 3.5 times closer to us than Saturn.
QUESTION:
Bending light - REFRACTION producing an optical illusion???
Ever reached down into the bath tub water to grab a hair brush or bar of soap and found that it was not in the position it appeared to be? What you are experiencing is the effect called refraction (the bending of a wave path, as of light or sound, at the boundary between two different mediums). When light enters the water (or any transparent material) it slows down slightly. If the light enters the water at an angle then this change in speed causes the light beam to bend away from its original path. And as we all know, this is called refraction.
Now let's think about a extremely simple experiment that allows us to see the effect of refraction on the path and orbit of Comet Ikeya Zhang that is nearing Earth April 8th to April 28th, 2002. This little one minute experiment could change your entire frame of reference!
Fill a glass 2/3 full of water or vodka.
Place a pencil in the glass holding it straight up and down (i.e. not at an angle). Do not drink more of the vodka. Notice that the pencil still appears straight when viewed through the side of the glass.
Now take the pencil and let it lean against the side of the glass. Now look through the glass at the pencil. Notice that it appears bent. This is the effect of refraction, or "bending of light".
So if "light is bent" when passing through a transparent material, does this mean that many things we see [especially in our ecliptic plane-line] are actually distorted, and not in the position that they appear to be. Yes or no??!!!!
ANSWER:
On May 4th-6th, 2002, Saturn, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, all fall into an almost straight
line with the Earth. Jupiter nearly joins them too, but stands just a wee little ways off. Because the three dimensions of space are
compressed into two when we look at the night sky, these five planets
seem to be almost at the same point in the sky, three of them forming
a spectacular cosmic triangle, a kind of "trinity".
The "dimensional compression" we are looking at also explains why the
planets stay close to the ecliptic line in the "two-dimensional" night
time sky [it is like looking at a photograph, and we can "draw a line
on a flat piece of glossy black photographic paper," from one point [star or planet or
comet] ... to another point, even though they are in three dimensions.
If comet orbits and paths and motion ARE REALLY IN FOUR DIMENSIONS, and the 4th co-efficient dimension is Time -- due to the time distorting variable in a Comet's
motion [it travels in all four interrelated dimensions like a time traveling spaceship] -- then the path of a Comet
includes a spiral movement in its path, and not the linear movement,
that we seem to be observing in our 3-dimensions.
So the simple child-like comparison to a glass of water with a pencil
either perpendicular or askew in the water glass, and the distortion,
the "bent" refracted image, is quite helpful in understanding this
fourth dimension time and motion. Thank you.
My question. If Comet Ikeya Zhang is "spiralling" into our ecliptic
plane [and quite amusing to me that the comet passes through our
ecliptic plane just when five planets are aligned so specially on this
three dimensional ecliptic plane!] ... from exactly what "angle" is
the comet coming in from "outside", in its fourth dimension, to create
the visual distortion [refraction] that everyone is looking at?
-------------
Cassiopeia is one of the constellations that
remains
above the horizon in the North and circles the celestial pole. Stars that
are always visible are called circumpolar stars and can never be seen in
the opposite hemisphere. When these very recognizable stars are below the
north celestial pole they form a "W" and when above it they form and "M."
It is believed by many that the most interesting star in Cassiopeia is the
star Gamma, it is a parasitic giant that changes in brightness as rings of
gases are blown off during its feeding.
The Three Signs in the Sky
Why should this particular comet [the Christmas Comet] have caused the Magi to make their journey? It is suggested that a combination of three astronomical events was involved: the triple conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 7 BC, the massing of three planets in 6 BC and finally the appearance of the comet in Capricornus in 5 BC.
Here above, we see 5 planets in a very rare conjunction, including Saturn and Jupiter, at the same time as the pass nearby of a comet near earth's position on the ecliptic of our solar system. Notice the spectacular triangle formed by Venus, Mars, and Saturn!
The most compact gathering of Venus, Mars and Saturn that will be visible in the western evening sky from May 3-10 this year [2002] is just one of only five such planet trios easily visible in a dark sky between the years 1980 and 2050. The best view, he says, will be during the evenings of May 5th and 6th, when these three planets form an eye-catching compact triangle.
The next time a tight planet trio will be seen in a dark sky will be in early August 2010, again involving Venus, Mars and Saturn.
The eighth century AD astrological world history 'On Conjunctions, Religions and Peoples' by Masha'allah was based on an earlier Babylonian theory that important religious and political changes are predicted by conjunctions of the planets Saturn and Jupiter. Thus Masha'allah used Iranian astronomical computations to claim that the flood,
the birth of Christ and the birth of Muhammad were all predicted by conjunctions of Saturn and Jupiter in the appropriate astrological circumstances. Rosenberg, following the medieval Jewish writer Abarbanal, has explained how in Magian astrology
the planet Saturn represented the divine Father and Jupiter was his son. The constellation Pisces was astrologically associated with Israel. Thus it is suggested that the astrological message of the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces in 7 BC was this: a Messiah-king will be born in Israel. The fact that the conjunction happened three times in 7 BC (in May, October and December) probably served to reinforce this message.
In addition, Abarbanal in 1497 claimed that there was a conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in Pisces in 1396 BC, three years before his assumed date of the birth of Moses.
Thus it is suggested that the 7 BC triple conjunction alerted the Magi to the coming of another Moses who would deliver his people: the Messiah.
Shortly after the triple conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in 7 BC, Mars joined Jupiter and Saturn in the sky so that in February 6 BC the three planets (still in Pisces) were separated by only about eight degrees. There is a tradition that the massing of these three planets preceded the birth of Christ. In 1465 Jakob von Speyer, the Court Astronomer for Prince Frederic d'Urbino, asked Regiomontanus 'Given that the appearance of Christ is regarded as a consequence of the Grand Conjunction of the three superior planets, find the year of his birth', a question that Regiomontanus was unable to answer.
VESTA THE ASTEROID
Vesta has a diameter of about 500 km.
Vesta is a dry body that has been resurfaced by basaltic lava flows.
During April and May [2002] the time for which Vesta can be seen after sunset will gradually diminish. However in mid May there is a grouping of the 5 naked eye planets to the north west which will gradually become visible after sunset. Vesta will also be amongst them, visible in binoculars.
PRESS RELEASE
Date Released: Wednesday, April 03, 2002
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Cambridge, MA -- Comet Hale-Bopp dazzled us for weeks. The Perseid meteor shower thrilled us for one night. But the world hasn't seen anything like the planetary traffic jam that's going to occur the last week of April and the first two weeks in May!
Inching across the sky like bumper-to-bumper commuters on their way to work, a rare planetary alignment will allow sky observers to see every planet in our solar system in a single evening! "There will be other opportunities in the future to see the planets in different configurations," says Philip Sadler, Director of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, MA, " but it won't be anything like this for at least another 70 years. This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Even more amazing, two very special events will occur during this planetary line-up. On May 10, the planets Mars and Venus will appear to pass so close to one another that, to the naked eye, the Roman God of War and the Roman Goddess of Love will become one.
Earlier, on May 5, something even more spectacular will happen. The bright planets Mars, Saturn and Venus will group together to form a perfect equilateral triangle in the western sky. This dazzling configuration will be visible almost everywhere on Earth. In the Middle East, this pyramid-shaped specter will hang directly above Bethlehem.
Oddly enough, more than 2,000 years ago, this same grouping of planets may have caught the attention of the Biblical Magi. On April 1, 2 B.C., the planets Mars, Saturn and Venus came together to form a perfect equilateral triangle over the city of Bethlehem. Now, in the 21st Century, amid the turmoil taking place in the Middle East, the ancient Roman gods of Love, War and Agriculture/Wisdom, are coming together to look down upon this war-ravaged landscape once again.
In late April and early May, when the planets line up, they will not be arranged behind one another or the Sun. Instead, they will present a beautiful line across the sky from horizon to near zenith [our fictitious North Pole]. For a period of a little more than three weeks, anyone looking west at sunset will be able to see the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. A few hours later at 4 A.M., armed with a large-size amateur telescope, they can continue their grand tour by observing Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, the Vesta asteroid, and Comet Ikeya-Zhang in the east. Finally, by quickly glancing down at the ground, they will have completed their grand tour of the solar system. "Seeing nine worlds in just one night is something few astronomers can say they've accomplished!" .
Today, it is widely held by many historians and planetarium directors that a conjunction of the planets, similar to the one on May 5, accounts for the Star of Bethlehem that sent the Magi on their way to seek the Christ child. Certainly the timing was right. An almost identical triangular alignment of Saturn, Mars and Venus did take place on April 1, 2 B.C. And the planets Jupiter, Saturn and Mars also formed a triangular conjunction in 6 B.C., in the constellation Pisces, the sign of the Christians.
The comet Ikeya Zhang! With a period of 300-400 years, the orbit stretches to 100 times the distance of the Earth from the Sun. Comet Ikeya-Zhang could have a record orbital period for a `periodic' comet (i.e. one recorded as having returned more than once). Calculations indicate that it would then have had a previous perihelion passage in 1273 and another around 877 AD. Several engravings of the 1661 comet observed by the mathematician Erhardus Weigelius of Jena were made at the time.
The orbit is unusual in passing exceptionally close to the orbit of Jupiter, enabling close encounters to that planet. At the present time, Jupiter is well away from its near-intersection point with the comet's orbit, but the next time the comet returns (in the twenty-fourth century) it is expected to have a close approach to Jupiter, whose gravity will substantially perturb the comet's orbit. The possibility of strong gravitational perturbations by Jupiter during each revolution means that the dynamical evolution of Ikeya-Zhang is particularly rapid.
Despite its relatively short period (it may be only 341 years since its last return to the inner solar system), Comet Ikeya-Zhang may have experienced just a handful of perihelion passages since it was captured from an initial orbit in the Oort cloud (a nearly spherical swarm of comets that surrounds the solar system stretching halfway to the nearest star).
Rare5Planet
Terence Dickinson
Planet-Watcher's Guide: The Great Planetary Alignment of Spring 2002
Friday April 19 at 7:30 p.m., Helen Sawyer Hogg Observatory, Canada Science and Technology Museum
1867 St. Laurent Blvd.
Ottawa
Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter will be in almost perfect alignment this spring -great for planet observers. Join Terence Dickinson, Canada's leading astronomy writer in his illustrated tour of the "Great Planetary Alignment of the Spring". Find out about the latest in planetary exploration with the author of many books and current editor of SKY NEWS magazine. A Star Party (weather permitting) will follow the talk.
------------
from SKY NEWS, Canada
http://www.skynewsmagazine.com/pages/conma02.html
"RARE FIVE PLANET LINEUP"
The ecliptic is an imaginary plane-line. On March 23, 2002, four planets and the moon were almost equally spaced along the ecliptic, spread out over a nearly 90-degree arc.
In early Spring, the ecliptic line is angled most north with respect to the horizon, toward the North Pole. The moon seemed to piggy back from planet to planet, riding atop Venus on March 17th, Saturn on March 19th, and Jupiter on March 21.
On March 23, the Moon and four planets formed a symmetrical string of worlds across the heavens, clearly delineating the normally invisible ecliptic.
Now, in early April, this "line dance of the worlds" compresses ...
A week to never forget begins April 13th, when a crescent moon climbs up to the elusive Mercury at dusk, like a lover, then passes on to Venus on April 14th, then on to Mars, April 15th, to Saturn on April 16th, and then finally into Jupiter's bed on April 18th. The Moon's conjunction with Jupiter will be so bright as to be eye-popping [so we should say "impregnation" rather than conjunction!]. Preceding this "union" by one day, will be the rare sight of SIX [6] solar system worlds strung tightly across the western sky within a 60 degree arc. [think Noah's Ark and Ark of the Covenant].
This is followed by an expensive appetizer on April 30th, when four of the five planets "cluster" in Taurus [ALDEBARAN], and for the next two weeks Venus, Mars, and Saturn lie within a binocular field of each other, with Mercury a few degrees below the trio.
On May 4th is a most astounding TRIANGLE, where Venus-Mars-Saturn form a TIGHT 2.5 degree triangle, and on MAY 10-th Venus passes just 0.3 degrees above Mars!
This planetary dance reaches a CLIMAX after this planetary congress, on May 14, with the 5 planets at their "tightest" configuration, and ALL WITHIN 33 degrees, and with the crescent moon strikingly close to Venus! They will be in an arc that seems to start at our horizon with Mercury closest to Earth, and stringing in an arc up to the North Pole, where the Moon-Jupiter spotlight conjunction will be the Christmas Tree Star at the top of the tree! This position is as high as Jupiter can go in our mundane human nightsky, that is, 23.5 degrees north of the celestial equator.
Best times to see any of the shows is one to one-and-a-half hours just after sunset.
On April 23rd we have a TRIO in Taurus, near Aldebaran, that forms another configuration between Aldebaran-Saturn-Mars, all hugging each other.
April 30th brings a QUINTET!
May 13th puts all the 5-planets on a string that is a 33 degree ARK along the ecliptic, with the planets lined up very nicely on the ecliptic plane.
The MOON also now "skips" along our ecliptic plane, and on May 14th, the CRESCENT MOON [like in Islamic lore] slides until it OCCULTS Saturn, Mars, and Venus, during even some DAYLIGHT HOURS TOO!!
In addition on May 14th, there is a massive CONVERGENCE of the ASTEROID VESTA, with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, and the Moon. Just this last March 19th, Vesta flew "superclose" to the planet Saturn, at less than two [2] ARK minutes.
On May 16th there is yet another brilliant conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter, and Asteroid Vesta converges with Jupiter, with mostly all the planets ringing her [those from May 14th]!
Also on the 16th of May, Comet LINEAR WM1 streaks high into Hercules, right past its bright blue white star, VEGA! On May 18th, LINEAR WM1, which could be either a comet, meteor, or asteroid, will have left a trail of cosmic debris and radiation, which the EARTH will pass through [yuk!] when it punctures the nodal area of the LINEAR WM1 from its crossing of the ecliptic on the 16th of May. Be prepared for some NASTY meteor showers!
This same LINEAR WM1 surprised us this last January 30th, 2002, and flared up unexpectedly into a third magnitude OUTBURST, visible only in the Southern Hemisphere, which revealed two bright JETS emanating from opposite poles of its nucleus!
The Kuiper Asteroid Belt lies between Mars and Jupiter. To Earth observers, Vesta moves so quickly because it is 3.5 times closer to us than Saturn.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Computing Comes to Life
Commericial Human DNA-driven Computers
15 March 2002: Research funded by NASA has led to a crude DNA-based computer able to solve a logic problem, as reported in the journal Science this week. USC computer science professor Leonard Adleman showed in 1994 that DNA, the molecule that holds life's genetic code, could be used to find the shortest route among seven cities, a relatively simple problem. His new experiment solved a problem requiring the evaluation of more than one million possible solutions. In computer parlance, a DNA computer operates in parallel, with countless molecules shimmying around together at once. Commercial DNA computers are a long ways off, but Adleman says they "compute with extremely high energy-efficiency and store enormous quantities of information."
Google "QUILLER FOR HIRE" as keyword and read some really interesting research, fact and fiction!