Month: August 2016

Basic Herbal Ointment

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Basic Herbal Ointment
This is a basic ointment that you can make with any herb you want to use for a magical purpose. Just choose the herb you want by consulting the correspondences and add it as directed. You’ll need 1 ounce of lanolin or cocoa butter and 1/2 oz of beeswax, 3-4 ounces of apricot kernel oil, 1 ounce of strong herb infusion of your choice, and 5 drops of essential oil of your choice. You can match the infusion and essential oil or use different herbs. Melt the lanolin or cocoa butter and the beeswax in the top of a double boiler. When completely melted begin adding the oil, pouring a very stream into the pan while stirring constantly until all the oil is added. Turn off the heat and slowly add the herb infusion stirring constantly until the cream has cooled. Add the essential oil and stir in completely. Spoon or pour the cream into an opaque white jar or clear jar covered with paper. You may add 6-8 drops of tincture of benzoin to the mixture when you add the essential oil as a preservative if desired.

A Little Humor for Your Day – The 13 Commandments

The 13 Commandments

1. Thou shall not turn thy ex into a frog.
2. Thou shall not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.
3. Thou shall not laugh at nekked snow sprites.
4. Thou shall not get drunk with thy Goddess’s wine.
5. Thou shall not sacrifice thy little sister.
6. Thou shall not go running around proclaiming thy witchhood if thy are in times of burning.
7. Thou shall not question the word of thy High Priestess – She is God.
8. Thou shall not laugh at being nekked at coven – thou shall be killed.
9. Thou shall not commit to signing anything that declares any single person as thy lord and savior.
10. Thou shall not invoke thy Watchtowers only to say “never mind”.
11. Thou shall not burn enough candles to burn thy house down.
12. Thou shall not have the magickal name “Sir Stinky Fartsalot”.
13. Thou shall not call coven only for laughs.

Astronomy Picture of the Day – Solar Eclipse Analemma

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2016 August 22

Tutulemma: Solar Eclipse Analemma
Image Credit & Copyright: Cenk E. Tezel and Tunç Tezel (TWAN)

 

Explanation: If you went outside at exactly the same time every day and took a picture that included the Sun, how would the Sun’s position change? With great planning and effort, such a series of images can be taken. The figure-8 path the Sunfollows over the course of a year is called an analemma. At the Winter Solstice in Earth’s northern hemisphere, the Sun appears at the bottom of the analemma. Analemmas created from different latitudes appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. With even greater planning and effort, the series can include a total eclipse of the Sun as one of the images. Pictured is such a total solar eclipse analemma or Tutulemma – a term coined by the photographers based on the Turkish word for eclipse. The featured composite image sequence was recorded from Turkey starting in 2005. The base image for the sequence is from the total phase of a solar eclipse as viewed from Side, Turkey on 2006 March 29. Venus was also visible during totality, toward the lower right. If you want to create your own USA-based tutulemma ending at next August’s total solar eclipse, now would be good time to start.

Earth Sky News for August 22: Cassiopeia points to Andromeda galaxy

Cassiopeia points to Andromeda galaxy

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Tonight, if you have dark sky, try star-hopping to the Andromeda galaxy from the constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. If your sky is truly dark, you might even spot this hazy patch of light with no optical aid, as the ancient stargazers did before the days of light pollution.

What if your sky is more lit up, and you can’t find the Andromeda galaxy with the eyes alone? Some stargazers use binoculars and star-hop to the Andromeda galaxy via this W-shaped constellation.

Cassiopeia appears low in the northeast sky at nightfall and early evening, then swings upward as evening deepens into late night. In the wee hours before dawn, Cassiopeia is found high over Polaris, the North Star. Note that one half of the W is more deeply notched than the other half. This deeper V is your “arrow” in the sky, pointing to the Andromeda galaxy.

The Andromeda galaxy is the nearest large spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. It’s about 2.5 million light-years away, teeming with hundreds of billions of stars.

Bottom line: You can find the Andromeda galaxy using the constellation Cassiopeia as a guide. Remember, on a dark night, this galaxy looks like a faint smudge of light. Once you’ve found it with the unaided eye or binoculars, try with a telescope – if you have one.

 

BRUCE MCCLURE

Bruce McClure has served as lead writer for EarthSky’s popular Tonight pages since 2004. He’s a sundial aficionado, whose love for the heavens has taken him to Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and sailing in the North Atlantic, where he earned his celestial navigation certificate through the School of Ocean Sailing and Navigation. He also writes and hosts public astronomy programs and planetarium programs in and around his home in upstate New York.

Article published on EarthSky