The Witches Astronomy Journal for Thursday, April 12th

Your Daily Sun & Moon Data for Thursday, April `12th

The Sun
Sun Direction: ↑ 85.86° E
Sun Altitude: 9.21°
Sun Distance: 93.184 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 21, 2018 5:07 am (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 6:24 am↑ 78° East
Sunset Today: 7:26 pm↑ 282° West
Length of Daylight: 13 hours, 2 minutes

The Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 128.69° SE
Moon Altitude: 25.64°
Moon Distance: 244521 mi
Next New Moon: Apr 15, 20188:57 pm
Next Full Moon: Apr 29, 20187:58 pm
Next Moonset: Today4:07 pm
Current Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 13.7%
Reference
timeanddate.com

Astrology of Today – Thursday, April 12th

Mars-Uranus early today is progressive. A Last Quarter Moon occurs shortly before midday, and asks us to consider our spiritual needs.
The Moon is in Pisces all day (until Wednesday, June 10th, at 7:13 AM).
The Moon is void from 2:08 PM forward (until tomorrow at 7:13 AM).
The Moon is waning and in its Waning Gibbous phase until 11:41 AM/ Third Quarter phase from 11:41 AM forward.
The Third Quarter Moon occurs at 11:41 AM in Pisces.
Mercury is retrograde. (Mercury is retrograde from May 18 to June 11 in the sign of Gemini).

Moon in Pisces

The Moon is traveling through Pisces today. You may feel disconnected. Serve others. Listen to music. Paint a picture. Daydream.

We are not inclined to want to face reality while the Moon is in dreamy, impressionable Pisces. It can be a wistful, sensitive, intuitive, and compassionate time. We are especially imaginative, and our intuition reigns under this influence. Boundaries and walls come down, as Pisces energy merges and blends. It’s a time when details are overlooked and feelings defy description.

The Moon in Pisces generally favors the following activities: Imaginative undertakings, mystical or spiritual pursuits, inner development, music and drama, going on a retreat, activities involving water.

Daily Overview of Your Sky for Thursday, April 12th

With recent doubts and suspicions or cynicism, today’s Venus-Neptune sextile seems to come at just the right time. We are more imaginative and attuned to the world of beauty and romance today, and we tend to approach one another more gently. A “magical” time on a romantic and social level is possible now, as we are inclined to see spiritual dimensions of our relationships and to approach others with compassion. As well, the Moon is in Pisces all day, reinforcing the inclination to forgive and release.

The sky this week for April 12 to 15

Mars and Saturn chase the Moon, the Summer Triangle returns to prominence, and a brilliant Venus takes center stage, all in the sky this week.
By Michael E. Bakich

Thursday, April 12

As you stare into tonight’s starry sky, think about the two space-related anniversaries we celebrate on this date. In 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to journey into outer space, and the first to orbit Earth. Then, in 1981, NASA launched its first space shuttle, Columbia, on a three-day mission during which it orbited Earth 36 times.

 

Friday, April 13

This could be your lucky night if you want to hunt down a galaxy. First, you’ll need to head to a dark observing site. Then, with binoculars in hand, scan about one field of view east-southeast of 2nd-magnitude Phecda (Gamma [γ] Ursae Majoris), the star that forms the southeastern corner of the Big Dipper’s bowl. You should see a triangle of 5th- and 6th-magnitude stars. The spiral galaxy M106 lies 1.7° south of 3 Canum Venaticorum, the triangle’s southern tip. The galaxy will appear as an oval blur of light glowing at magnitude 8.4.

 

Saturday, April 14

Brilliant Venus dominates the evening sky starting about half an hour after sunset. It stands 15° above the western horizon 30 minutes after the Sun goes down and doesn’t set until around 9:30 p.m. local daylight time — a full two hours after the Sun. Shining at magnitude –3.9, it lies in front of the stars of Aries the Ram and appears far brighter than any other point of light in the sky. When viewed through a telescope tonight, Venus spans only 11″ and shows a 92-percent-lit phase.

 

Sunday, April 15

Dwarf planet 1 Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt, which lies between Mars and Jupiter. Almost any telescope will reveal its 8th-magnitude glow. All this month it moves eastward in front of the stars of the constellation Cancer the Crab. You’ll find it tonight between magnitude 4.0 Iota Cancri and 57 Cancri, which glows at magnitude 5.4. It lies two-thirds of the way from the brighter to the fainter star. If you can’t pinpoint it exactly, sketch the area and come back one or two nights later. The point of light that’s moved will be Ceres.

Reference
Astronomy Magazine

Your Daily Cosmic Calendar for Thursday, April 12

The cosmos gives you a free ticket to ride thanks to the absence of any challenging alignments.

Love vibrations increase in frequency — courtesy of a supportive, 60-degree alliance between Venus in Taurus and Neptune in Pisces (9:27am) and another 60-degree tie between the moon and Venus (5:58pm).

Have a field day in the fine and graphic arts. Lend a helping hand to the truly needy. Play a favorite musical instrument or improvise with a video camera during the monthly union between the moon and Neptune in Pisces (5:10pm).

Start gearing up for Mercury’s station and shift from reverse to direct on Sunday — the same day of a new moon happening within 2 degrees of Uranus, the revolutionary planet of genius, surprises and shock-waves.

[Note to readers: All times are now calculated for Pacific Daylight Time. Be sure to adjust all times according to your own local time so the alignments noted above will be exact for your location.]

Reference
Astrology.com

The Witches Current Moon Phase for Thursday, April 12

ommorow the Moon will be in a Waning Crescent phase. In this phase the Moon’s illumination is growing smaller each day until the New Moon. During this phase the Moon is getting closer to the Sun as viewed from Earth and the night side of the Moon is facing the Earth with only a small edge of the Moon being illuminated. This phase is best viewed an hour or 2 before the sunrise and can be quite beautiful if you’re willing to get up early. It can also be a great time to see the features of the Moon’s surface. Along the edge where the illuminated portion meets the dark side, the craters and mountains cast long shadows making them easier to observe with a telescope or binoculars.

PHASE DETAILS FOR – THURSDAY, APRIL 12, 2018

Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 14%
Moon Age: 25.95 days
Moon Angle: 0.50
Moon Distance: 396,671.24 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 149,989,613.22 km

Reference
MoonGiant

Waning Crescent Moon Phase

 

What is a waning crescent moon? The waning crescent moon, sometimes called an old moon, is defined to occur when the Moon is nearly, but not precisely, on a line with the Earth and Sun. This means that part but less than one-half of the Moon is illuminated by direct sunlight, creating a crescent moon. Because the fraction of the Moon’s disk that is illuminated is decreasing, we consider the Moon to be “waning.” Each new lunar cycle is measured beginning at each new moon and the waning crescent moon occurs when the Moon is more than three-quarters of the way around the sky (i.e., along its orbit) from new moon.
Waning Crescent Moon Dates / Next Waning Crescent Moon
When is the next waning crescent moon? A waning crescent moon is seen one day to several days before a new moon. The average calendrical month, which is 1/12 of a year, is about 30.44 days, while the Moon’s phase (synodic) cycle repeats on average every 29.53 days. Therefore the timing of the Moon’s phases shifts by an average of almost one day for each successive month. To find out the waning crescent moon dates, please see the waning crescent moon calendar below.

About the Waning Crescent Moon

The waning crescent moon, happens when the moon is between a 135 and 180 degree angle with respect to the Earth and Sun. So we are seeing less than half of the moon illuminated and more than half in shadow. The word “crescent” refers to the phases where the moon is less that half illuminated. “Waning” essentially means shrinking or decreasing in illumination. Each evening, as the moon’s orbital motion carries it away from the Earth-sun line, we see less of the moon’s day side.

Each lunar cycle begins with a new moon. As the Moon moves eastward away from the Sun in the sky, we see a bit more of the sunlit side of the Moon each night. We call this waxing. After the new moon, the sunlit portion is increasing, but less than half illuminated, so it is a waxing crescent moon. When half of the Moon’s disc is illuminated, we call it the first quarter moon. As the sunlit portion continues to increase, now more than half illuminated, it becomes waxing gibbous moon. When the Moon reaches maximum illumination, a full moon, the Moon has completed one half of the lunar month.

During the second half of the lunar month, the Moon grows thinner each night. We call this waning. The waning gibbous moon phase occurs first, followed by the last quarter moon when half of the Moon’s disc is illuminated. Next is the waning crescent moon, which wanes until the illumination is completely gone; a new moon
Reference
Full Moon Phases

Interesting Facts About The Moon

Called Luna with the Romans, Selene and Artemis with the Greeks, and many additional names in other mythologies.The Moon, of course, may be known since prehistoric times. It is the second brightest object within the sky after the Solar. As the Moon orbits round the Earth once per thirty days, the angle between the planet earth, the Moon and sunshine changes; we see this for the reason that cycle of the Moon’s periods. The time between effective new moons is twenty nine and a half days (709 hours), slightly totally different from the Moon’s orbital period (measured from the stars) since the Earth moves an important distance in its orbit round the Sun in that time period.Due to its size and composition, the Moon may also be classified as a terrestrial “planet” in addition to Mercury, Venus, Earth along with Mars.The Moon was visited by the Soviet spacecraft Luna two in 1959. It is the only extraterrestrial body to get been visited by humans. The first landing ended up being on July 20, 1969 (do you remember where you’re? ); the last is at December 1972. The Moon is additionally the only body where samples have been went back to Earth. In the summer of 1994, the Moon was very extensively mapped with the little spacecraft Clementine along with again in 1999 simply by Lunar Prospector.The gravitational forces relating to the Earth and the Moon cause some interesting results. The most obvious is the tides. The Moon’s gravitational attraction is stronger on the side of the Earth nearest to the Moon and weaker on the opposite side. Since the planet earth, and particularly the oceans, is not perfectly rigid it really is stretched out along the actual line toward the Moon. From our perspective on the Earth’s surface we notice two small bulges, one on the way to the Moon and one directly opposite. The effect is a lot stronger in the ocean water than within the solid crust so water bulges are higher. And considering that the Earth rotates much faster than the Moon moves in its orbit, the bulges maneuver around the Earth about once per day giving two high tides on a daily basis. (This is a enormously simplified model; actual tides, especially close to the coasts, are much more complicated. )But the Earth seriously isn’t completely fluid, either. The Earth’s rotation provides the Earth’s bulges slightly before point directly beneath the actual Moon. This means which the force between the Earth along with the Moon is not exactly across the line between their centers desigining a torque on the Soil and an accelerating force on the Moon. This causes a world wide web transfer of rotational energy from the Earth to the Moon, slowing down the Earth’s rotation by about 1. 5 milliseconds/century and raising the Moon in to a higher orbit by regarding 3. 8 centimeters annually. (The opposite effect occurs to satellites with unusual orbits for instance Phobos and Triton). The asymmetric nature on this gravitational interaction is also responsible for the truth that the Moon rotates synchronously, when i. e. it is locked throughout phase with its orbit so the same side is always facing toward the planet earth. Just as the Earth’s rotation is actually being slowed by the actual Moon’s influence so within the distant past the Moon’s rotation was slowed with the action of the Soil, but in that case the effect was much stronger. If your Moon’s rotation rate was slowed to match its orbital period (such which the bulge always faced toward the Earth) there is no longer an off-center torque on the Moon and a secure situation was achieved. A similar thing has happened to the vast majority of other satellites in the actual solar system. Eventually, the Earth’s rotation will likely be slowed to match the actual Moon’s period, too, as is the case with Pluto along with Charon.Actually, the Moon appears to wobble a lttle bit (due to its slightly non-circular orbit) so that a few degrees of the far side can be seen every once in awhile, but the majority of the far side (left) was completely unknown before the Soviet spacecraft Luna 3 photographed the item in 1959. (Note: there’s no “dark side” of the actual Moon; all parts of the actual Moon get sunlight half the time (except for some deep craters near the actual poles). Some uses of the term “dark side” previously may have referred to the far side as “dark” within the sense of “unknown” (eg “darkest Africa”) however even that meaning is no longer valid today! )The Moon doesn’t have atmosphere. But evidence from Clementine suggested that there could possibly be water ice in some deep craters close to the Moon’s south pole that are permanently shaded. This has been reinforced by facts from Lunar Prospector. There’s apparently ice at the north pole as well.The Moon’s crust averages 68 kilometers thick and varies by essentially 0 under Mare Crisium for you to 107 km north of the crater Korolev on the actual lunar far side. Below the crust is often a mantle and probably a tiny core (roughly 340 kilometers radius and 2% of the Moon’s mass). Unlike the planet earth, however, the Moon’s interior is no longer active. Curiously, the Moon’s center regarding mass is offset by its geometric center simply by about 2 km within the direction toward the Soil. Also, the crust is thinner on the near side.There are two primary varieties of terrain on the Moon: the heavily cratered and extremely old highlands and the actual relatively smooth and youthful maria. The maria (which comprise about 16% of the Moon’s surface) are huge impact craters which were later flooded by molten lava. A lot of the surface is covered with regolith, a mixture of great dust and rocky debris produced by meteor impacts. For many unknown reason, the maria are concentrated on the near side.Most of the craters on the in close proximity to side are named for famous figures within the history of science for instance Tycho, Copernicus, and Ptolemaeus. Features on the far side have newer references such as Apollo, Gagarin and Korolev (with any distinctly Russian bias since first images were acquired by Luna 3). Besides the familiar features on the actual near side, the Moon also offers the huge craters South Pole-Aitken on the far side which is actually 2250 km in height and 12 km deep so that it is the the largest impact basin within the solar system and Orientale on the western limb (as observed from Earth; in the biggest market of the image at left) the industry splendid example of any multi-ring crater.A total of 382 kg regarding rock samples were returned to the Earth by the Apollo along with Luna programs. These provide almost all of our detailed knowledge of the Moon. They are particularly valuable in that they may be dated. Even right now, more than 30 years as soon as the last Moon landing, people still study these cherished samples.Most rocks on the top of Moon seem to become between 4. 6 and 3 billion years. This is a fortuitous match while using the oldest terrestrial rocks that are rarely more than 3 billion years. Thus the Moon provides evidence in regards to the early history of the Solar System not available on the Earth.Prior to study of the Apollo examples, there was no consensus in regards to the origin of the Moon. There were three major theories: co-accretion which asserted which the Moon and the Earth formed concurrently from the Solar Nebula; fission which asserted which the Moon split off of the Earth; and capture which held which the Moon formed elsewhere along with was subsequently captured with the Earth. None of these work very well. But the new and detailed information from the Moon rocks led to the impact theory: that the planet earth collided with a very large object (as big because Mars or more) understanding that the Moon formed from the ejected material. There continue to be details to be exercised, but the impact theory is actually widely accepted.The Moon doesn’t have global magnetic field. But some of its surface rocks exhibit remanent magnetism indicating that there was a global magnetic field early within the Moon’s history.With no atmosphere with out magnetic field, the Moon’s surface is exposed right to the solar wind. Over its 4 million year lifetime many ions from the solar wind have become embedded within the Moon’s regolith. Thus types of regolith returned by the actual Apollo missions proved valuable in studies of the solar wind.

(And this was one long run on paragraph. Lynette)

Reference
Full Moon Phases