536 Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire

1212 Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz

1968 NLS (a system for which hypertext and the computer mouse were developed) is publicly demonstrated for the first time in San Francisco.

1990 Lech Wałęsa wins Poland’s 1st direct presidential election in Poland

1992 Operation Restore Hope: US Marines land in Somalia

Today’s Historical Events

536 Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire

656 Battle of Kameel: Kalief Al ibn Abu Talib beats rebellion

730 Battle of Marj Ardabil, Turkic Khazar army led by Barjik defeats Umayyad force, with 20,000 killed including general al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah, whose head is mounted on a throne

1212 Frederick II (later also Holy Roman Emperor) crowned King of Germany in Mainz

1315 Swiss Woudsteden renews Eternal Covenant (Oath Society)

1425 Pope Martinus V forms University of Leuven

1570 The Geuzen (a confederacy of Calvinist Dutch nobles) under Herman de Ruyter occupies Loevestein

1625 Netherlands & England sign military treaty

Today’s Historical Events in Film and TV

1960 1st broadcast of “Coronation Street” on British ITV

1965 “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, the first Peanuts animated special premieres on CBS in the US

1968 KRNE TV channel 12 in Merriman, NB (PBS) begins broadcasting

1968 Terence O’Neill, Northern Ireland Prime Minister, makes a television appeal for moderate opinion in what became known as the ‘Ulster stands at the Crossroads’ speech

1988 NY Yankees sign 12-year television contract with MSG for $500M

1988 Premiere of fact based crime drama film “Mississippi Burning”

1990 23rd NAACP Image Awards: “Coming to America” wins Outstanding Motion Picture

1997 “Tomorrow Never Dies“, 18th James Bond film starring Pierce Brosnan and Michelle Yeoh, premieres in London

Today’s Historical Music Events

1842 Mikhail Glinka’s opera “Russlan and Ludmilla” premieres at the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre, in St. Petersburg, Russia

1905 Richard Strauss‘ opera “Salome” premieres in Dresden

1954 Dmitri Shostakovich appointed honored guest of Royal Swedish Academy of Music

1961 “From the Second City” closes at Royale Theater NYC after 87 performances

1961 “Let It Ride” closes at Eugene O’Neill Theater NYC after 68 performances

1964 John Coltrane‘s Quartet records their greatest work “A Love Supreme” at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

1967 Jim Morrison arrested on stage for disturbing the peace at the New Haven Arena, Connecticut, making him the 1st rock star to be taken into custody during a performance

1973 “Pajama Game” opens at Lunt Fontanne Theater NYC for 65 performances

Today’s Historical Events in Sports

1892 English football club Newcastle United founded

1913 Heavyweight Jack Johnson-Jim Johnson fight to no decision in Paris

1913 John K Tener becomes president of baseball’s National League

1922 1st Australasian Championships Women’s Tennis, Sydney: Margaret Molesworth wins inaugural title; beats fellow Australian Esna Boyd 6-3, 10-8

1922 Australasian Championships Men’s Tennis, Sydney: James Anderson wins 1st of 3 Australasian titles; beats fellow Australian Gerald Patterson 6-0, 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2

1925 AL extends Ban Johnson‘s contract to 1935 & raise to $40,000

1926 USGA legalizes steel shaft golf clubs

1931 Baseball cuts squad from 25 to 23 players & NL continues to prohibit uniform numbers

December 9 Daily Correspondence Digest for the Northern Hemisphere’s Moon Phase and Planetary Positions

You can use this link to go forward or backward in time for Moon phase information. If you are curious you can even find out what phase the Moon was in when you or anyone else, you know was on the date the person was born.

From Moongiant.com

The Moon’s current phase for today and tonight is a Waxing Crescent Phase. A Waxing Crescent is the first Phase after the New Moon and is a great time to see the features of the moon’s surface. During this phase the Moon can be seen in the wester sky after the sun dips below the horizon at sunset. The moon is close to the sun in the sky and mostly dark except for the right edge of the moon which becomes brighter as the days get closer to the next phase which is a First Quarter with a 50% illumination.

Visit the December 2021 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waxing Crescent Phase

The Waxing Crescent on December 9 has an illumination of 33%. This is the percentage of the Moon illuminated by the Sun. The illumination is constantly changing and can vary up to 10% a day. On December 9 the Moon is 5.8 days old. This refers to how many days it has been since the last New Moon. It takes 29.53 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and go through the lunar cycle of all 8 Moon phases.

The 8 Lunar Phases

There are 8 lunar phases the Moon goes through in its 29.53 days lunar cycle. The 4 major Moon phases are Full Moon, New Moon, First Quarter and Last Quarter. Between these major phases, there are 4 minor ones: the Waxing Crescent, Waxing Gibbous, Waning Gibbous and Waning Crescent. For more info on the Moon Cycle and on each phase check out Wikipedia Lunar Phase page.

Phase Details

Phase: Waxing Crescent
Illumination: 33%
Moon Age: 5.80 days
Moon Angle: 0.53
Moon Distance: 376,795.45 km
Sun Angle: 0.54
Sun Distance: 147,323,356.20 km

Useful Moon Resources

Check the weather before a night of Moon gazing at weather.com

For a list of all the current meteor showers visit American Meteor Society

If you need to calculate the planetary positions for a specific use and time, click on this link

Currentplanetarypositions.com

To figure out GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to your local time use this link

For Your Local Time and Date

Northeastern Hemisphere

The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Frankfurt, Germany, Europe

9 December 2021
04:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM CEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:17 Sagittarius 48
Moon:00 Pisces 38
Mercury:23 Sagittarius 36
Venus:24 Capricorn 40
Mars:27 Scorpio 23
Jupiter:26 Aquarius 38
Saturn:09 Aquarius 42
Uranus:11 Taurus 28 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 25
Pluto:25 Capricorn 16
True Lunar Node:01 Gemini 37 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:00 Gemini 43 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):15 Gemini 59
Chiron:08 Aries 29 Rx
Ceres:02 Gemini 15 Rx
Pallas:11 Pisces 47
Juno:08 Capricorn 53
Vesta:12 Sagittarius 29
Eris:23 Aries 47 Rx

Fire:5

Earth:4
Air:6
Water:4

Cardinal:5
Fixed:4
Mutable:10

Northwestern Hemisphere

The time for the Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Chicago, Illinois, USA

December 09, 2021
11:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM CST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:18 Sagittarius 06
Moon:04 Pisces 35
Mercury:24 Sagittarius 03
Venus:24 Capricorn 46
Mars:27 Scorpio 35
Jupiter:26 Aquarius 40
Saturn:09 Aquarius 43
Uranus:11 Taurus 28 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 25
Pluto:25 Capricorn 16
True Lunar Node:01 Gemini 37 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:00 Gemini 42 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):16 Gemini 01
Chiron:08 Aries 29 Rx
Ceres:02 Gemini 11 Rx
Pallas:11 Pisces 50
Juno:08 Capricorn 59
Vesta:12 Sagittarius 38
Eris:23 Aries 47 Rx

Fire:5
Earth:4
Air:6
Water:4

Cardinal:5
Fixed:4
Mutable:10

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.

2021 December 9

A Total Eclipse of the Sun

Image Credit & Copyright: Theo Boris, Christian A. Lockwood, David Zimmerman (JM Pasachoff Antarctic Expedition)
Compositing: Zev Hoover and Ronald Dantowitz (MARS Scientific)

Explanation: Few were able to stand in the Moon’s shadow and watch the December 4 total eclipse of the Sun. Determined by celestial mechanics and not geographical boundaries, the narrow path of totality tracked across planet Earth’s relatively inaccessible southernmost continent. Still, some enthusiastic and well-insulated eclipse chasers were rewarded with the dazzling spectacle in Antarctica’s cold but clear skies. Taken just before the brief totality began, this image from a ground-based telescope inside the edge of the shadow path at Union Glacier catches a glimmer of sunlight near the top of the silhouetted lunar disk. Look closely for the pinkish solar prominences arcing above the Sun’s limb. During totality, the magnificent solar corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, made its much anticipated appearance, seen in the composite view streaming far from the Sun’s edge.