The Goddess Book of Days for May The 31st

Feast of Stella Maris/Venus in Venice. She is Mary, Isis, Kwan Yin, Kwannon, Nu Kwa, Sarasvati, Tonantzin, Mari, the Shekinah, Ishtar, Astarte, Yemaya, Erzulie, Tara, Mariamne, Marina, Kali Mari, Ata Bey, Aphrodite, Freya, Maid Marian, the Lady. Stella Maris means “Star of the Sea.” Also day commemorating Joan of Arc, 1412–1431, a priestess of the Goddess and French Amazon.

 

Source

The Goddess Book of Days
Diane Stein

Tuesday, May 31

 

Tuesday is dedicated to the powers of the planet Mars, personified in Ares, Tiwaz, Tiw, Tuisco and Tyr. Tuesday rules controlled power, energy and endurance.

Deity: Tiwaz

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Planet: Mars

Tree: Holly

Herb: Plantain

Stone: Agate

Animal: Crab

Element: Fire

Color: White

Number: 2

Rune: Tyr (T)

Celtic Tree Month of Hauth (Hawthorn) – May 13 – June 9. Hawthorn month is a time of fertility, masculine energy, and fire. Also associated with the realm of Faerie.

Runic Half-Month of Ing (expansive, energy) – May 14 -28

Goddess of the Month of Hera – May 16 – June 12
 

Source

The Pagan Book of Days
Nigel Pennick

 

Spellwork for Tuesday, the Day of Mars

 Strength
 Anger
 Independence
 Motivation
 Conquest
 Action
 Education
 Force
 Handling conflict

 

Source

A Spell Crafter’s Compendium
Terri Paajanen

 

The Sky This Week for May 31 to June 5

Mars is at its closest approach, but Jupiter is no slouch in the night sky this week.

Tuesday, May 31

• Neptune rises before 2 a.m. local daylight time this week and appears low in the southeast before dawn. The distant world glows at magnitude 7.9, so you’ll need binoculars or a telescope to spot it. Fortunately, it lies near a brighter star that will help guide you. Look for the planet 0.5° southeast of 4th-magnitude Lambda (l) Aquarii. You can confirm a sighting of Neptune through a telescope, which reveals the planet’s 2.3″-diameter disk and blue-gray color.

Wednesday, June 1

• The conspicuous Summer Triangle asterism dominates the eastern sky in late evening. Vega, the triangle’s brightest member, shines at magnitude 0.0 and stands highest of the three stars. To its lower left lies Deneb; at magnitude 1.3, it is the faintest of the trio. Magnitude 0.8 Altair resides at the bottom right and completes the bright asterism. Despite its name, the Summer Triangle appears prominent from late spring until winter begins.

Thursday, June 2

• Saturn lies opposite the Sun in our sky tonight (officially at 3 a.m. EDT on June 3) and reaches its peak visibility for 2016. The ringed planet appears low in the southeast as darkness falls and grows more prominent as the evening wears on and it climbs higher. It stands about one-third of the way to the zenith in the southern sky around 1 a.m. local daylight time. Saturn lies among the background stars of southern Ophiuchus and shines at magnitude 0.0, nearly 10 times brighter than any of this constellation’s stars. When viewed through a telescope, the dramatic ring system spans 42″ and tilts 26° to our line of sight, while Saturn’s family of moderately bright moons appears next to the gorgeous world.

Friday, June 3

• The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 6:55 a.m. EDT. It then lies 224,402 miles (361,140 kilometers) away from us.

Saturday, June 4

• Another comet in the growing crowd of such objects discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii makes its appearance in June’s morning sky. Comet PANSTARRS (C/2013 X1) currently glows around 7th magnitude in southern Aquarius. As a bonus today, the comet’s head lies less than 1° east of the Helix Nebula (NGC 7293) while the comet’s tail grazes this bright planetary. From most of the United States, you’ll need a haze-free southeastern horizon to spot the comet through a telescope shortly before dawn breaks.

• New Moon occurs at 11:00 p.m. EDT. At its new phase, the Moon crosses the sky with the Sun and so remains hidden in our star’s glare.

Sunday, June 5

• Mercury reaches greatest elongation today, when it lies 24° west of the Sun and stands 6° high in the east a half-hour before sunrise. The innermost planet shines at magnitude 0.5 and shows up easily through binoculars if you have an unobstructed horizon. When viewed through a telescope, Mercury appears 8″ across and about one-third lit.
 

Source

Astronomy Magazine

 

Your Daily Sun & Moon Data for Tuesday, May 31

Sun
Sun Direction: ↑ 93.20° E
Sun Altitude: 42.57°
Sun Distance: 94.259 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 20, 2016 5:34 PM (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 5:36 AM↑ 61° Northeast
Sunset Today: 8:08 PM↑ 299° Northwest
Length of Daylight: 14 hours, 32 minutes

Moon
Moon Direction: ↑ 195.02° SSW
Moon Altitude: 52.95°
Moon Distance: 227943 mi
Next New Moon: Jun 4, 20169:59 PM
Next Full Moon: Jun 20, 20166:02 AM
Next Moonset: Today3:07 PM
Current Moon Phase: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 27.2%

 

Source

timeanddate.com

 

I wanted to take a moment to tell you how sorry we were not to be here yesterday on Memorial Day. I know we did do Memorial Day postings on Sunday, which now I am so glad we did. Everyone thought I was getting an early jump around here but I was planning on celebrating Memorial Day for two days instead of one. Our veterans who gave so much for our country and our freedom, deserve more than just one day a year to be honored. In fact, I believe we should make an effort every day to say a silent prayer for those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and those that are fighting today. Without them, our country would be nothing, no freedoms, no right and no telling what kind of government we would have. I hate it we were not here but we love all our servicemen and women and pray for their safety every day.

 

Now, something you need to pay attention too. I have been in this business long enough that I have developed all sorts of friends who can do anything on a computer. I have always heard grapevine stories and not too long ago I heard one that upset me. This rumor involved Microsoft and as you know, when Microsoft did their upgrade from 7 to 8, we lost five computers. I no longer trust Microsoft and I would not download anything they offer. That is just my personal opinion and they have costed us a lot. Anyway back to the grapevine rumor, apparently Microsoft has been pushing a security program for the past few months. This program is due to end today. A whistle-blower came forth and acknowledged that Microsoft had viruses, trojans, worms, you name it ready to be released tomorrow. Because today is the last day this program Microsoft is offering will be available for sale. What the purpose of this is, I have no idea. I do not trust Microsoft and the few computers that we do have Microsoft software on them, I spent yesterday updating and upping the firewalls and security on everyone of them. It is public knowledge that Microsoft wants to get out of the software business. But to actually destroy so many computers is beyond me. They won’t give updates to any of their software, they won’t give patches for any viruses, you are just left out there to sink or swim. We are not sinking this time. As I stated our firewalls are maxed out and all our security software is up-dated as well.

 

I wouldn’t be telling you this unless Microsoft did eventually mention that the upgrade that destroyed so many computers did cause it. They admitted it but they did not offer to replace a one of the computers that were destroyed at that time. Now this current threat that has appeared, I take it very seriously and I hope you will too. Do all your security software updates today, set your firewalls up and do not download a thing from Microsoft. After today, there is no telling what you will be downloading. It was also told to me that Microsoft has tracking cookies that will be in this mess that is sent out. These cookies can track your movements, get your passwords, your credit card info and any personal information. They will able to tell every place you go on the net and if you log into your bank or a credit card site, they can steal your password and have full access to everything at that site. So, please, please, take this very seriously. The only real reason I can think of a company doing this is to sell more computers. Business must be bad. The truth is coming out about these companies and some of the tricks they pull to boost their sales is unreal. They prey on the poor and uninformed. I beg you to take this very seriously, if I did not know my source well enough to believe this, I would not be relaying it to you. Please take every precaution you can today to protect yourself. We don’t want you to lose your computers because we love having you here. We also believe that everyone has a right to know when a company does such under-handed tricks just to make a dollar.

 

We will see you shortly……

 

Love ya,

Lady A

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 May 29

Valles Marineris: The Grand Canyon of Mars
Image Credit: Viking Project, USGS, NASA

 

Explanation: Mars will look good in Earth’s skies over the next few days — but not this good. To get a view this amazing, a spacecraft had to actually visit the red planet. Running across the image center, though, is one the largest canyons in the Solar System. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. By comparison, the Earth’s Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA is 800 kilometers long, 30 kilometers across, and 1.8 kilometers deep. The origin of the Valles Marineris remains unknown, although a leading hypothesis holds that it started as a crack billions of years ago as the planet cooled. Several geologic processes have been identified in the canyon. The featured mosaic was created from over 100 images of Mars taken by Viking Orbiters in the 1970s. Tomorrow, Mars and Earth will pass the closest in 11 years, resulting in the red planet being quite noticeable toward the southeast after sunset.

Best time to see Saturn is here!

Tonight – or any night in late May 2016 – watch for the ringed planet Saturn. It’s found near the brilliant planet Mars (which is closest to us on May 30 for the first time in two years) and the star Antares. It’s not just Mars that’s closest around now. Saturn also comes closest to Earth for the year on Friday, June 3 – only four days after Mars’ closest approach on Monday.

Both Mars and Saturn are coming up fairly early in the evening now. Mars has been awesome for weeks, and the best time to observe Saturn in all of 2016 is also upon us.

Earth will pass between Saturn and the sun on June 3, 2016. That is Saturn’s yearly opposition, and it marks the middle of the best time of year to see this planet.

After coming up in the eastern part of the sky in early evening, Saturn will continue to climb upward throughout the evening hours. This world will soar to its highest spot in the sky after the midnight hour. It’ll be low in the west at morning dawn.

As with all the planets, you’ll find Saturn along the same path that the sun and moon travel across the sky. Look generally eastward after nightfall. Try looking first for brilliant Mars in the east at nightfall or early evening, and then look for fainter Saturn and the star Antares below Mars.

Golden Saturn is fainter than Mars but brighter that the ruddy-colored Antares.

I know the focus has been on Mars in recent weeks. But start watching Saturn now! You’ll enjoy it and Mars for many weeks to come.

Saturn is the most distant world we can easily see with unaided eye. It shines as brightly as as a bright star. But it does not shine as brightly as evening’s two brightest planets, Mars and Jupiter.

As Earth moves around the sun, the Earth’s change of position will cause Mars, Saturn and Antares, the brightest star in the constellation Scorpius the Scorpion, to rise some four minutes earlier daily, or one-half hour earlier each week. Best of all, you can use Mars to locate Saturn for months to come. In fact, Mars and Saturn will stage their conjunction in the evening sky on August 25, 2016, whereby both worlds will fit within a single binocular field.

When the Earth finally passes in between Saturn and the sun on the night of June 2-3, Earth will come closest to Saturn for the year, and Saturn, in turn, will shine at its brilliant best for 2016.

So, in less a week from now, the planet Saturn will be at opposition (opposite the sun in Earth’s sky). Saturn will be out all night long at that juncture, rising in the east around sunset and setting in the west around sunrise. Note the beautiful contrast of color between golden Saturn, red Mars and ruddy Antares! It won’t be too much longer before Saturn stays out from dusk until dawn.

Bottom line: Earth will pass between the sun and Saturn on June 3, 2016. The best time of year to see the planet is here.

 

Author

Bruce McClure

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mars in Scorpio

Watch out! Fiery Mars is in scorching Scorpio

Part of the Daily Insight Group