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 30

The Further Tail of Comet Leonard

Image Credit & Copyright: Daniele Gasparri

Explanation: Comet Leonard, brightest comet of 2021, is at the lower left of these two panels captured on December 29 in dark Atacama desert skies. Heading for its perihelion on January 3 Comet Leonard’s visible tail has grown. Stacked exposures with a wide angle lens (also displayed in a reversed B/W scheme for contrast), trace the complicated ion tail for an amazing 60 degrees, with bright Jupiter shining near the horizon at lower right. Material vaporizing from Comet Leonard’s nucleus, a mass of dust, rock, and ices about 1 kilometer across, has produced the long tail of ionized gas fluorescing in the sunlight. Likely flares on the comet’s nucleus and buffeting by magnetic fields and the solar wind in recent weeks have resulted in the tail’s irregular pinched and twisted appearance. Still days from its closest approach to the Sun, Comet Leonard’s activity should continue. The comet is south of the Solar System’s ecliptic plane as it sweeps through the southern constellation Microscopium.

30 December Daily Correspondence Digest for the Southern 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 Waning Crescent phase. In this phase the Moon’s illumination is growing smaller each day until the New Moon. In this phase the Moon’s illumination is growing smaller each day until the New Moon. During this part of the Moon cycle, 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.

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

Today’s Waning Crescent Phase

The Waning Crescent on December 30 has an illumination of 15%. 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 30 the Moon is 25.77 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: Waning Crescent
Illumination: 15%
Moon Age: 25.77 days
Moon Angle: 0.55
Moon Distance: 364,985.44 km
Sun Angle: 0.54
Sun Distance: 147,102,172.90 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

Southeastern Hemisphere

The time for this Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

30 December 2021
06:00 am GMT 5:00 PM AEDT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:08 Capricorn 45
Moon:19 Scorpio 31
Mercury:25 Capricorn 39
Venus:24 Capricorn 06 Rx
Mars:11 Sagittarius 51
Jupiter:00 Pisces 12
Saturn:11 Aquarius 43
Uranus:10 Taurus 59 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 38
Pluto:25 Capricorn 53
True Lunar Node:01 Gemini 13
Mean Lunar Node:29 Taurus 37 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):18 Gemini 16

Chiron:08 Aries 29

Ceres:28 Taurus 49 Rx
Pallas:16 Pisces 02
Juno:16 Capricorn 42
Vesta:23 Sagittarius 35
Eris:23 Aries 42 Rx

Fire:4
Earth:8
Air:3
Water:4

Cardinal:7
Fixed:5
Mutable:7

Southwestern Hemisphere

The time for this Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America

30 December 2021
08:00 pm GMT 5:00 PM BRT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:09 Capricorn 20
Moon:28 Scorpio 04
Mercury:26 Capricorn 30
Venus:23 Capricorn 50 Rx
Mars:12 Sagittarius 16
Jupiter:00 Pisces 19
Saturn:11 Aquarius 47
Uranus:10 Taurus 58 Rx
Neptune:20 Pisces 39
Pluto:25 Capricorn 54
True Lunar Node:01 Gemini 13
Mean Lunar Node:29 Taurus 36 Rx
Lilith (Black Moon):18 Gemini 20
Chiron:08 Aries 30
Ceres:28 Taurus 45 Rx
Pallas:16 Pisces 10
Juno:16 Capricorn 56
Vesta:23 Sagittarius 54
Eris:23 Aries 42 Rx

Fire:4

Earth:8
Air:3
Water:4

Cardinal:7
Fixed:5
Mutable:7

A Thought for Today

What Does My Spirituality Mean to Me?

Walking a Pagan spiritual path and doing some soul searching, I find it has helped me like myself and become a better person to all I meet. Part of my almost daily prayer is “Please help me be kind, consider, and thoughtful to anyone I come in contact with no matter how they may treat me, talk to or about me. Let my smile bring a little joy into their life today.” One morning I was praying while walking my dogs and a woman I had many run-ins with over the last couple of years start yelling something at me from inside her truck. I was just getting ready to yell back something equally offence when the Goddess or God or a Spirit Guide put those words in my head. So instead of what I was going to say I replied with, “Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. Hope you have a good one.” Needless to say she just sat there with her mouth hanging open, I waved and we continued our walk. The next time this woman’s and my paths crossed all she said was, “Good Morning.” This all happened almost 5 and a half years ago and to this day she is not a friend but at least nice when we happen to meet. We use to at opposite ends of the block until I moved so it happens about once a week while still living at my old address. I know it was meant as a growing thing for me to tolerate nasty people more but I wonder if she grew a little too?

My fiancée’ is a non-practicing Christian and is ok with me doing spellwork, rituals, blessing our home, etc. the time. When at all possible I do my full blown rituals (Big altar set up, pre-ritual bath, etc.) are done when he is gone or I do them out in our side yard. Sometimes though out of the clear blue he will ask me to do something for him, for example, getting his ex-wife to quit spreading very negative rumors about him. Which I more than willing did a spell to bind her from talking or writing or texting or typing anything about him.

I have five children, three boys and two girls. My oldest son is Buddhist, my middle son a sort of Christian (believes in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit but does not attend any church), my youngest son claims to be an Atheist but I have some doubts about that. My older daughter follows Lakota Native American traditions as well as some Christian and Pagan ones, my younger daughter is very Christian to the point that we have agreed not to talk to each other about our spiritual beliefs (Although I was raised in the same Christian church she attends with her family.) All my children are grown and live in their own homes which makes it easier to keep a small altar set up in mine all the time.

I also have three granddaughters and six grandsons, some are old enough to decide on their own what spiritual path they want to follow while other are not old enough in their parents eyes. Most of my grandchildren have inherited some type of special gift that can be nurtured properly with incorporating certain teachings into their spiritual lives. I am allowed to help five of the nine grandchildren with this openly. There is one I have to take small baby steps with because her mother is my youngest daughter but she wants to learn witchcraft. While this is not an ideal situation my daughter has begun to see the benefits of me helping her and is allowing me to do more with her. I do not want to force my spiritual path on any of my children or grandchildren but I expect them to respect my path as I respect theirs.

You may be asking yourself, “What does all of this have to do with the question I have in the title?” The answer is this what my spirituality means I have learned to have greater tolerance for people with beliefs different than my own. I have learned that it is ok to walk with the Goddesses and Gods and be comfortable doing so and being out of the “broom closet” all most all of the time. I have learned not to be afraid to answer the question, “What faith are you?” when in the hospital or other times and to answer without shame, “I am Pagan.” My spirituality is not something that I cling to in times of need or make a show of on Sabbats, my spirituality is something I walk with in every part of my life and do so proudly.

I hope and wish for those who are new or even older to The Craft can feel the same way. I hope that someday all Pagans can be out of the broom closet and accepted in mainstream society and our spirituality is accept too. This is not going to happen overnight or by us hiding who and what we are. Be proud of the path you choose to bring you closer to yourself and any deities you may wish to interact with.

Lady Beltane.2021