The Sky This Week: April 16 – 17

Saturday, April 16

Mars pokes above the eastern horizon just after 11 p.m. local daylight time this week and remains prominent until morning twilight is well underway. The Red Planet’s eastward motion relative to the background stars of southern Ophiuchus comes to a halt today; it then starts moving westward at the start of its so-called retrograde loop. This is a sure sign that Mars is approaching peak visibility, which it will reach at opposition in late May. Our neighboring world currently shines at magnitude–1.0, trailing only the Moon, Jupiter, and Sirius. When viewed through a telescope, Mars appears 14″ across and should display a prominent north polar cap as well as subtle dark markings.

Sunday, April 17

The waxing gibbous Moon’s motion through the night sky carries it near Jupiter tonight. The night sky’s two brightest objects appear only 2° apart, or about four times the Moon’s diameter.

Source

Astronomy Magazine

Your Sun & Moon Data for Saturday, April 16th

Sun
Current Time: Apr 16, 2016 at 9:43:36 AM
Sun Direction: ↑ 109.38° ESE
Sun Altitude: 39.65°
Sun Distance: 93.303 million mi
Next Solstice: Jun 20, 2016 5:34 PM (Summer)
Sunrise Today: 6:18 AM↑ 76° East
Sunset Today: 7:31 PM↑ 284° West
Length of Day: 13 hours, 12 minutes

 

Moon
Current Time: Apr 16, 2016 at 9:45:06 AM
Moon Direction: ↑ 14.07° NNE
Moon Altitude: -41.70°
Moon Distance: 246579 mi
Next Full Moon: Apr 22, 201612:23 AM
Next New Moon: May 6, 20162:29 PM
Next Moonrise: Today2:40 PM
Current Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous
Illumination: 74.0%

 

Source

timeanddate.com

 

Good morning, my dear brothers & sisters! I hope you are having a glorious Saturday morning. I thought I would give you a quick up-date on our fight with the site who was stealing us blind. I haven’t said anything because it did look like we were going to have to take legal action against them. Our lawyers advised me not to make any public statements in regards to the situation, so I haven’t. As of yesterday morning, I did think we would be in court with them.

 

I had filed two complaints against them through the DMCA. The first complaint was in regards to the use of our name. After receiving that complaint, they did remove our name from the menu. In their category section our name was still there. To avoid being caught using our name they added an “s” to the end of it. They had turned us into witchesofthecrafts. I followed the link and there was 11 pages of our material on their site. When I saw what extremes this site would go too just to keep our name on their site, I decided if they wanted to go courting then we would go.

 

Yesterday, I filed my final complaint through the DMCA before we took legal action. We could not only bring suit against the site but also the site’s host. The last DMCA complaint that was sent to the site was returned because the individual who owned the site had closed out their email. The complaint was also sent to the host of the site. The host went into the site and removed our name from the side bar and also all 11 pages of our material there. Finally, we had our victory.

 

I have a lot of people to thank for helping us accomplish this. The DMCA, Google, Yahoo, Bing, all the sites we pull material from on a daily basis, our members, and the individuals who offered to buy me plane tickets to Pakistan. The DMCA is great to say the least. We should have joined them a long time ago. Google, if you ever had a problem with a site no matter where it is located, contact them. Yahoo and Bing were kind enough to remove all links from their search engines in regards to this site. The sites we pull our information from daily, we have signed contracts and agreements with them. Once they found out the information was being stolen, they banded together and stood behind us in this fight. Our members, I can’t say enough about you or thank you enough. The Korean site crashed every day last week because of the massive amount of comments that were being left by you. Thank you so much. I have found that you are as passionate about this site as we are, again thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

This is one thing I want to clear up. The information that we put out every day is for our members to use. We have always operated this way and will continue to do so. We want you to use whatever you want on your site. You have our permission to do so. I know I came down very hard on the Korean site but it was because they used our name. We have had our name registered for 13 years. I have never seen the need to place the little encircled “r” behind our name until here recently. When they stole our name, they slapped me in the face. I guarantee you this old witch doesn’t take kindly to being slapped. But our information remains as always, free for our members to use on their sites. We do this every day for you and your sites. We don’t do it for people who steal our name.

Thank you again, my sweet, precious family,

Love ya,

Lady A

See ya’ in a bit!

A Fairy Tale for Assertive Women

Once upon a time, in a land far away, a beautiful, independent, self-assured princess happened upon a frog as she sat contemplating ecological issues on the shores of an unpolluted pond in a verdant meadow near her castle.

The frog hopped into the Princess’ lap and said: “Elegant Lady, I was once a handsome Prince, until an evil Witch cast a spell upon me. One kiss from you, however, and I will turn back into the dapper, young Prince that I am and then, my sweet, we can marry and setup housekeeping in yon castle with my Mother, where you can prepare my meals, clean my clothes, bear my children, and forever feel grateful and happy doing so.”

That night, on a repast of lightly sauted frogs legs seasoned in a white wine and onion cream sauce, she chuckled to herself and thought: “I don’t think so.”

Source

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 April 15

Mercury and Crescent Moon Set
Image Credit & Copyright: Miguel Claro (TWAN, Dark Sky Alqueva)

 

Explanation: Innermost planet Mercury and a thin crescent Moon are never found far from the Sun in planet Earth’s skies. Taken near dusk on April 8, this colorful evening skyscape shows them both setting toward the western horizon just after the Sun. The broad Tagus River and city lights of Lisbon, Portugal run through the foreground under the serene twilight sky. Near perigee or closest approach to Earth, the Moon’s bright, slender crescent represents about 3 percent of the lunar disk in sunlight. Of course as seen from the Moon, a nearly full Earth would light up the lunar night, and that strong perigee earthshine makes the rest of the lunar disk visible in this scene. Bright Mercury stays well above the western horizon at sunset for northern skywatchers in the coming days. The fleeting planet reaches maximum elongation, or angular distance from the Sun, on April 18. But Mercury will swing back toward the Sun and actually cross the solar disk on May 9, the first transit of Mercury since November 8, 2006.

The lions are out today. Stand in the Sun and shake loose your mane. Leo is exuberant, courageous, playful and full of heart. It’s a Moontime that inspires heroic feats. What makes a hero? A crazy willingness to do what only you can do. I like how Bob Dylan sang it, “If I’d paid attention to what others were thinking, the heart in me would have died. But I was much too stubborn to ever be governed by enforced insanity. Someone had to reach for the rising star, I guess it was up to me.” More often we’re like that proverbial cartoon figure, momentarily gliding on air, ten stories high, then plummeting the minute we realize what we’re doing-self-consciousness and pride spoil the show. Avoid those egos squaring off around you. Lose yourself in the spontaneity of the moment. Be innocent and happy as a child. Play will nourish your heart.

 

Part of the Daily Insight Group

The Wisdom of Buddha

Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.

 

Your Daily Influences
April 15, 2016 

 

King of Cups
Fairness on all levels. Generosity and morality abound. A high degree of skill is displayed in all things attempted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Isa
The Ice Rune, represents stagnation and a passionless existence. Your life’s course may seem blurry at the moment, but if you persevere you will move onto better days.

 

 

 

Book of Charms
Someone will or has invaded your privacy with ill intentions, and created an atmosphere of distrust. The information they obtained will be used against you.

 

 

 

 

Your Daily Influences represent events and challenges the current day will present for you. They may represent opportunities you should be ready to seize. Or they may forewarn you of problems you may be able to avoid or lessen. Generally it is best to use them as tips to help you manage your day and nothing more.

 

Your Daily Charm for Today

Today’s Meaning:
The hand indicates you will need to extend effort to protect this aspect from outside influences. The devices attached indicate you will need tools to be successful in your protection.

General Description:
The use of a representation of the Hand as a talisman can be traced back to at least 800 years B.C., when it was used as a charm against enchantment. Many varieties of the Hand exist; in some the elaboration is very marked, each devise represents some particular charm. Life size models of these Hands were supposed to guard the house against all the influences of magic and evil, and smaller replicas protected their wearers from every description of harm. The extended thumb and first two fingers, the third and fourth fingers closed, is the position still assumed during the benediction in some Christian Churches of today.

Your Ancient Symbol Card Reading for the Weekend of April 15th

 

 

Past Influence whose impact on your life will appear are waning.

Chance

The Chance card denotes a period in which taking risks may produce positive results. This doesn’t mean head off to a casino with your life’s savings! What is suggested is that you should make gains by taking a well calculated risk. For the power of Chance to be fully realized it is essential that you pick your risk carefully, move forward with conviction, and above all else don’t get greedy!

 

 

 

 

 

Present Influence whose impact on your life this weekend will be very strong.

The Journey

While physical travel may be involved, The Journey represents an individual’s spiritual trek from one point to another. The Journey is represented by a sailboat gliding across an open sea. Like those traversing the ocean The Journey requires that we move off the firm ground of our present state and strike out for a new destination. The trip itself may well be full of adventure and challenges. There may be times when we lose sight of where we came from and possibly not even know where we’re going. Storms may crop up without warning. Diversions may slow our progress to our destination down. While it’s good to have an idea of where you want to go, it’s equally important to remember that often it’s the getting there and not the destination that is the most rewarding. To take such a spiritual voyage takes courage and conviction that direction in which your are moving is right for you.

 

 

Future influence whose impact on your life is growing and will be very strong in the upcoming weekend.

Love

Love indicates that love is either present in our life or a distinct possibility. Be open to all possibilities, remembering that true love is given freely, without condition, and does not have to be earned. This is the kind of love we want to welcome into our life and to give to others. Be open to new ideas, and beware of judging against someone in an unloving manner. When Love appears, return to the place where you can love yourself and then seek out the same love from others.

Your Ancient Symbol Card for Today

Venus

Venus represents those qualities we commonly associate with the female/yin persona. Venus traits include fertility and the drive to create, unblemished beauty, love, passion, and togetherness. The occurrence of Venus denotes the dominating presence or need of the qualities listed above. While often very subtle, Venetian influences may have a negative impact unless they are balanced with an influence that can temper the drive of Venus.

As a daily card, Venus suggest you should allow your more feminine traits to guide your actions through this period. Subtlety, efforts to bring people together and allowing your creativity to run free are likely to serve you well at this time. However, like Mars, the powers of Venus are very strong and can do more damage than good if not balanced by other influences.