May 18 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.

2022 May 18

A Jewel on the Flower Moon

Image Credit & Copyright: Tomas Slovinsky

Explanation: Cloudy skies plagued some sky watchers on Sunday as May’s Full Flower Moon slipped through Earth’s shadow in a total lunar eclipse. In skies above Chile’s Atacama desert this telephoto snapshot still captured an awesome spectacle though. Seen through thin high cirrus clouds just before totality began, a last sliver of sunlit crescent glistens like a hazy jewel atop the mostly shadowed lunar disk. This full moon was near perigee, the closest point in its elliptical orbit. It passed near the center of Earth’s dark umbral shadow during the 90 minute long total eclipse phase. Faintly suffused with sunlight scattered by the atmosphere, the umbral shadow itself gave the eclipsed moon a reddened appearance and the very dramatic popular moniker of a Blood Moon.

A Laugh for Today

It can happen when there is no alcohol too!

19 May 2022 Southern Hemisphere’s Planetary Positions Digest

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 these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Sao Paulo, Brazil, South America

19 May 2022
03:00 pm GMT 12:00 PM BRT
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:28 Taurus 37
Moon:16 Capricorn 41
Mercury:01 Gemini 57 Rx
Venus:19 Aries 31
Mars:26 Pisces 00
Jupiter:01 Aries 38
Saturn:25 Aquarius 02
Uranus:15 Taurus 37
Neptune:25 Pisces 01
Pluto:28 Capricorn 30 Rx

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 30 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:22 Taurus 11 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):03 Cancer 52

Chiron:14 Aries 56
Ceres:01 Cancer 47
Pallas:08 Taurus 31
Juno:09 Pisces 37
Vesta:28 Aquarius 36

Eris:24 Aries 42

Fire:4
Earth:7
Air:3
Water:5

Cardinal:8
Fixed:7
Mutable:4

Southern Hemisphere

The time for these Custom Planetary Positions is from the local time in Cape Town, South Africa

19 May 2022
10:00 am GMT 12:00 PM SAST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:28 Taurus 25
Moon:13 Capricorn 36
Mercury:02 Gemini 04 Rx
Venus:19 Aries 16
Mars:25 Pisces 51
Jupiter:01 Aries 35
Saturn:25 Aquarius 02
Uranus:15 Taurus 36
Neptune:25 Pisces 01
Pluto:28 Capricorn 31 Rx

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 30 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:22 Taurus 12 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):03 Cancer 50

Chiron:14 Aries 55
Ceres:01 Cancer 41
Pallas:08 Taurus 25
Juno:09 Pisces 33
Vesta:28 Aquarius 32

Eris:24 Aries 42

Fire:4
Earth:7
Air:3
Water:5

Cardinal:8
Fixed:7
Mutable:4

Southwestern Hemisphere

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

19 May 2022
02:00 am GMT 12:00 PM AEST
Zodiac: Tropical (Standard Western)

Sun:28 Taurus 06
Moon:08 Capricorn 40
Mercury:02 Gemini 15 Rx
Venus:18 Aries 53
Mars:25 Pisces 36
Jupiter:01 Aries 32
Saturn:25 Aquarius 01
Uranus:15 Taurus 35
Neptune:25 Pisces 01
Pluto:28 Capricorn 31 Rx

True Lunar Node:22 Taurus 31 Rx
Mean Lunar Node:22 Taurus 13 Rx

Lilith (Black Moon):03 Cancer 48

Chiron:14 Aries 54
Ceres:01 Cancer 33
Pallas:08 Taurus 16
Juno:09 Pisces 27
Vesta:28 Aquarius 26

Eris:24 Aries 42

Fire:4
Earth:7
Air:3
Water:5

Cardinal:8
Fixed:7
Mutable:4

Some of the Witchcraft/Magickal Correspondence Digest for Wednesday

Magickal Intentions: Communication, Divination, Writing, Knowledge, Business Transactions, Debt, Fear, Loss, Travel and Money Matters

Incense: Jasmine, Lavender, Sweet Pea

Planet: Mercury and Chiron (though this is a moon of Pluto)

Sign: Virgo

Angel: Raphael

Colors: Orange, Light Blue, Grey, Yellow and Violet

Herbs/Plants: Fern, Lavender, Hazel, Cherry, Periwinkle

Stones: Aventurine, Bloodstone, Hematite, Moss Agate and Sodalite

Oil: (Mercury) Benzoin, Clary Sage, Eucalyptus, Lavender

This day is governed by Mercury. Wednesday’s vibration adds power to rituals involving inspiration, communications, writers, poets, the written and spoken word, and all matters of study, learning, and teaching. This day also provides a good time to begin efforts involving self-improvement or understanding.

Spell for Today

An enchantment for your toothpaste and toothbrush to keep a bright smile on your face and ensure good luck throughout the day.

Brush my pearly whites, make them shine
To smile through troubles, to be just fine.
Show off their brilliance, each moment of the day
For I know for certain, things will go my way.

This can be used daily alongside any other incantations or enchantments.

–The Power of Positive Witchcraft: Daily Incantations & Enchantments: A Spell a Day for 30 Days
Garden Summerland

A Thought for Today

When doing spells for yourself set your intention that it will work just as you want it to. As you are writing the spell envision the outcome you want to happen.

Until we meet again dear sisters, brothers, and honored guests may you blessed be.

May 17, 2022 Current Moon Phase Digest

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 was born.

From Moongiant.com

Today and tonight the Moon will be in a Waning Gibbous Phase. This is the first phase after the Full Moon occurs. It lasts roughly 7 days with the Moon’s illumination growing smaller each day until the Moon becomes a Last Quarter Moon with an illumination of 50%. The average Moon rise for this phase is between 9pm and Midnight depending on the age of the phase. The moon rises later and later each night setting after sunrise in the morning. During this phase the Moon can also be seen in the early morning daylight hours on the western horizon.

Visit the May 2022 Moon Phases Calendar to see all the daily moon phase for this month.

Today’s Waning Gibbous Phase

The Waning Gibbous on May 17 has an illumination of 97%. 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 May 17 the Moon is 16.29 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 Gibbous
Illumination: 97%
Moon Age: 16.29 days
Moon Angle: 0.55
Moon Distance: 364,345.10 km
Sun Angle: 0.53
Sun Distance: 151,312,984.41 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

Some of the Witchcraft/Magickal Correspondence Digest for Tuesday

Tuesday (Tiw’s-day)

Planet: Mars

Colors: Red and Autumn Shades

Crystals: Bloodstone, Ruby, Garnet, Flint, Rhodonite, Iron and Steel

Aroma: Basil, Ginger, Black Pepper, Mars Oil, Dragon’s blood and patchouli

Herb: Basil

The day of Mars. This day could only ever symbolize the sheer power of the god of war! The ideal spells to be cast on this day are that of force, power war and protection.

Dedicated to the powers of the planet Mars, personified as Ares, Tiwaz, Tiw, and Tyr.

Magical aspects: controlled power, energy, and endurance, passion, sex, courage, aggression, and protection.

This is the proper day of the week to perform spells and rituals involving courage, physical strength, revenge, military honors, surgery, the breaking of negative spells, dynamic energy, matrimony, war, enemies, prison, hunting, politics, contests, protection, victory, and athletics.

Spell for Today – Printable

May 17 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.

2022 May 17

NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide

Image Credit & Copyright: Capture: Greg Turgeon; Processing: Kiko Fairbairn

Explanation: Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of startling sights like NGC 1316. Investigations indicate that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started, about 100 million years ago, to devour a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor, NGC 1317, just on the upper right. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes characteristic of a spiral galaxy, and faint swirls and shells of stars and gas visible in this wide and deep image. One thing that >remains unexplained is the unusually small globular star clusters, seen as faint dots on the image. Most elliptical galaxies have more and brighter globular clusters than NGC 1316. Yet the observed globulars are too old to have been created by the recent spiral collision. One hypothesis is that these globulars survive from an even earlier galaxy that was subsumed into NGC 1316. Another surprising attribute of NGC 1316, also known as Fornax A, is its giant lobes of gas that glow brightly in radio waves.

Greek Temples of Sicily

There are at least a thousand reasons to visit Sicily, the great island – indeed the largest in the Mediterranean – that forms the triangular football to the boot that is the Italian peninsula. They are all very good reasons, including amazing landscapes, a uniquely complex and delicious cuisine, a history that is diverse and multifaceted beyond belief, excellent wines, a vast array of archaeological sites, an even vaster one of historical towns and villages. But one key reason to visit the island is missing from the list above: Greek temples!

Greek temples are one of the earliest well-defined expressions of what we now recognise as the Western tradition in architecture, and one of the most influential ones by a vast margin to this day. They go back to the 8th or 7th centuries BCE, and, as the name entails, they are indeed a key achievement of the Archaic Greeks. They originated in what is the south of modern Greece, namely the Peloponnese and Central Greece, where Greek temple architecture appears to have its main roots, probably derived from local wooden predecessors.

The Greek mainland’s architectural style is the Doric one, considered to be the most austere and ‘male’ in character. The eastern Aegean and Asia Minor were famous for their own development, the more elegant and ‘female’ Ionic style, conceived about a century after the Doric one. Its most prominent examples at Samos, Ephesus, and Didyma (much better preserved than the other two) are also marked by their …

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A Laugh for Today

Wishing you a fantastic Tuesday!