Dear Skywatcher

Apologies for failing to remind you all of the ROE talk on the night sky in February.  I’m afraid this coincided with my daughter’s birthday and this is a no miss event in our house.

I am determined to make good, so this is early notice of the ROE talk “the Night Sky in March” to be given by Russell Eberst on Monday February 25^th.  Doors open at 7 for a 7.30 p.m. start.

First though, rush outside tonight (or tomorrow or the next night) for a chance to see Mercury low on the south western horizon.  He should be visible at about 6.30 p.m. if the sky is clear (a big if of course).  Here is a link to the Earth Sky article illustrating the beautiful conjunction of Mercury with the crescent moon that we might hope to see.

By tomorrow the Moon will have moved away from Mercury.  The Moon back tracks across the sky each night by 12°.  If I recall correctly, you can judge 12° by making a fist and holding it out at arm’s length.  That’s the distance the Moon should have moved by 6.30 p.m. tomorrow night compared with the earth sky image for tonight.

Happy skywatching

http://earthsky.org/tonight

www.midlandsschoolofastrology.co.uk

Eris at work

Who is Eris? Goddess of discord? She's also relatively new to knowledge, a distant Kuiper Belt Object that astrologers are still coming to terms with. She moves around the zodiac at a snail's pace. So how can transits of Eris be relevant to anyone? Listen up.

Issue 166 of the esteemed Mountain Astrologer (Dec/Jan 2013) carries an article by Maria Kay Simms. She argues for Ceres as the modern ruler of Virgo and Eris as the ruler for Libra. She also suggests that Eris is easier to cope with in hard aspect than in soft and gives examples.

So newly enthused I checked my chart. Wow! Transiting Eris is opposing my natal Saturn/Neptune conjunction and squaring my MC/IC line, yes ok - challenging natal T Square there, and now about to become more challenging as Eris kicks in - literally.

Now I begin to understand what was going on at work on 11th January. I reacted quietly (Sun in Scorpio) but very distinctly to the realisation that things were going awry. Eris appears to dislike being excluded. I wasn't being excluded exactly but I was encountering complete passive and charm and reason laden resistance to every suggestion. There always seemed to be a load of reasons why all my ideas could not be taken up, to a point where the work couldn't get done. Then my dear colleagues let me know that they weren't really interested, didn't really care and if I did I would have to justify why!

For more news on Eris I searched the web and found The Midland School of Astrology. There I found a nice article on Eris, helpful for future rerence. Clearly with Eris moving so slowly I will be modelling myself on Eris / Xena Warrior Princess / Lucy Lawless for some time to come.