Friday, March 2, 2012

Feeling better due to an alignment of planets

  Well, I'm recovering from the frackin' Andromeda Strain, which is good.  My blood hasn't turned to powder.  Gosh, I can't remember being sick in such a long time!  Guess it's gotta happen eventually.
  You've probably noticed this last week a rather interesting alignment of planets overhead around 8pm or so,  moon included.  Every single planet, from Mercury to Pluto is lined-up along the sun's ecliptic, which is kinda neet.  You'll notice Venus and Jupiter bright along with the moon in the western sky.  Further overhead is Saturn and then Mars.  You probably can't see Neptune or Uranus unless you've got demigod eyes and live in a cornfield, but they're there.  Anyway, it don't mean nuthin'.  Just pretty cool.  I suppose ancient scholars would forebear doom.  I remember in the '80s evangelists would take this opportunity to forescribe religious events and that one should donate even more, which is fairly evil in my opinion.  Just like your analog clock at home, the hands have to meet every hour and a few minutes or so.  Only astronomical interest is the perturbations that affect gravity-bearing objects are more focused in one direction by a fraction.  Jupiter usually cancels-out a lot of that, and near-earth objects (like satellites) are more affected by things like the moon and the sun's solar pressure, though the sun is so enormous it isn't affected at all.  It's just neet.

Enjoy the display.

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