Transit of Venus 2 is a new film of the second Transit of Venus, which was filmed on June 6th 2012. It is showing alongside Transit of Venus 1 (2005) in programme 17 of “Views” at the New York Film Festival, Sunday October 7th at 4.30pm in the Francesca Beale Theatre, Lincoln Centre.
Monthly Archives: September 2012
Exis Festival, Seoul
Here is a selection of photos taken during the Exis festival in Seoul, August 29th to September 7th 2012. I have posted documentation of a new 16mm four projector film performance work on Vimeo. The piece, Rings, was performed at the opening of the festival, along with a much earlier similar work, 4 X LOOPS (1974). The image below shows possible projector configurations for Rings, but in the end the in-between superimpositions were the most interesting!


Do the moon cycle and periods sync up? Should you try to track and align your periods with the moon? You can, but following a moon cycle tracking chart isn’t just linked to when you get your period–it can also help explain the natural ebbs and flows of your energy throughout your cycle.
What is the moon cycle and why should I care about the lunar calendar?
So, sometimes people kind of roll their eyes when they hear about following a lunar calendar or the moon cycle and periods or energy. It sounds really out there, but there’s actually science and history behind it. First, let’s consider that menstruation stems from Latin and Greek words for “moon” and “month.”
Now, think about the natural flow of tides we see in bodies of water. Tides are energy, and the reason we have a tidal force is because of the sun, but mostly, the moon’s gravitational pull on the earth. We are also affected by gravity, and women’s bodies are up to 60% water. So, it makes sense that our bodies’ fluids also follow the moon’s gravitational force. From a biological standpoint, men’s bodies function on a single 24-hour rotation of the moon on its axis. Women’s bodies operate on the 28-day lunar cycle. Twenty-eight days equals the amount of time it takes the moon to circle the earth and it’s also about the length of a typical menstrual cycle.
Fascinating, but how does the moon’s phases affect our energy? During each phase of the lunar cycle, the gravitational pull of the moon changes. As a result, the energy of tidal forces change in predictable ways. So does the energy in our bodies. This makes the moon cycle really helpful in understanding and anticipating when we, ideally, need to dial it down or when we’ll have the energy to accomplish more.
How do the moon cycle and periods align? What can I expect with my energy levels during my cycle?
The moon cycle and periods can align because of the gravitational forces in play by the moon and the sun. Like some phases of the lunar calendar are less energetic or more energetic, so are we and so are the things happening in our bodies.
The new or dark moon
If your menstrual cycle is fully aligned with the moon, you’ll get your period during the dark moon or the new moon. This is called the white moon cycle. Consider how you feel on your period. Oh, I’m tired. I need to rest. I’m not digesting things as well. I don’t feel like doing anything. This isn’t the best time of the month to organize, plan, or kick off a project. Trying to do these things works against the natural energy flow of our cycles. During this particular phase of the moon, it feels best to our bodies to turn focus inward and rest and reflect.
From the new moon, your energy increases as you approach a waxing moon (which is halfway to full). During this time, your estrogen levels rise and your energy and motivation goes up too. This phase is ideal for turning your reflection and evaluation from the new moon into ideas. You start to feel like making plans again and taking action.
The full moon phase of the lunar cycle is said to be the most powerful. When you get to the top of the full moon, your energy is the highest. The high energy you have in this phase is associated with ovulation and a rise in estrogen and progesterone. Now’s the ideal time for creativeness, to make connections, and to be visible.
During the waning moon, your body is getting ready to complete its cycle and you’re close to getting your period (which is day one of your cycle). In your life, this time is so good for wrapping things up: tying up loose ends or closing out projects. If you’re not going to complete anything during this time of low energy, work with your cycle to postpone it during your period and hold off until your energy starts to build with the waxing moon.
How come the moon cycle and my periods don’t sync up?
It’s really easy to get out of rhythm with the moon and off balance in general. If your stress is up, you’re not eating well, you’re cramping or having PMS, have taken hormonal birth control, or if you’re having any life issues at all–which we all do–then your menstrual cycle might be irregular or shift out of alignment. Sometimes, trauma–especially types of reproductive trauma–can make us disassociate from what we’re feeling in our body during our cycle and that can cause us to be out of alignment.
Will it hurt you to not follow the moon’s calendar? No. But it means your energy will be off compared to your cycle, and that can be difficult. Once you start tracking your cycles on the calendar, it’s really interesting to see the energy patterns that show up after a few months. You begin to understand why you’re struggling in some situations. Like it’s a full moon and my kids have a crazy amount of energy and I can’t deal. But instead of ovulating during the full moon and being at the highest energy point of your cycle, you realize you are at your lowest point of energy during the month because you have your period. Of course it’s going to feel more difficult to parent in that instance.
What are some of the best charts for tracking the lunar cycle?
There are a lot of different options for tracking the moon cycle (here’s mine) and your period–and with certain trackers, you can record all types of things in relation to the moon: how you feel about work, emotions, energy, libido, or how you physically feel. Once you see your patterns, you can work with your body to re-align with the energy of the moon.
How do I get more aligned with the moon?
Some simple things you can do to realign your connection are watching what you ingest (toxins, xenoestrogens, news consumption), womb meditation, vaginal herb steaming, Reiki, yoni eggs, and eating seasonally. What’s really helpful is to see where you are. Depending when you get your cycle and what it’s like, it can indicate a dosha imbalance. (Doshas are the three forces that make up your particular constitution.)
If you are irregular and it’s scanty flow, you might have a vata imbalance. Being really regular and getting migraines usually is a pitta imbalance. And if your kapha is imbalanced, you might have really thick blood flow, depression, sore breasts, and a lot of bloating. Once we understand which imbalance you are dealing with, we can work from there to pull it back into balance.


by members of Disorient
Animated D5 (2005)
by Joshua Goldberg
VJ software written in Max.
4D imagery (2002-2003)
Real-time manipulations of 4D objects.
Virtual Universe (2002)
A tour of the universe in real-time 3D.
Video projection on the Dome (2001-2004)
The 36 ft. diameter geodesic Dome is used as a video screen for projection.
by Leo Villareal
1 hour animation...


Jantar Mantar, located in Jaipur, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the biggest observatories in the world. The monument was far ahead of its time at the time of its construction and the techniques involved in it. Covering an area of almost 18,700 sq. km, the Jantar Mantar combines the elements of science, art and religion. It stands as a symbol of the princely era in Jaipur and royal heritage in Pink City. The unique structure of the monument attracts both lovers of astronomy as well as those attracted with its significance and heritage.
Jantar Mantar was built by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II in 1734, with the name itself derived from Sanskrit words meaning “Yantra” and “Mantra”. Yantra means instruments and Mantra means formula.
The term Yantra was replaced with Jantar. Inside the monument there are various kinds of astrological and architectural instruments which arouse the interests of astronomers and historians all over the world.
Maharaja Jai Singh II, the founder of Jantar Mantar, had a passion for astrology and other subjects including religion, philosophy and architecture.
He was well-acquainted with several mathematical concepts including Ptolemy’s syntaxes, Aryabhatta’s master works and Euclid’s elements.
The Jantar Mantar observatory is renovated often and houses various instruments that provide time measurement, sun declination, constellation positions, azimuth and other astrological phenomena.
Jantar Mantar also consists of 19 geometric devices that measure time, observe orbits around the sun and track constellations.
The most famous structures in Jantar Mantar include Hindu Chhatri, Jai Prakash Yantra, Samrat Yantra, Rasivalaya, Chakra Yantra, Rama Yantra, Yantra Raj, Nadivalaya and Digamsa, besides other astronomical devices that help in the analysis of the universe.
If you and you loved ones want to explore this brilliant and historic piece of architecture, then Maharajas Express is the way to go about it. There are a number of itineraries which let you visit the Jantar Mantar, including Treasures of India, Gems of India Tour, The Indian Panorama, The Indian Splendour and The Heritage of India.


The greatest show off earth
Michael Pettifer argues that the hard working British public deserve a morning off work to experience the solar eclipse on March 20
For a few moments on August 11 1999, I was sure the world was going to end. The sun – which I knew was pretty damn important – disappeared behind the moon and refused to come out the other side.
I’m sure that those stood around me at the time felt the same impending sense of catastrophe – the silence it created was cacophonous. All sorts of people, it seemed, had taken the morning off work to stare skywards through their flimsy cardboard glasses – those £2 glasses that everyone happily relied upon to prevent blindness.
The London Chamber of Commerce later calculated that the 1999 eclipse cost British businesses up to £500 million in lost sales and production (although the cardboard glasses industry experienced a much needed boost).
They announced this figure like it was somehow the result of bad planning – as if they were bemoaning the fact that the eclipse was held on a weekday, when people were supposed to be dutifully doing their bit for the economy.
On March 20 2015, another of these cosmic coincidences will occur. The moon will be up to its old tricks again, blotting out the sun – 80% to 90% of it, depending on where you are in the UK – at around 09:45.
Clearly, this is one of those rare spectacles that nature occasionally stages. It is an event that demands attention and one that should receive it. After all, this will be the last eclipse visible in Europe until 2026.
But, as our sun and moon align, should we spare a thought for the economy?
Perhaps the number bods at the Chamber of Commerce will shake with uncontrollable rage as they tally up the cost, but this should not be of concern to the rest of us. This is a chance to prove to ourselves that there is more to life than making a few quid.
UK businesses should follow the example set by Safeway in 1999. The company, using a perfect combination of humanistic management and financial abandon, took the decision to close 12 stores for an hour so that employees could go outside and see the eclipse.
Witnessing a solar eclipse is an assault on the senses (ask any dog or small child); it’s the eerie, spine-tingling feeling of standing in mid-morning darkness that imprints itself on the memory.
Astronomer Patrick Moore, described it as a "strange, weird experience", and he was right. Nothing else can be compared to such an event, which is why it’s so important that people grab their chance to see it this time around.
The sun did eventually reappear in 1999, for all those who were wondering how that story ended. Overall, I was quite happy that the world was going to carry on – I had big plans to become a train conductor. I don’t remember being overly fussed about the £500 million.


The phrase “dark side of the moon” often conjures up images of mystery and the unknown. But what’s really lurking in the shadows of our lunar neighbor? I’ve always been fascinated by what we can’t see, and it turns out, there’s quite a bit to uncover about this hidden hemisphere.
Recent reports from The New York Times have shed light on the dark side of the moon, revealing new insights and challenging what we thought we knew. From groundbreaking lunar missions to the latest scientific discoveries, I’m here to dive into the depths of the moon’s most secretive side.
Unveiling the Dark Side of the Moon
In my journey to uncover what lies on the dark side of the moon, I’ve realized that it’s a realm of the lunar surface that’s perpetually shrouded in mystery. Unlike the familiar near side that graces our night skies, the far side remains unseen from Earth, inviting both fascination and speculation among scientists and laypeople alike.
Recent revelations have significantly deepened our understanding of this enigmatic lunar region. For instance, I’ve come across a captivating report from The New York Times that details much of what we’ve discovered through cutting-edge space exploration. This report consolidates findings from various lunar missions that have contributed to an expanded astronomical knowledge base.
What’s clear is that the terrain on the far side of the moon is vastly different from what we’re accustomed to. It’s riddled with craters and has a thicker crust than the near side. Additionally, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter has sent back images that give us a clearer glimpse of the lunar surface features not seen with the naked eye.
As I delve into the complexities of lunar geology, I’m intrigued by the fact that the moon’s far side has a higher concentration of anorthosites—rocks that are rich in calcium and aluminum. These elements offer clues about the moon’s thermal history and can help explain the differences between the two hemispheres.
Moreover, the moon’s dark side is a quieter place, shielded from radio emissions from Earth, making it an ideal spot for radio astronomy. Researchers are particularly excited about the potential for low-frequency radio observations which could open a new window into the universe. Such missions could be pivotal, and the Chang’e 4 mission by China shows it’s not just theoretical; it’s happening right now.
One detail from The New York Times report that sticks with me is this: the dark side of the moon isn’t dark at all. Indeed, it receives just as much sunlight as the side we see; it’s just that we never see this hemisphere illuminated. This detail challenges the name itself and reminds us that sometimes, our labels for celestial bodies carry more myth than fact.
The Mysteries of the Lunar Hemisphere
Delving into the lunar hemisphere that remains largely hidden from our gaze has always evoked a certain allure for me, and with recent reports from esteemed publications such as The New York Times, my curiosity has only intensified. This side of the moon, often mistakenly dubbed the dark side, is shrouded in enigma, challenging researchers and sparking the imagination of the public.
The terrain on the far side is markedly different, characterized by a substantial proportion of anorthosites. These highland rocks are evidence of the moon’s tumultuous past and offer clues to the ancient processes that shaped our nearest celestial neighbor. This region’s unique geological makeup makes it a goldmine for scientists eager to unravel the moon’s secrets.
In stark contrast to the bustling radio waves that flood the earth, the far side of the moon offers a respite from the clamor—a sanctuary of silence. Consider the moon’s far side the universe’s natural radio quiet zone. Here, the conditions are perfect for low-frequency radio observations, which can provide unparalleled insights into the early universe.
China’s ongoing Chang’e 4 mission is a testament to the importance of these observations. This mission has not only triumphed in being the first to explore this uncharted territory but also emphasizes the potential for groundbreaking scientific discovery. The instruments aboard Chang’e 4 could give us eyes into phenomena that remain unseen and data that can answer longstanding questions.
Yet, it’s a misconception that this side of the moon never sees sunlight. In fact, both sides of the moon experience equal amounts of daylight. Learning how the dark side of the moon is just as illuminated as the side facing Earth but remains dark to us encapsulates the true essence of lunar mystery.
As we uncover more about the moon’s far side, we connect deeper with the cosmos. Understanding the lunar hemisphere goes beyond mere curiosity—it’s about expanding our horizons and grasping where we stand in the grand tapestry of space. Each discovery peels back a layer, inviting us to ponder what else lies beyond our current knowledge. With the Chang’e 4 mission paving the way, I’m eager to witness the next leap in lunar exploration.
Lunar Missions: Exploring the Uncharted
Ever since the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s, I’ve been captivated by the vast expanse of space, but few regions pique collective curiosity quite like the dark side of the moon. Unlike the near side, which proudly displays its silver glow to Earth, the far side remains shrouded in mystery. It’s this allure that’s propelled nations to daringly send missions to uncover its secrets.
China’s Chang’e 4 lander, the first vehicle to softly land on the far side of the moon, marks a pivotal chapter in lunar exploration. The mission, which includes a rover named Yutu-2, provides unprecedented insights about the moon’s composition and geology. I’ve learned that data from these missions are critical for future endeavors, whether they’re scientific in nature or aiming for lunar colonization.
International collaboration is essential in expanding our lunar knowledge base. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA endeavor, has been mapping the moon’s surface since 2009. It’s pushed the boundaries of our understanding and underscored the value of exploring the enigmatic far side. Bridging efforts from various countries, these missions could ultimately unravel the complex history of our celestial neighbor.
As I delve into reports from The New York Times on these missions, I’m fascinated to find how they’re not just feats of engineering and science but also stepping stones towards an interplanetary future. The terrain’s unique characteristics make it a hotbed for scientific discovery, perfect for studying the solar system’s evolution. To enhance my understanding of the Apollo missions’ historical significance, I typically turn to NASA’s official Apollo mission page, which provides in-depth information about those landmark expeditions.
The collaboration between countries and the advanced technologies developed for the moon’s far side investigation show that when it comes to space, collaboration overshadows competition. This cooperative spirit could be the key to unlocking the potential of not just the moon’s dark side but space exploration as a whole. It’s not just about planting a flag; it’s about planting the seeds of human curiosity and reaping the knowledge for generations to come.
Scientific Discoveries that Challenge Our Understanding
Amidst the backdrop of an ongoing race to unravel the secrets of the lunar surface, I’ve been captivated by recent scientific discoveries on the dark side of the moon that have flipped our understanding of this celestial body on its head. The Chang’e 4 mission has been particularly instrumental in shedding light on what was once a shadowy mystery.
The terrain on the far side is markedly different from the familiar face that greets us each night. Vast and ancient impact craters intermingle with mountainous regions, some soaring as high as the Himalayas on Earth. The New York Times reported on the distinct lack of maria, the dark basaltic plains visible from Earth, which has led scientists to hypothesize significant differences in crustal composition and thickness between the two hemispheres of the moon.
Further probing by lunar rovers revealed the presence of materials unusual in the rest of the lunar surface. Minerals such as olivine and low-calcium (ortho)pyroxene have been detected, which are typically found deeper beneath the moon’s surface. This suggests that the dark side has encountered violent impacts that have churned the moon’s innards to its surface, exposing what lies beneath.
Equally fascinating have been the results related to the moon’s thermal properties. Around-the-clock measurements have shown the nightside lunar surface to experience drastic drops in temperature, which may affect the composition and mechanical behavior of the lunar soil, a phenomenon known as regolith. This could have profound implications for potential human habitats and the longevity of equipment on lunar bases. The data paints a picture of a more dynamic moon than previously thought, one that experiences not just the trials of space but its own unique brand of lunar weathering.
These scientific strides aren’t a solo journey, though. Collaborative investigations, such as those facilitated by the International Space Exploration Coordination Group, emphasize the collective effort in lunar exploration. With a long list of questions yet to be answered, the exploration of the dark side thus continues – an odyssey not just to another world, but into the depths of our own origins.
The New York Times: Shedding Light on the Dark Side
Exploring the dark side of the moon, typically hidden from Earth’s view, has perplexed and intrigued scientists for decades. The New York Times, a trusted source of information, recently delved into this fascination with a comprehensive report on the area’s unique features and the scientific endeavors to understand it better. The Chang’e 4 mission, spearheaded by China, has been a linchpin in these efforts.
My research on these recent reports reveals a treasure trove of data. The surface of the moon’s far side is pockmarked with impact craters and littered with rocks that have tales to tell about the early solar system. Unlike Earth’s relatively young crust, the moon’s crust has remained largely unaltered for billions of years. Reading through the article, I’m struck by the references to unusual materials found on the dark side, which suggest it may have a different composition than the side facing Earth.
One of the most groundbreaking findings reported by The New York Times is the discovery of thermal properties that could have significant implications for future lunar exploration. The surface temperature on the dark side of the moon, which endures long nights that last approximately 14 Earth days, is cooler than initially expected. This fact, which came to light thanks to the data from the Chang’e 4 mission, adds yet another layer of complexity to the moon’s already enigmatic profile.
The article also outlines the types of instruments used to measure these thermal properties, and the results are helping scientists back on Earth understand lunar surface and subsurface temperatures with remarkable precision. This insight is not only fascinating but crucial in planning human and robotic missions to this region.
I found it particularly interesting to see the emphasis placed on the potential for scientific discovery on the dark side of the moon. With its distinct terrain and exposure to cosmic radiation, it serves as a natural laboratory for geological and astronomical studies. The ongoing quest to uncover the secrets of the dark side continues, and international collaboration remains key. The New York Times report harnesses the knowledge gleaned from these collaborative missions and serves as a window for us to peer at this distant, shadowed part of our natural satellite.
The dark side of the moon continues to captivate and challenge our understanding with its hidden secrets and potential. Through the lens of The New York Times and the pioneering Chang’e 4 mission, I’ve seen how exploration there isn’t just about the thrill of discovery—it’s about piecing together the cosmic puzzle of our solar system. It’s clear that the far side’s unique landscape is a treasure trove for scientists and that the collaborative efforts in space exploration are yielding extraordinary insights. I’m excited about what these endeavors might reveal and how they’ll shape our knowledge for generations to come. The dark side of the moon isn’t just a place—it’s a journey, and I’m eager to see where it leads us next.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the dark side of the moon?
The dark side of the moon refers to the hemisphere of the moon that is perpetually turned away from Earth, making it difficult for us to observe and study from our planet.
How is the Chang’e 4 mission contributing to our understanding of the moon?
China’s Chang’e 4 mission has made a historic landing on the far side of the moon, providing valuable data on its topography, mineral composition, and geologic structure.
Why is international collaboration important in space exploration?
International collaboration combines resources, expertise, and perspectives, which enhances the chances of success in space missions and shared understanding of scientific discoveries.
What makes the far side of the moon’s terrain unique for scientific study?
The far side’s terrain is pocked with more craters and less volcanic activity compared to the near side, offering a pristine environment for exploring lunar formation and the solar system’s history.
What recent scientific discoveries have been made on the dark side of the moon?
Recent findings on the dark side include identification of unusual materials like mantle rocks, which could shed light on the moon’s early history, and new insights into its thermal properties.
How does exploring the dark side of the moon benefit future generations?
Unveiling the dark side’s secrets helps us understand the moon’s development and the evolution of our celestial neighborhood, paving the way for future missions and potential settlement.


text and photos ©Ani
Williams June 2004
As published in the Four
The following CDs have songs
dedicated to Magdalena:
"Homage to Hathor"
"Medicine Song II"
Mistress of the Grail
"Then Zeus-born Aphrodite stepped forward and drew near,
Changed to the form and stature of a young unwedded maid,
Lest his eyes discern her godhead and the hero grow afraid,
Then Anchises saw and wondered so beautiful she seemed,
So tall she towered before him, so gay her garments gleamed.
For the robe that rippled round her shone like a fire ablaze,
Richly her twisted armlets, her earrings flashed their rays,
Round her soft throat fair chains of gold glanced fitfully,
Light from her soft breasts shimmered, like moonlight, strange to see.
Then passion gripped Anchisis. Swift was his greeting given
Hail to Thee, Queen, who'er Thou art among the Blessed in Heaven!
Homer, Hymn to Venus
The Venus Transit
Second to the Sun and the Moon, Venus is the brightest object in the sky. Because of some similar physical aspects, Venus is considered Earth's sister and she is often called the planet of fortune, as she comes bearing gifts. On June 8 of 2004, we will witness a once in a lifetime astronomical event called a Venus transit, in which Venus will pass directly in front of the sun. It is very rare for Venus to pass directly across the face of the sun, as it usually passes either above or below it from our line of sight. This is because Venus' orbit is on a slight angle, as compared with the orbit of the Earth around the Sun.
This eclipse' will last 6-7 hours and will be visible as a dark spot on the sun in Asia, Africa (except the western portion), all of Europe (except the tip of the Iberian Peninsula), and Greenland. The very end of the eclipse will be visible as the sun rises in some locations in Africa and northeastern North America. Even though it won't be visible to most of us living in the Americas, this transit will be impacting the entire globe by initiating an important new cycle.
This turning point is being termed variously, the Exaltation of the Goddess, the beginning of the Golden Age and Gaia Harmonica. This illuminating of Venus by the Sun can be interpreted as the return of the principles of beauty, love and the sacred feminine. According to Carl-John Calleman Ph.D, the extraordinary global gatherings during the 1987 Harmonic Convergence and the 2003 Harmonic Concordance were just preparing for this time of the Venus transit!
Basically, a Venus transit happens approximately every 125 years, occurring in pairs, separated by 8 years. The last transit was in 1874/1882, and the previous transit pairs occurred in 1761/1769, 1631/1639 and 1518/1526. The partner to our current transit will occur on June 6, 2012, the same year which marks the ending of a 26,000 year cycle and the beginning of a new great time cycle, according to the Mayan calendar system. And in certain eastern Vedic calendar traditions, this Venus transit signals the actual beginning of a Golden Age, with the second Venus transit in 2012 completing the transition into this wondrous age of enlightenment.
The Venus Transit of June 8, 2004 is clearly the astronomical event of the year. But it may be much, much more than that. The Venus Transit has always preceded great breakthroughs in human consciousness and played a very significant role in the Mayan Calendar.
Venus Transit of June 8, 2004: A Breakthrough of Intuitive Awareness
by Carl-John Calleman and Anders Bjarstedt
Dr. Calleman feels that this Venus transit initiates a time of global communication, not just in a technical sense, but a time of increased intuitive awareness, which will serve to reveal that which was hidden. This global intuitive field will serve to bring more truthfulness in both personal and global communication and precipitate greater harmony and joy and love. What a hopeful message when one considers the growing distortion and perversion as reported on the daily news broadcasts!
Aphrodite and Venus
Venus is the daughter of the Moon and is symbolic of the many forms which issue forth from the Great Mother. Her glyph depicts the marriage of the male and female forces of the Universe into One. The Egyptian Ankh, a more ancient form of Venus' glyph, means life.
As Above, So Below by Alan Oken
Egyptian Ankh of Life
There are many levels that can be examined in this Venus transit. Venus has long been associated as the circular, rounded female symbol, with Mars as the testosterone directed male archetype. While this is an oversimplified view of male-female dynamics, nevertheless, these two planets have symbolized the yin-yang duality within humans for eons.
As Venus passes directly in front of the Sun June 8, his solar radiance illuminates and exalts her, prompting the return of beauty, love, and the revival of the sacred feminine. Venus is our harbinger of a more harmonious Earth, 'Harmonica Gaia', and brings the possibility of healing our relationships on every level, to change our world.
With the current sexual abuse scandals in Iraq as well as within the Catholic Church an overall pattern can be seen regarding this astronomical event. With Venus' association with Aphrodite, goddess of love and sexuality, she is definitely revealing the great misuse and abuse of sexual energy. She is illuminating and making very distinct all that obscures the true beauty of our world.
(A rare view of Mars and Venus on either side of a misty crescent moon appeared in the western night sky in late May, presenting a poignant visual show of this male-female dance).
Mary Magdalene and the Pentagram of Venus
Mary Magdalene is perhaps our most prominent representative of maligned sexuality. For nearly two millennia she was considered a forever penitent, reformed prostitute. It was only in 1969 that the Catholic Church reversed their position and announced that Magdalene was in fact not a prostitute, but the one who witnessed and proclaimed Jesus' Resurrection. Because of her presence at both the Crucifixion and Resurrection, Magdalene was seen by the Gnostics and mystics of the Middle-Ages to be The Medium of Secret Revelation.' These same Gnostics also associated her with the planet Venus, a shining symbol of the sacredness sexuality and love.
Planetary archetypes and observation of significant celestial events are guiding symbols, way-showers to help us understand the complexities of the universe and human existence. In Egypt, China, Babylon, and Druid, Mayan and most native traditions, the world-view included the mirroring of celestial patterns upon the earth in temple and ceremonial site design, as a way of insuring a continuing harmonious relationship between earth and sky.
We can find many examples of this in the building of earthly temples to reflect celestial patterns. One of these is found in the location of Magdalene sites and Knights Templar castles in Southern France. As the planet Venus moves through the heavens, the pentagram is formed by the pattern of her orbit. At Rennes le Chateau, a place steeped in Templar Grail mystery and dedicated to Mary Magdalene, a five-pointed star is formed by the prominent mountain peaks and Magdalene shrines. The pentagram's image is also seen as a secret code revealing Magdalene and Holy Grail mysteries within the art of Leonardo Da Vinci and Poussin, as well as the old parchments of the Priory of Sion found at Rennes.
As they turn, the planets are showing us the mysterious workings of God's hand, expressed in the harmonious movements of the spheres. Each planet, as it revolves in its orbit, reaches positions where Earth, Sun and Planet form distinct alignment patterns. Only one planet shows us a perfect geometrical form. This form is pentagonal and the planet is Venus. Creating five equally-spaced alignments over a period of eight years, she draws the perfect, hidden and secret symbol of the five-pointed star in the heavens. As above, so below. The very landscape bears the sign of her secret revelation.
Key To The Sacred Pattern by Henry Lincoln
Venus in Avalon
Each morning, according to a legend, a group of angels lifted Magdalene where she could listen to the entire choir of angelic hosts, the divine sounds of original and continuing creation.
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, edited by Jean-Yves Leloup
In late October of 2003, I was in Britain to film a documentary focusing on sites related to Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail. While filming in Glastonbury (site of the ancient Isle of Avalon), I joined sound healer Tom Kenyon and his partner Judi Sion to present a sound healing event, Magdalene in Avalon'. Tom and Judi co-authored The Magdalen Manuscript, a Magdalene-channeled treatise on the true nature of sacred relationship and the use of sexual high alchemy for transformation. The focus of this Magdalene event was to disseminate the divine feminine healing energies through Tom's extraordinary voice, using the magnified power of the Glastonbury Tor. (The Glastonbury Tor is the ancient labyrinth hill at the center of Avalon, where the healing waters of the red and white springs emerge, and adjacent to the famous Chalice Well Gardens. See the Four Corners article Maria Magdalena).
Coincidentally, many friends in Arizona reported that at the exact hour of the Glastonbury Magdalene event, an eerie solar phenomena occurred. The solar flares, which were unusually strong and active at that time, created violet colored sun spots over a deep orange mid-afternoon sun ...a mysterious sign of the power of focused intention and the return of the Goddess?
Another interesting synchronicity with the Magdalene and the Tor arrived in a recent email from Glastonbury England from Sig Lonegren, author and internationally renowned dowser. Having been a fan of Mary Magdalene for many years, he took a walk one day on the road that goes around the Tor to see if he could discover any new clues as to the nature of the Earth Energies there. His eye was drawn to a plant with heart-shaped leaves, which grows prolifically all around the Tor and within the nearby Chalice Well Gardens. The common name of the plant is Lords and Ladies and the botanical name is arum (meaning lily) maculatum (spotted or besmirched'). (Sun spots are also called macula!) As Sig pondered the symbolic nature of the plant, he mused that the immaculate lily would obviously be the Blessed Virgin Mary, but the maculate, tainted, besmirched one had to be Magdalene. The Tor is surrounded by her energy!
Venus in Sedona's Landscape Temple
In Nicholas Mann's book Sedona Sacred Earth, he presents his discovery of a natural five-pointed star pattern in the red rocks, with the dominant high points and vortex's of the landscape falling at each point, amazingly similar to the Rennes-le-Chateau Magdalene pentagram.
According to Mann, a perfect pentagram
is formed by five prominent formations, including Courthouse Rock,
Cathedral Rock, Airport Mesa Vortex, a butte behind Camel Head Rock,
and Lee Mountain. The striking aspect of this naturally occurring
five-pointed star pattern, is that Madonna Rock which is adjacent
to the Chapel of the Holy Cross, is at the exact center of the pentagram.
In esoteric mystery schools, the pentagram represents the realized
human, and the ideal human proportions are seen by overlaying the
human form upon it, with the reproductive organs at the center.
The five-pointed stars appear repeatedly on the Egyptian temple
ceilings, symbolizing eternal perfection, and in another Egyptian
reference, when one both perceives and expresses beauty through
all five senses, the possible star' or realized human is born.
Madonna and Child near Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona
Photo by Ani Williams
To the Pythagoreans, five is the perfect number of love because it represents three, the first male number, and two, the first female number.
Venus, pentagrams, Madonnas and the return of beauty is this all be hinting at a divinely ordered blueprint for a potential Golden Age on Earth?
Magdalene Meets the Pentagon
During Easter weekend of this year, three hundred people met within a mile of the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia, to celebrate the return of the sacred feminine at an event called The Magdalen Conclave. Hosted by Tom Kenyon and Judi Sion, this sound healing event was powerful and deeply transformative. Magdalene's message brought through Tom and Judi proclaimed this as the time of the return of the Goddess, and a balancing of male-female energies on earth, a time when women will be speaking out to assist in the healing of our planet. During the final ceremonial meditation of the gathering, I had a very distinct vision of great red dragons rising up from deep within the earth in the Washington, DC area, and that these large dragons that had long been sleeping are now awakening.
...our environment is being charged with extremely powerful energies that were previously stored within the planetary body and only rarely imparted to the life on its surface. Mythology knows them as the dragon powers'. Once distributed upon the surface of the earth, they may bring about an unprecedented increase in the power and beauty of life on the planet.
The Daughter of Gaia by Marko Pogacnik, Findhorn Press.
Planetary alignments and the Venus Transit
The exact moment of the Venus-Solar conjunction is at 1:42 am Mountain Standard Time on June 8. There are several potent planetary alignments at that time, which can be described in simple terms. Jupiter is in opposition to Uranus indicating increased momentum for change, higher vision, and expansion. Venus is in opposition to Pluto signifying a powerful, deep transformation of Venus related issues, i.e., our attitudes regarding love, sexuality, beauty, and the feminine. The Sun conjunct Venus, as already mentioned, signals an illumination and exaltation of Venus, as well as a celestial marriage of the feminine Venus and masculine Sun. With the Sun and Venus are both in opposition to Pluto, there is a transmuting of old male-female belief systems, birthing a new potential for co-creation.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this celestial timing is the retrograde' motion of Venus at the time of the transit. A retrograde motion means simply that the planet appears from the perspective of earth, to be moving backwards. A retrograde planet has the effect on the psyche of reviewing and rethinking our patterns. When Venus moves forward, or direct, and reaches the transit position of 17 degrees, it denoting the actual activation point of the seed that was planted during the transit June 8. This occurs on the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene, July 22! And the degree of the Sun on July 22 gives a fated quality to that day for bringing in mastery of relationship. What an amazing universe we live in.
Through the medium of a recent dream-vision that I had, I was shown a deeper understanding of the wide reaching effects throughout our universe that healing of the male-female dynamics within us and in our relationships can have. Mary Magdalene appeared repeatedly during the dream sequence with her consort, the Unicorn the Christed One, who then united with the Great Goddess in sacred Hieros Gammos. I was shown that their union is immersing this realm in healing light, bringing mystical love into the density and transforming matter. I was shown that their union is galactic, and huge emissions of light-photon particles are a result of this reunion, igniting an awakening in the hearts and minds of humans.
Unicorn and the Lady
A Medieval Tapestry
This mystical union is an archetype for rebirth, and when humans acknowledge the sacredness of life, sexuality and beauty, it births a corresponding tone throughout the universe and all is changed. Yes, their song and their loving changes everything.
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When the SLS core test-fires, it will become the most powerful rocket ever ignited on Earth.
At 322 feet tall (98 meters), the SLS stands a head shorter than the 363-foot (110 m) Saturn V rockets that carried astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and ’70s. But this rocket is substantially more powerful, producing 15% more thrust during liftoff and ascent.
Raw power doesn’t translate neatly into how much mass the rocket can carry into space.
When complete, if everything goes right, the SLS will have the capacity to carry more than 27 tons (24,000 kilograms) to the moon — much more than the 24 tons (22,000 kg) the Space Shuttle hauled into low-Earth orbit, though technically less than the Saturn V carried to the moon. (However, according to Live Science sister site Space.com, less of the SLS carrying capacity will be wasted on the different rocket stages and fuel, making the SLS an overall better cargo mover.)


JOIN US LIVE ON DECEMBER 14, 2020 at 16:12:30 UTC
On December 14, 2020, a total solar eclipse will pass over southern Chile and Argentina.
Before COVID, some of us planned to physically be there. However, travel has been drastically reduced and video conferencing has since exploded; many of our projects have been canceled, postponed or turned into online events. In response, we decided to watch the Solar Eclipse together, globally, online.
Even though the Path of Totality will be directly visible only within a narrow band across Chile and Argentina, we wish to acknowledge this wondrous alignment of the earth, moon and sun.
Artists from around the globe will tune in simultaneously for 2’10”, the duration of the total eclipse from the Greatest Eclipse Point (the geographic spot with the longest period of totality); each will look towards the sun from their respective location on the globe (whether above or below the horizon). Join us as a virtual eclipse chaser!
The title for this event refers to the live satallite Fluxus broadcast Good Morning Mr. Orwell (linking New York, Paris, Germany, and South Korea) by Nam June Paik from 1984 and to John Cage’s seminal 4’33” from 1952. In the spirit of Cage’s 4’33”, participants will be silent, but ambient sounds from our locations will be transmitted and audible.
While 2020 has been a challenging year on earth, this rare alignment will proceed regardless.
- Flor de Fuego (Florencia Alonso), La Plata, Argentina
- Alvaro Azcarraga, Mexico City, Mexico
- Nicky Assmann & Joris Strijbos, Dark Sky Park, Netherlands
- Julianna Bach, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Miguel Bolt, Pucón, Chile - in the path of totality
- Minkyung Choi, Seoul, South Korea
- Chris Cobilis, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Rebecca Cummins, Seattle, WA, USA
- Cocky Eek & Theun Karelse, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Dakota Gearhardt, New York, New York, USA
- Joyce Hinterding & David Haines, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
- Xiaoxuan Amanda Jiang, Baotou (Inner Mongolia), China - antipode of the eclipse
- NASA: live stream of the Solar Eclipse
- Pantea, Tehran, Iran
- Eric Parren, Shanghai, China
- Natalie Penang, Johannesburg, South Africa
- Laurel Schultz, Holualoa, Hawaii, USA
- Vanja Smiljanic & Lukas Marxt, Koln, Germany


I was somewhere between 3 and 4 years old. Our parents had gone out. My older sister Asoki snuck me out of bed to go stargazing on the lawn. I had never seen the night sky before. I was blown away!
I could count to 10, so started counting the stars. Wow! There were waaaay more than 10 stars!!!
Decades later, when I developed the Creative Holistic integration (CHI) system of self-care and self transformation, at the center was the Wholeness Exercise. I visualize that I am at the center of a black circle - a Mandala. I breathe slowly and deeply few times. On the last breath I exhale a burst in light from my heart into the black circle. It's the big bang! I create my universe of suns and planets. I see it like a giant night sky that I consciously create. I recognize myself as all of who I am that includes earth, sun and universe.
For my doctoral dissertation I studied the effect of doing this. I found it to be a quick, easy and highly effective form of stress management. I now teach this to others who wish to learn, I can see that doing this helps them too.
Interestingly, about 10 years ago I discovered that I am descended from astrologers who were also Ayurvedic physicians. I guess we've come full circle.


An open-source, donation funded rocket company attempting to put a man into orbit.
The first video is rocket science at its best. Here's a guy building a rocket engine with his bare hands. Its a straight-forward 1950's design. He goes through a complete explanation of how it works and why. Save for his knowledge and science of how the engine works this is something that any relatively sophisticated machine shop could build.
The coolest part is that if you watch carefully you can see his hands are dirty.
The next two videos show test launches of their rockets.
Not exactly your NASA level organization but they've managed to get a lot done for relatively little money and effort.
I find it interesting that NASA, currently without a shuttle or equivalent, requires tens or hundreds of billions of dollars to do what they do.
In particular the guy in the first video explains that they are basically using Nazi V-2 generation two technology - something you'd see in the 1950's - to build the engine he's working on.
I think they are succeeding because they do not have an institutionalized infrastructure to support.
Today there are a good half dozen rocket companies - including Virgin Galactic - planing to put people and equipment in space for pay. SpaceX has won a significant NASA contract to put equipment into space.
None of them using NASA technology directly.
For a long time NASA has held the focus of spaceflight - probably since putting men on the moon in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
But that has leadership has waned.
Today all over the globe companies are working to create space flight technology without government funding.


I can’t believe it’s March already. It’s easy for the cold months to run into one another, but little hints, like later sunsets, and Robins chirping at dawn have been reminding me of the coming spring.
These are roughly the same positions as they held at 6AM back in October during AstroWeek, which makes perfect sense: we’ve progressed 5 out of 12 months since then, and the sky has similarly progressed 10 out of 24 hours over the same period of time.
While the rotation/advance of the Northern sky has been fun to watch, the progression of the Southern sky has been much more exciting. Rather than a slowly-turning wheel, the Southern sky has been a procession of new constellations climbing out of the East, one after the other. When we first started watching back in October, Orion would be center-stage in the Southern sky at ~6AM. Now it’s there at ~8PM, and by dawn it’s long since set.
Tangent: This has been one of the coolest things about this winter for me. I did AstroWeek back in October kind of on a lark, but it got me interested in the night-sky, and this has been the first year ever that I’ve really paid attention to the changing stars. Oh, I always knew a constellation or two and some odd astro-factoids, but I never really put it all together before, the way it’s coming together for me this year.
Lots of people I think get curious about the stars and get a book or chart or whatever and try to check stuff out all at once, then get distracted or what-not and never get a feel for the “map” up above us. My advice to any novice star-watcher is this: Start slowly. Pick one-just one- constellation and really get to know it. It doesn’t matter if you know anything about the stars (though obviously, that’s what I get off on) but just get a feel for the positions, brightness and color hues of the members of that constellation. When you know it well enough that it starts to seem familiar, like an old friend, pick another one next to it, and start to do the same, paying attention to how the 2 fit together. A natural way to progress is to take the next constellation East, as it rises in the sky above you over a few weeks.
After a while, “chunks” of sky will start to fit together, and large stretches of night-sky will become as familiar as your neighborhood, yard or office park. But unlike those places, even when you’re far from home, you can look up at night and quickly get a reassuring twinge of familiarity, of something you know and can count on, when you’re thousands of miles from friends and family.
2 weeks ago I landed in San Jose at night. It was one of those small Canadair jets where you all mill around on the tarmac for a bit, waiting for your roller-bags to be brought around. I’d been traveling a lot and working long hours, and I was feeling a bit down and beat up. I looked up and recognized the Southern sky- Orion, Auriga, Pleiades, Aldebaran, Gemini- the same familiar view from my own back yard- and suddenly I felt grounded, reassured, and well, not alone somehow all at the same time.
I’ve mentioned Gemini in passing a couple of times; it lies North and East of Orion, or as you’re looking South at the “upright” Orion, it’s above it and to the left. It’s not quite as obvious as Orion or the Big Dipper, but easy enough to spot that once you find it, you’ll almost always pick it out right away (sort of like Auriga.) “Gemini” refers to the mythological twins, Castor and Pollux, for whom the brightest, and Northern/topmost stars of the constellation are named.
Tangent: As most longtime readers know, 2 of my children- Twin A and Twin B*- are- yes, that’s right- twins. When people learn you have twins, they often ask questions about them. Some of these questions (“Are they identical?”, right after I’ve told the questioner they’re boy-girl) are just plain dopey, but most are just curious. One of the most common is: “What’s it like to have twins?”, to which my honest answer is: “It’s like having 2 kids the same age.” Really, that’s what it’s like. They don’t look particularly much alike, they don’t have a secret language, and one doesn’t say “ouch” when you poke the other with a pin (though in fairness, I haven’t actually tried that**.)
*They were named Twin A and Twin B by the OB during the first ultrasound, in the order in which he located them. As it turned out, they were born in the same order.
Nested Tangent: When I answer the “secret language” question (always in the negative, of course) the questioner always seems a bit deflated. People so want twins to have a secret language or special connection or telepathic powers. But it just isn’t the case. Sometimes I try to console the disappointed questioner by offering some other mental-prowess factoid in our family, such as Bird Whisperer’s ability to recall endless animal-related facts, or my own ability to recite the entire prologue from Bitchin’ Camaro, but these feats never seem to deliver what the questioner was looking for.
It’s an interesting question though, because you know who does often have a secret language? Married couples, that’s who. Think about it- if you have a long-term spouse or partner, I’m betting the 2 of you have code-words for things you want to communicate but don’t want others to understand*. Awesome Wife and I have number of code-words we use. One example is “boob job”, for which we use the word trabajo (Spanish word for “job”.)
*My own birth family used the Greek words for things like “money”, “tip”, “shut up”, or “woman of questionable moral character.”
Of course lots of people around here speak Spanish, and for a time we wondered whether trabajo was really a great code-word choice. Then one day about 4 years ago, coincidentally I found myself in a Mexican resort hot tub with 4 other guests, none of whom I knew. 2 were an American couple, who through their interactions with the waiter, had made clear that they spoke zero Spanish, and the woman sported a rather impressive (but frankly improbable) trabajo. The other 2 guests were Mexican men, both doctors, on vacation from Mexico City. So I chatted a bit with the doctors, in Spanish, and then asked them- carefully- what a boob job was called in Spanish. I had to ask it in a roundabout way, so as to avoid any obvious English cognates which the Americans might pick up on. So I said something like, “When a woman has had medical construction to the front part of the chest to make larger those specific parts, what is it called in Mexico? A trabajo?” It took a few tries, but finally one understood. “No,” he explained helpfully, “it’s not called a trabajo, we call it SILICONE…” thereby clearly and loudly articulating the one cognate I’d been hoping to avoid…
And generally they interact with one another much like other similar-aged siblings- sometimes best of friends, sometimes arch-enemies. What is different about having twins is 2 things. First, you tend to notice differences in development- walking, talking, reading, times-tables, bike-riding, skiing- much more so than you do between ordinary siblings. And second, you have absolutely zero patience for anyone else’s singleton-oh-having-a-baby-and-getting-up-in-the-night-is-so-hard story. Until you have newborn twins (or other multiples), you have absolutely no idea what “hard” is.
Castor and Pollux are the brightest stars in Gemini, and the easiest to pick out. Right off the bat, if you stare at them for just a bit, you’ll notice something pretty cool- they’re different colors. Pollux, on the left/Southeast and just a titch brighter, is orange, while Castor is appears white.
Pollux is orange, because, like Betelgeuse and Aldebaran, it’s another late-in-life, helium-fusing red giant. At 34 light years it’s closer than either of those stars, practically right in the neighborhood. But that’s not the cool thing about it. No, the cool thing about Pollux is that it is the easiest star in the sky to find that we know has a planet. That’s right- if you want to know you’re looking at a star with planets, just look up at Pollux.
To be sure, the planet we know of orbiting Pollux isn’t anything like Earth, but rather a giant almost 3 times the size of Jupiter. Bigger planets are easier to find* than little planets, so it doesn’t mean that Pollux doesn’t have smaller, Earth-sized planets, just that we haven’t found them.
*Specifically, Astrometry- or the detection of position changes of a star due to gravitational influences- and Transit Method- slight dimming of a star due to a partial “eclipse” by an orbiting body- both work better the larger the exoplanet in question.
Pollux’s planet lies roughly the same distance from Pollux as Mars does from our own Sun, but due to Pollux’s size it appears far larger- nearly 6 times as large- in the sky as our sun does in ours. Planets around red giants have so far appeared to be pretty rare, possibly because such planets don’t fare so well when a star becomes a giant.
Side Note: As it turns out, there are 2 other planet-bearing stars within Gemini. The first, HR 2877 Geminorum, lies slightly outside the main constellation. It’s known planet is 6.5 times the size of Jupiter and orbits at a distance similar to that between Venus and our sun.
The second, HD 54554 Geminorum, is a yellow-white dwarf star lying inside the constellation. Its planet, nearly 5 times the mass of Jupiter, has highly elliptical orbit, ranging about 130 million miles to more than 300 million miles from the star, with a “year” of ~3.5 Earth-years. Imagine if our sun increased in size and shrank every year by more than 2 times!
But cool as Pollux is, Castor is even cooler, the most complex multiple star system we’ve looked at yet. Through a half-decent telescope, it appears as a double star. The 2 stars, Castor A and Castor B, are both hydrogen-fusing white stars*, orbiting each other once every 445 years, in a highly elliptical path, which brings them as close together as about 70 times the distance from Earth to the Sun, and as far apart as almost 138 times the Earth-Sun distance. But it turns out that each of these 2 stars has another, closer companion. Castor A’s close-companion (Castor Aa), is small orange star about half the mass of the sun, and orbits the main star every 9 days at a distance of 11 million miles. Castor B’s close companion (CastorBb) is a small red star, also of about ½ a solar mass, orbiting the main star every 3 days at a distance of less than 3 million miles.
*This makes them Class A stars. Our sun, which shines yellow-white, is Class F.
Extra Detail: Both of these small companions BTW, are spectroscopic doubles, meaning that they’re too close to be distinguished by telescope, but instead are detected by analyzing variations in the spectrum of the (apparent single) star which are cause by the close companions orbiting one another.
So Castor’s not a double star, it’s a quadruple. But wait- we’re not done yet! Orbiting this elliptical foursome at roughly 10 times the (average) distance between Castor A & B, and completing its circuit around them every 14,000 years, is another star, Castor C, which turns out to be yet another spectroscopic double! This double is 2 small red stars, each with about 60% the mass of the sun, which lie just over 3 million miles apart and orbit each other every 19 hours. So Castor is actually a sextuple system, consisting of 2 double stars orbiting one another, which together are orbited by another double star! Wow, that’s one complicated star.
Another interesting thing about Castor is that, like Mizar, Merak, Alioth, Phecda and Megrez in the Big Dipper, Castor appears to be part of a moving group, that is a bunch of stars of similar age, composition and presumably origin, which are headed in the same direction. But the Castor Moving Group doesn’t include any other stars in Gemini, which is one of those constellations in which practically none of the stars have much of anything to do with one another*. From our perspective it’s a broadly scattered group of a couple dozen stars, including Fomalhaut in Pisces and Vega** in the Summer Triangle.
*For example, Pollux is 34 light years away, Castor 51, and Mekbuda 1200 light years distant! Mekbuda is the true monster of Gemini; if it were in the position of our sun it would occupy a full 30 degrees of sky.
**A bright, fascinating star whose eventual fate might impact life here on Earth. I plan to blog about it come Summer.
In between Pollux and Castor, on a clear night, you may spot a dim star between the two, closer to Pollux. This is Sigma Geminorum, which may not look like much, but if your vision extended into the X-Ray end of the spectrum this would be far and away the brightest star in Gemini, and one of the brightest in the entire sky. Sigma Gemini is a double star, consisting of a giant and a dwarf that have become tidally locked*, with the same sides always facing each other (like the Moon and Earth.) This locking has effectively sped up the rotation of the giant, amping up its magnetic field, which in turn is heating the corona of the star and making it shine brightly in the X-Ray spectrum.
*I explained tidal locking in this post.
Mebsuta, a supergiant 900 light years away, is interesting in that it’s a late-in-life star of about 9 solar masses, right on the cusp of ending it’s life in a supernova, like Betelgeuse. But stars less than about 10 solar masses, end up as white dwarfs (as our sun will.) Mebsuta’s close enough to the limit that it could go either way- maybe blow up, but probably just burn out…
Practically every star in Gemini has a cool story, but we’ll wrap it up with just one more- Wasat. This star is classified as a “subgiant”, which means that its hydrogen core is just giving out, and it’s morphing into a giant. But that’s not the cool thing. Wasat lies within 0.2 degrees of the ecliptic, the path that the sun travels across the sky. Since the planets orbit the sun on a rough plane, this means that pretty much every visible planet* passes by Wasat at some point.
*Visible, as in naked-eye visible, is the important qualifier here. All the naked-eye visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and maybe, sorta, possibly if you have phenomenal eyesight and the sky is super-clear Uranus) orbit pass within 7 degrees of the ecliptic. Pluto is off by as much as 17 degrees, and distant Eris is off by 44 degrees.
If fact, if you’ve been watching Gemini of late, you’ve no doubt noticed the huge orange star- brighter than any star in Gemini proper- just to the East of Wasat. That’s no star of course, but rather the “star” of this winter’s sky- the Red Planet.
Next Up: All About Mars


Indian Space Research Organisation Mars Orbiter Mission
Indian Space Research Organisation Mars Orbiter Mission detail information.
There has been very much queries in internet these days about the Mars Orbiter Mission. We saw various questions like india mars mission cost, mars orbiter mission achievements, mars orbiter mission motto etc. We also get regular queries regarding the mars orbiter mission images and videos. Today we are providing you all the information about the Mars orbiter mission and latest news about the Indian Mars Orbiter Mission.
India’s first spacecraft has sent the photo of Mars in the station in India. It is the first Indian spacecraft to visit Mars. The picture of Red planet is such that it reveals the detail view of planet from pole to pole.
The new photo of Mars from India’s Mangalyaan shows Mars as a red globe in our space. The southern ice cap can be clearly seen and the dust storm blankets can be also seen easily in the northern region.
The Mangalyaan has the color camera fit in it and it used the same camera to capture the picture. The Mangalyaan spacecraft took the amazing photo from a distance of 46,292 miles (74,500 kilometers) from the Mars. The photo was taken on Sunday September 24 2016. It is the third picture that Mangalyaan has sent. It is reported that the pictures sent by Mangalyaan are very high quality and it will be very much helpful in detail study of Mars.


USF's Society of Aeronautics and Rocketry (SOAR) is competing in the Base 11 Space Challenge to be the winner of the $1,000,000 grand prize for being the FIRST university team to send a liquid-propelled rocket to space — 100 kilometers in altitude. In order to reach the goal, we are working on our next rocket, "Big Papa," to get closer to the line.
Steven H. Voss, '69, has made a generous gift of $2,500 to challenge fellow alumni and friends to join his commitment to SOAR. Once we raise $10,000, Mr. Voss will gift an additional $2,500. Help UNLOCK the challenge gift while helping SOAR to reach new heights — and in space — with your gift of any size!
Who We Are
SOAR is a multi-disciplinary organization that provides opportunities for students to enhance their knowledge in research and gain tangential skills pertinent to the aerospace industry. We build and launch rockets and believe that the sky is NOT the limit!
SOAR promotes engineering education with our outreach programs that impact more than 1,000 students annually. We are the only organization available to students with an aerospace interest on campus.
Rockets are expensive and we currently lack the necessary equipment and components to safely develop and test our projects. With the support of donors like you, we can have the capital necessary to create a sustainable rocketry program and help fuel USF's race to space for the $1,000,000 grand prize.
What Your Gifts WIll do
Gifts of any size will go towards the development of long-term systems and desperately needed plumping components that will be used to build "Big Papa." Your generosity will expedite our project timeline and push us six months ahead of our production schedule.
Spread The Word
We are counting on your help! Make an even bigger impact by sharing your support of this campaign using the social media tools at the top of the page.
Thank you for believing in SOAR — your gifts will help us to accomplish our dreams.
Choose a giving level
Help USF SOAR compete in the Base 11 Space Challenge with our liquid-fueled rocket.
Race to Space
Help provide the necessary parts for "Big Papa" to increase our chances of winning the Challenge.
Help our team cross the 62-mile high Karman Line in the Base 11 Space Challenge.
Help SOAR be the first university team to send a liquid-fueled rocket to space — 100 km in altitude!
Help student rocketeers accomplish their dreams of sending "Big Papa" to space.
Help us build a winning liquid-fueled rocket, "Big Papa."
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Your Adventure Awaits!
Join us Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. with Miss Michele for songs, games, stories and lots of hands on learning.
Story Hour is open to young children and their caregivers.
We hope you'll join us!
Reach for the Stars!
Borrow the Library's telescope
February 9 - Full Moon, Supermoon. The Moon's face will be fully illuminated. This phase occurs at 07:34 UTC. This full moon was known by Native American tribes as the Full Snow Moon or the Full Hunger Moon. This is the first of four super moons in 2020. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual. February 10 - Mercury reaches greatest eastern elongation of 18.2 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the evening sky. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset. February 23 - New Moon. The Moon will located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This phase occurs at 15:33 UTC. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.
Free and Reduced AdmissionThe library has 9 different passes to area attractions
- The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
- Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory & Gardens
- Old Sturbridge Village
- House of the Seven Gables
- Mystic Aquarium
- Tower Hill Botanical Gardens
- Massachusetts State Parks Pass
- Museum of Science
- Zoo New England
Drop In Lego Hour and Lego Challenge
Come build with us!Join us Thursday from 3:00 to 4:15 p.m.
We provide the LEGOS, You provide the IMAGINATION!
Want a challenge? come inon Thursdays at 6:00 pm and take the challenge to build something.
You asked for them, and here they are!The most requested item on our survey was for more evening hours. So now we will be open on Tuesday evenings from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thank you Hubbardston!
The property underwent a historical restoration project in 2000 to address many of its needed repairs.
In 2016, the library had an interior restoration which included restoring the original heart pine floors, new carpet in the entry, electrical work, a new sunny yellow paint in the children's room and some new furnishings.


The Morrison Government is backing Australian businesses to develop and launch new products into space, as part of a plan to get more local companies to be part of NASA’s Moon to Mars program.
Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said the Demonstrator Feasibility grants will allow businesses and researchers to look into whether their projects are viable – showcasing local space capabilities on the global stage.
“Investing in space is investing in our future. By backing Aussie businesses to be part of global space supply chains we can grow our economy and create new jobs,” Minister Andrews said.
“These grants will provide opportunities for businesses and researchers to scope out the feasibility of projects which have the potential to operate or support operations in space, including activities related to NASA’s Moon to Mars endeavours.
“Space isn’t just about launch. Space technology can improve our lives, from assisting in the delivery of remote rural medicine, helping us stay connected with loved ones across the world and assisting farmers to manage their land through advancements in robotics.
“We’re also focused on building manufacturing capability and growing the space sector here at home – a key priority area of our Government’s Modern Manufacturing Strategy.”
Member for Mackellar, Jason Falinski has urged Northern Beaches based industries to get involved in the process.
“The Northern Beaches is home to many businesses which have previously contributed to Australia’s defence industry. I would encourage them and others to contribute towards Australia’s quest for the stars.” Mr Falinski said.
Head of the Australian Space Agency Dr Megan Clark AC said the Demonstrator program will support commercially focused projects to build capability in the national civil space sector and open up global market opportunities.
“The Demonstrator Feasibility grants are about building capacity and capability in entities that are at the starting point on the path to developing and launching products into space,” Dr Clark said. “The grants will help businesses and researchers identify the feasibility of potential projects before they embark on the next stages of a space mission.
“Space exploration opens up new opportunities for Australia as it provides an avenue for Australian businesses to apply our best technology and know-how to space missions. These activities can also support the creation of high-value manufacturing capability, which can be transferred to other industries.”
Grants of between $50,000 and $200,000 are available under the two-year Demonstrator Feasibility program. Visit https://business.gov.au/m2m-demo-feas for more information or to apply.
The $150 million Moon to Mars initiative is part of close to $700 million being invested by the Australian Government into the Australian civil space sector as part of its goal to triple the sector’s size to $12 billion and create up to an extra 20,000 jobs by 2030.


*The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to man (Psalm 115:16)*
*ఆకాశములు యెహోవావశము భూమిని ఆయన నరుల కిచ్చియున్నాడు.(కీర్తనలు 115:16)*
These days we hear a great deal about the achievement of the scientists in reaching out the outer space. Decades ago the American astronauts landed on the moon and few more nations followed the track in the following years. Few days back even India could land its space craft on moon. We know that human spacecraft has already reached the planet Mars.
*These achievements are really great. But any intelligent mind will raise a question about these attempts of the scientists – why are they taking all this trouble to reach other planets? They are spending millions and millions of dollars on these operations. On the other hand millions of people are starving for food on our own planet.* How much help could be extended to the poor in our own world if we can divert all those millions of dollars towards social service programs!
While millions are suffering with poverty and sickness, some countries are spending unbelievable huge amounts of money in creating more and more sophisticated weapons for future wars. Incredibly huge amounts are being spent on space research. Is it reasonable? How can they justify spending money to create more power destructive weapons while people are dying of starvation? How can anyone justify investing millions of dollars in space research while countless millions are suffering without food, clothing and shelter?
It may be argued that even the space research will ultimately result in serving the poor of our own planet. *The scientists are dreaming to accomplish an impossibility. The actual purpose behind the space research is to find evidences somewhere on some planet which help to rule out the supremacy of God.*
The scientists want to find evidences of life on other planets. *It is the foolish hope of the scientists that some day they will find that some form of life will be found on other planets which proves the Bible to be wrong!* The basic idea is that the theory of the evolution of species will be proven to be right if the so called primitive “forms” of life are found on other planets. They hope to prove that the evolutionary process is just beginning on those planets!
*They want to argue that the Biblical account of creation is an imaginary story because there are living beings on other planets too! That is the most foolish argument that a scientist can make.Let me tell you, these earthly scientists will never, never be able to find intelligent living creatures on other planets.*
*Even if they find the so called “primitive forms of life” or some intelligent creatures which are more advanced than us, such a discovery would still be unable to disprove the Bible because the Bible clearly tells us that God created many worlds.*
But those worlds which God has created are in God’s control. *The human scientists will never be able to reach those extra terrestrial worlds. That is what our present text, Psalms 115:16 tells us.* God has given the planet Earth to human beings. Whatever human beings want to do, they can do only on this planet.
I know people who can and will go to other worlds in this universe. They are not astronomers or space research scientists, but they are the believers in Christ. Very soon Christ will come back and take away His faithful followers. They will be authorized to travel in the space from one world to another on heavenly chariots of fire. All human efforts of space research are going to be a mere waste of money, time and energy. Blessed are the believers who are living for Christ. Praise be to God.


From the dust cover:
John Gribbin is one of today’s greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books, including In Search of the Multiverse, In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat, and Science: A History. He trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is now Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex.
Regarding life in the universe, I some years back concluded on my own that life is not some rarity, but a natural state of matter, pretty much inevitable given certain minimal planetary conditions. I based the conclusion on an odd idea I have about entropy – that life “hitchhikes” on the flow of energy from greater to lesser concentrations, and in the process ratchets up the speed of that flow, accelerates entropy, which is something the universe “likes” very much. So there’s a natural condition that pushes things toward … life-iness.
Regarding intelligent life, I wanted to believe in flying saucer visitors when I was a teenager, but gradually concluded that there was no such thing, just based on the physics of light speed and the distances involved. Nothing like us is going to travel that far, that long, just for curiosity’s sake.
But I still thought intelligent life was out there. It just seemed too … convenient, I guess is the word, that WE had it, even at our low level. (And yes, I don’t think humans are very bright. In fact, I think we’re – collectively – probably one-half to one-tenth as bright as we need to be to survive.)
Long a fan of science fiction and a lover of the Star Trek (but not the Star Wars) Universe, I’ve sort of taken it for granted that there’s other intelligent life in the galaxy and universe. Somewhere out there.
In my adult life, I don’t think I’ve ever really considered the idea that there might not be. That we might be the only ones in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Interestingly, it’s a very Christian idea, isn’t it? That God created us, and only us, and that the Universe revolves around us? Maybe that’s why I rejected the idea without thinking very much about it.
To someone like me, the thought that we’re alone is disturbing as hell – something like what I felt (still feel) after my Dad died.
One of my post-Dad realizations was that I have to be a grownup now. Because THE grownup in my life, was no longer there to back me up, to allow me to be a big kid for a few more years. You’d think I would have figured that out by now, at the age of almost-60. But surprise, there in the back of my mind had always been this comfortable feeling that I could skate through life making jokes and chuckling at everything, finding amiable delight in whatever happened, never taking any of it too seriously.
Because I had this older guy on my team who had a grip on the taking-it-seriously angle, I never had to worry much about it. Of course Dad was a big kid too, but I figured with all his life experience, he was a big kid because he knew it was okay.
In the midst of reading this book, I discovered I had something of the same thing in my head about intelligence in the galaxy. Sure, we Earth people are idiots, and are likely to kill ourselves in just a few years. But somewhere out there are older, wiser civilizations, there to carry the banner for Intelligence.
I remember going to a lecture by physicist/author/UFO researcher (!) Stanton Freeman quite some years back, and he argued that, given the age at which intelligent life arose out here on our galactic arm, and given that there are stars nearer the core which are more than 3 billion years older than ours, there might well be civilizations 3 billion years or more advanced than us. Which would mean, he suggested, unimaginable, no-limits technology.
Gotta tell yuh, I loved the idea. Even if we human fuckups never made it off the block, if we destroyed ourselves in a nuclear war or burned the planet out with our infestive population, there would still be a community of galactic wisdom. Even if we never get to join it, the Club of Mind in the Milky Way would go on.
But then along came this book.
[ Continued in Part 2 ]


Musings from some guy who know stuff...and thinks he knows other stuff, and has opinions on just about everything, and is more than happy to tell you what he thinks and why...when he has time and the inclination to sit down and write in this thing.
Monday, July 01, 2013
Voyager is Pretty Awesome
It is, in my opinion, the coolest thing we have done with space exploration. The idea of this craft we built drifting, functional, in space for decades is the stuff of science fiction. Also it is maybe exiting the solar system for real this time.


|“||Next, we are going to steal.......(Pause for effect)..... THE MOON!||”|
— Felonius Gru
The Moon is Earth's natural satellite.
The first moon landing happened in 1969. Felonius Gru watched this historic moment with his mother and was inspired by the landing to go to outer space just like his idol Neil Armstrong.
Gru, along with Dr. Nefario, had formulated a plan to steal the Moon years before the supervillain adopts Margo, Edith, and Agnes. When Vector, a supervillain rival, steals the Pyramid of Giza, Gru reveals the devious plan that had been formulated for several years. Gru steals the Moon with the shrink ray, which comically stops tidal waves for surfers and reverts a werewolf to normal. But Gru is forced to give it to Vector in exchange for the girls who are kidnapped by him. However, Vector kept both the Moon and the girls, causing Gru to storm his lair. Vector, shocked to see Gru break through all his defenses, attempts to escape in an escape pod.
At the same time, the Moon begins to expand, but Gru manages to get Margo, Edith and Agnes out of the ship. The Moon grows rapidly, destroying Vector's escape pod and leaving Vector trapped on the moon along with Bob the minion.
Despicable Me 2
Appearances in other media
Main article: Moon (Minion Rush)
- In real life, unlike in the movie, removal of the Moon would have disastrous consequences on Earth: the former would potentially destabilize the Earth's tilt, day/night cycle, and climate. However, scientists believe these effects would not be immediate, and so it can be reasoned the the moon was replaced quick enough to avoid disaster.
- In the movie, the moon is seen being returned to space by Vector's ship right before it expands into its original size. However, in real life orbital mechanics, the full-sized moon will eventually fall right back into the Earth's surface and cause an extinction level event, as it is launched in a suborbital trajectory instead of being correctly inserted into its original orbit around the Earth.
- The 1969 Moon landing in the film is a reference to the real life Apollo 11 mission, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the lunar surface.
|Great Pyramid of Giza • Gru's House • Gru's Lab • Bank of Evil • Miss Hattie's Home for Girls • Top Secret Research Facility • Vector's House • Super Silly Fun Land • Moon|
|Despicable Me 2|
|PX-Labs • Gru's House • Pier 12 • Anti-Villain League • Paradise Mall • Gru's Lab • Bake My Day • Eagle Hair Club • Salsa & Salsa • Minion Beach • Zarelli's Italian Restaurant • El Macho's Lair|
|Minion Ice Cave • Fancy's Department Store • Villain-Con • Scarlet's Castle • Tower of London • Buckingham Palace • Westminster Abbey • Pig's Spleen|
|Despicable Me 3|
|Shaka Hut • Gru's House • Freedonia • Dru's Mansion • Tipsy Unicorn • State Prison • Bratt's Lair • Hollywood|
|Mailroom • Secret Bomb Lab • National Museum • Fuzzy Memories|
|Appearances in Other Media|
|Minion Rush • Minions Paradise|


She told us that Russia is famous for the Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and for
being the birthplace of our beloved Rex & Jett Johnson AKA the translators.
The boy's wowed us with their mastery of the Russian language. They taught us words such as
spasiba (thanks), nyet (no), and homo (hello?). It's a good thing we had these
two linguists to guide us around Russia!
Then we all got our hankies out as we watched the boy's video of their day's in the Russian orphanage.
Cosmonaut Training Center
Russia was the first country to put an animal, a man, and a woman into space. We're "blasting off" to the world famous Cosmonaut Training Center where we'll participate in their gruelling program.
There are three things every cosmonaut needs to be. First, a cosmonaut is BRAVE.
Their first challenge was to wander all over the property searching for cute little aliens that
had been ejected from their space ships. This was basically an Easter egg hunts with aliens in pill bottles (space capsules).
Aliens purchased from Oriental Trading
After their rescue, the little cuties were put into their flying saucer. The saucer was two Chinet plates stapled together. A bowl was then hot glued on top, and a door was cut out on three sides and bent back. The space craft was then spray painted a metallic silver.
Each cosmonaut was in charge of hurling a flying saucer back into the galaxy.
To be successful the space craft had to pass through a hula-hoop hanging from a branch.
Once they succeeded, they reported to the head cosmonaut for their bravery reward.
The rewards were Starburst candy, Mars or Milky Way candy bars.
Second, a cosmonaut is SPEEDY!
This was a relay race. I made a red and a blue rocket out of oatmeal containers.
Each team had to refuel their rockets fuel tanks with gas (cotton balls).
They raced holding a spoon and cotton ball in one hand and a mini Russian flag on a toothpick in the other.
After refueling their rocket, they raced to the moon (Styrofoam ball)...
...planted their flag and claimed the moon for Russia...
...then raced back to the next comrade in line.
Third, A cosmonaut is HELPFUL
This challenge was so fun, but hard to photograph! We totally blacked out the windows in my bedroom . It was PITCH black! We tacked black plastic around the whole room (it's a small room) and then taped planets, stars, moons etc. that were cut out of fluorescent poster board to the plastic. We had several black lights and a very electronic sounding CD playing. The bed was covered in black sheets and with the little dots we emptied out of a hole punch. It looked like the milky way with thousands of little stars. We told the kids they had to achieve weightlessness and then retrieve three canisters left by NASA. We suspended three containers with 1) glow in the dark martian fingers,(OTC witch fingers) 2) glow in the dark balls (planets) and 3) glow in the dark flying saucers over the bed with fishing line. One at a time the adults tossed the kids gently into the air with the black bed sheets. While weightless, they tried to grab a canister off the ceiling. This was easy with the little ones, the big ones, NOT SO MUCH! Of course everyone wanted to do it again!
As we were tossing someone "one last time", a walkie talkie went off with this message," Come in Cosmonaut Training Center. This is space shuttle Grammatrosky. We have been attacked, I repeat WE HAVE BEEN ATTACKED by big, mean, green aliens. They have taken over our shuttle. The only way they can be stopped is by shooting them with your vaporizing laser water guns."
The cosmonauts ran out to find an alien in possession of that distressed space shuttle!
They blew sonic blasters and squirted that mean green alien into submission!
That alien felt so bad , he asked forgiveness for his rude behavior.
And all was forgiven!
Having proven themselves worthy to be called Cosmonauts, the campers were awarded Official Cosmonaut Certificates.
They also were rewarded a Cosmonaut Cousins Space Mission Badge.
And the biggest thrill of all! They were now allowed to eat in the Cosmonaut Cafeteria!
Out of this world box lunch
Now that we're "official", we launched our own space craft, a solar tube purchased from http://www.teachersource.com/AirPressure/RocketsAndBalloons/SolarTube.aspx
We may have to re-up for more cosmonaut classes since our space craft drifted into the branches and crashed minutes after take off!
Some other Russian activities:


Ideal experience for astronomy lovers that will transport you to another galaxy
We will observe and identify visible stars, constellations and planets that will allow us to understand the mysteries of the universe. All this in a spectacular setting, the place of the Hermitage of San Cristóbal, one of the best viewpoints in the Maestrat region.
Every Wednesday at 10.30pm
Duration 2 hours approximately
Meeting point: At 10 pm at the main door of the Castellón Planetarium
In the case of needing transportation to Castellón or another request, indicate it in the reservation and we will inform you of the different options.
€ 12 per / person.
Consult group rates (more than 20 people). VAT included.


A new study has shown that the lunar crust may have formed due to a "slushy" magma ocean that has been freezing for hundreds of millions of years.
An international group of scientists, led by the university of cambridge, has created a series of computer and mathematical stamps to view the chemical composition and habits of lunar rocks, and also how they will control their products on the first "liquid magma" moons.
They suddenly realized that during the cooling of the moon, after its initial explosive start, a freezing sea of molten rock could cause the current lunar surface.
According to the researchers, the lunar crust may have formed similarly to crystals in a slushy machine, before remaining suspended in liquid magma for hundreds of millions of years, when the "slush" of the young moon froze and solidified.
If the crystals remain suspended like a suspension, then when the crystal content in the suspension exceeds the critical threshold, https://hdfuck.pro the suspension becomes thick and sticky.
This increase in the crystal content occurs most sharply near the surface, where the ocean of slushy magma cools, as a result of which actions a hot, well-mixed slushy internal component and a slow-moving, crystal-rich lunar "cover" is formed, creating a lunar surface.
The moon's crust may have formed due to a "slushy" magma ocean that has been freezing hdfuck.pro for hundreds of millions of years. Years, a new study has shown
An international team of scientists, led by the university of cambridge in europe, found that the freezing of the sea of molten rock could cause the formation of the current lunar surface


The Genesis One Code unlocks the mysteries of creation from a scientific perspective. Get it free on Amazon.com from January 8 through January 10, 2015
If you have ever wondered how to reconcile the mysteries of creation, which might seem like fantastical magic to many people, with the hard facts of science, The Genesis One Code is a must-read.
We at THGM Writing Services helped visionary Daniel Friedmann put together his bestselling work, The Genesis One Code, which he introduces like this:
“Every word in the 6 Day Genesis account describes the origins of the universe, and every discovery and observation by science leads to understand how the universe came to be, often in contradiction to Genesis – they can’t both be right, or can they?”
Unlike some speculative authors, Friedmann comes to the topic with solid credentials as an aerospace engineer and a businessman. With a master’s degree in engineering physics and more than 20 peer-reviewed scientific papers on space industry topics and cosmology under his belt, he is also the CEO of Canada’s leading aerospace company (which built the famous Canadarms for the Space Shuttle) and is actively involved in both space exploration and the Hubble telescope.
Backed by his full grounding in engineering and space exploration, Friedmann’s “Scale of Origin” discovery has finally unlocked the scientific explanation behind Biblical creation in The Genesis One Code. Amazingly enough, there is an alignment between what scientists are saying about creation and what the Bible says. It is a rare joy to be able to help a client prepare a manuscript for something so important and groundbreaking as this.
The 2013 Readers’ Favorite 2013 International Book Award Winner and Finalist in the 2013 National Indie Excellence Awards is available free-of-charge for 3 days only: Click here to get your free copy.


Dr Dan Durda - astronomer/planetary scientist/friend
This is a fantastic picture. Just had to share. Dr. Daniel Durda, astronomer and planetary scientist, had the wonderful opportunity of meeting and introducing Alan Shepard's daughter, at a science-related event. And as you can see from the photo, he got to sport Alan's jacket and hold (yes, it's the one), the golf club that Alan used on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 14 mission. What an honor, huh?
Delighted to call him my friend and extremely proud of all of his accomplishments throughout the years. He even played a role in the third book (The Secret of Mrs H) of my tween trilogy, The Story of Q, and plays himself in chapter 31, entitled, "Poor Little Pluto". If you want to know more, well, er, you'll just have to read my book. Pure science merges with sci-fi.
To learn more about Dan, check out the following links. You can also catch him on episodes of How the Universe was Made, and similar TV shows.
Here he's wearing a surprise gift I designed for him.


Multi-billionaire CEO plans to launch space mission
SpaceX aims to send a manned spacecraft around the moon in 2018
March 9, 2017
Filed under Opinion
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Outer space, once the dark void beyond the earth, is now an emerging real estate venture. Elon Musk, widely known as the co-founder and CEO of Tesla, Inc., has brought a commercial perspective to the industry of space exploration, reimagining the outer space frontier with SpaceX.
SpaceX, of which Musk is also CEO, was founded in 2002 as a private spacecraft and spaceflight company that seeks to “revolutionize space technology with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets,” according to the company’s website.
SpaceX announced on its website on Feb. 27 that it will launch a manned Dragon spacecraft mission in 2018.
The Dragon, a SpaceX designed craft, features a trunk section for support during launch and a pressurized capsule for accommodating people and cargo.
The Dragon model has the capacity to function as either a cargo, crew or laboratory vessel. A cargo configuration of the model traveled into space in 2012, becoming the first commercial spacecraft to deliver supplies to the International Space Station and return to Earth.
The company will send two private citizens into space, around the moon and back to Earth in the crew configuration of the Dragon, according to the SpaceX announcement.
However, before the private mission, SpaceX plans to complete at least two other trips to the International Space Station, an unmanned delivery this year and a professionally crewed delivery in late 2018 as part of the company’s contract with NASA.
Once those missions are completed and the two individuals have completed necessary tests and some basic training, SpaceX will launch the two member crew in the Dragon model from the Kennedy Space Center near Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the same pad used for the Apollo program.
The announcement stated that the unnamed private citizens, “have already paid a significant deposit to do a moon mission,” and during a phone conference with reporters the day of the announcement, Musk revealed that the journey would take approximately one week to complete.
This mission is perhaps the first major step for Musk and SpaceX in working toward their ultimate goal of cultivating human life on other planetary bodies.
The February announcement came after September 2016 statements from Musk about colonizing Mars.
A National Geographic article outlined Musk’s September statements at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, the SpaceX CEO believes that flying humans to Mars will be possible by the mid-2020s.
Musk’s plans for achieving that goal though, are questionable. His timeline is vague, delays are anticipated for the completion of necessary equipment and sources of funding will have to come from private industries as well as governments.
Space exploration is a valuable tool for better understanding our solar system and universe, but if powerful people like Musk keep their heads in the clouds for too long, they risk overlooking the realities of what it takes to make space travel possible, and they risk forgetting about what lives beneath them.
International space programs have historically functioned as means of development and advancement — of opportunities to see above the clouds — but those programs have largely come to exist within the bounds of law, according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
And it is more than international law — it is space law.
Whether or not they realistically work, the existence of governing bodies such as the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is fundamentally important.
The UN committee oversees five agreements of international cooperation between member nations, one of which prohibits any one country or organization from claiming ownership of the moon or any other celestial body.
So Musk’s colonization rhetoric undermines the current laws of space and fails to recognize the logistic and historic implications of “new world” discoveries and settlements.
Engaging in the establishment of human society on other planetary bodies in the rapid way that Musk expects does a disservice and an injustice to humanity by neglecting the social unrest that plagues our own planet. What does leaving Earth accomplish, especially for people who will not be able to afford a trip around the moon or a new life on Mars?
Contrary to what Musk would hope, instead of providing inspirational answers for the future of humanity, SpaceX provokes more questions.
Will people of all countries and classes have access to this interplanetary travel?
Is the 2018 private moon mission a way of preparing for more extensive space travel, or is it just a way of claiming a “first” for SpaceX?
Musk seems to think the adventurous spirit of space exploration is enough to merit SpaceX an all-access pass to the world beyond our own, but Musk’s way of redefining space and putting international efforts into creating a multi-planet world abandons any hope for the future of our own planet.
Musk’s vision is understandably appealing space — it is a difficult yet exciting method for dividing humanity’s chances of survival among several celestial bodies. But as long as people can come back down to Earth, breathe the polluted air and decide to do something about it, hope for our home will endure. Maybe that hope amounts to the smallest fraction of the tiniest particle in the entire universe, but it would still exist.
Because Musk’s path to realizing the interplanetary dream in his own lifetime is impractical at best, his vision may actually accentuate that hope for Earth. Perhaps if we realize we cannot live on other planets as soon as Musk would like, then we would be forced to more substantially address the future of the one we have so systematically abused.
In any case, a unique experience certainly awaits the two people who will fly around the moon in the Dragon. The 2018 mission, if successful, could make history, providing another “first” for SpaceX and humankind.