Two verses in the book of Revelation, according to some, mirror the celestial alignment that will occur on the 23rd of this month:

 

 

Revelation 12:1-2King James Version (KJV)

12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

 

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

 

Here's the argument being made:

 

* On the 23rd, the Sun will be in the constellation Virgo( " a woman clothed with the sun").

* The Moon will be at the feet of Virgo("the moon under her feet").

* The "nine" stars of the constellation Leo + three planets( Mercury, Venus, Mars) will be at the head of Virgo( "upon her head a crown of twelve stars").

* Jupiter will be in the center of Virgo and will eventually exit Virgo to the east("and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered").

 

* Of course, Jupiter is by far the largest of the planets , one might even say the "King of planets. (v. 5 says , "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne").

 

So, there it is. Will the celestial alignment in nine days be a partial fulfillment of John's apocalyptic vision?

 

There are so many weaknesses in the argument that I honestly wouldn't know where to begin. If I were to begin, however, I would start with the fact that Leo has more than nine stars. Many more, in fact. Granted, oftentimes we do see just the nine brightest ones depicted in the general outline of Leo the Lion, but I have seen some outlines showing 10 or 13. One doesn't have to be a mathematician to know than more than nine plus three does not equal twelve. Simply being able to count and add blows away this crazy suggestion that the alignment of the stars and planets on the 23rd has some prophetic significance. Wait another year or two and we'll hear about a rogue planet that's on a collision course with Earth or a comet that is gonna poison us when Earth's orbit passes through its tail.

Edited September 14, 20179 yr by Science Friction

Two verses in the book of Revelation, according to some, mirror the celestial alignment that will occur on the 23rd of this month:

 

 

Revelation 12:1-2King James Version (KJV)

12 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

 

2 And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

 

Here's the argument being made:

 

* On the 23rd, the Sun will be in the constellation Virgo( " a woman clothed with the sun").

* The Moon will be at the feet of Virgo("the moon under her feet").

* The "nine" stars of the constellation Leo + three planets( Mercury, Venus, Mars) will be at the head of Virgo( "upon her head a crown of twelve stars").

* Jupiter will be in the center of Virgo and will eventually exit Virgo to the east("and she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered").

 

* Of course, Jupiter is by far the largest of the planets , one might even say the "King of planets. (v. 5 says , "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne").

 

So, there it is. Will the celestial alignment in nine days be a partial fulfillment of John's apocalyptic vision?

 

There are so many weaknesses in the argument that I honestly wouldn't know where to begin. If I were to begin, however, I would start with the fact that Leo has more than nine stars. Many more, in fact. Granted, oftentimes we do see just the nine brightest ones depicted in the general outline of Leo the Lion, but I have seen some outlines showing 10 or 13. One doesn't have to be a mathematician to know than more than nine plus three does not equal twelve. Simply being able to count and add blows away this crazy suggestion that the alignment of the stars and planets on the 23rd has some prophetic significance. Wait another year or two and we'll hear about a rogue planet that's on a collision course with Earth or a comet that is gonna poison us when Earth's orbit passes through its tail.

 

I'm no astronomer, but if a rogue planet were about to smash into us wouldn't it sorta already be very much in our sights enough to see with a telescope, or perhaps even with the naked eye? :idunno:

 

It makes no sense that one would just pop up from out of nowhere between now and the 23rd. :ohbrother:

I'm no astronomer, but if a rogue planet were about to smash into us wouldn't it sorta already be very much in our sights enough to see with a telescope, or perhaps even with the naked eye? :idunno:

 

It makes no sense that one would just pop up from out of nowhere between now and the 23rd. :ohbrother:

 

These doomsayers prey upon the gullible in society who give too much credence to myth and superstition. Didn't you hear about the rogue planet Nibiru that has frequently appeared in popular media since about 2012? Actually, I think the idea of a Nibiru cataclysm was first proposed way back in the mid-nineties. A variable star by the name of V838Monoceratis, along with a light echo , has erroneously been reported on the internet as an approaching planet or brown dwarf star that is on a collision course with our beloved Earth. In one respect it's hard to believe that people actually believe this stuff. On the other hand, many who are anxious to see the fulfillment of John's apocalyptic vision and the imminent return of Christ, will oftentimes cast aside reasonable thought.

Enough religion, let's return to science. Bottomline, there is nothing particularly unusual about the September 23 celestial alignment, certainly not unusual enough to warrant predictions of the end of the world.

Talking about the alignment of stars and planets have had me singing the words below. I'm just curious if any of you have had these lyrics running through your mind as well.

 

When the moon is in the Seventh House

And Jupiter aligns with Mars

Then peace will guide the planets

And love will steer the stars

This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius

Age of Aquarius

Cassini's final few hours:

 

At 3:58 P.M. today, Cassini took one last look around Saturn's system. It captured a wide view of the planet and its rings, watched Enceladus set behind Saturn, and glanced one last time at its old friend, Titan. Cassini then looked straight ahead into the dark side of Saturn and took its final photo of the giant ringed-world that would soon destroy it.

 

A few minutes later, Cassini's camera shut down for the final time and then aligned its antenna with Earth and downlinked the last photos via the Deep Space Network.

 

In about four hours from now( a little after 3 A.M.), Cassini will transition over to real-time transmission of data and begin streaming data from the few instruments that remain on.

 

At 7 A.M. Friday morning, NASA will begin live streaming a broadcast of the Cassini's final minutes. Cassini will start to feel the effects of Saturn's atmosphere around 1,200 miles above the cloud tops at 7:43 A.M. EDT . The brave spacecraft use its thrusters to try to keep its antenna pointed towards Earth but will soon be overcome by Saturn's violent and relentless storms.

 

Thrown out of position by the Jovian ringed-giant, Cassini will lose signal with Mother Earth with no hope of recapture. The end will be imminent. The spacecraft which blasted into space back on October 15, 1997 will pretty much just fade away in the clouds over Saturn. It's aluminum body parts will quickly overheat and melt. The plutonium power supplies will be the last to go. Finally, Cassini ends it's 20 -year mission as a trail of vapor over Saturn.

 

So long, Cassini.... Thanks for the science... the pictures... the memories.

I'm no astronomer, but if a rogue planet were about to smash into us wouldn't it sorta already be very much in our sights enough to see with a telescope, or perhaps even with the naked eye? :idunno:

 

It makes no sense that one would just pop up from out of nowhere between now and the 23rd. :ohbrother:

 

 

Just wanted to thank you for reading the thread and adding your thoughts. I hope to hear even more from you going forward. You seem to enjoy the topic.

This weekend, I am going to begin a six or seven- part series talking about the most likely places , in my opinion, to find life in our solar system. Stay tuned...

Locate yourself in just the right place and the Milky Way is something to see. Here's our home galaxy arcing over the sands of the Sahara desert.

 

 

 

 

And from Death Valley:

 

Flarewell and good riddance 2673 ....

 

We talked the other day about the recent solar storm activity. The active solar region AR2673 lashed out with four X-class flares this month, one of them being the most powerful one in eleven years. As Bluegrasscard ( my BGP/CME space weather guy) mentioned in post #315, AR2673 gave us a parting shot X-class flare on September 10 . The resulting CME collided with our magnetosphere two days later. Below , for your viewing pleasure, is an extreme ultraviolet image of the intense September 10 flare . You'll notice it on the extreme right side of the sun's disk(the western edge)as it rotates nearly out of view from Earth. So, indeed it was a parting shot, as the powerful sunspot region will be on the far side of the sun(away from us, thankfully) for the next couple of weeks.

 

Just wanted to check in SF. Still fascinated, and grateful for the effort you put in. I've been holding onto an eclipse post for too long. The photos are outstanding as always. The ones from # 338 today are just my cuppa.

 

I'll confess to being a few weeks behind on your posts. I like/need to spend a little time to absorb the info, e.g. -

 

Still trying to get my head around this one, and I like to think I have good visualization skills. Analytical skills? :meh:

 

6,700+ visits to this thread in three months, :up:

Just wanted to check in SF. Still fascinated, and grateful for the effort you put in. I've been holding onto an eclipse post for too long. The photos are outstanding as always. The ones from # 338 today are just my cuppa.

 

I'll confess to being a few weeks behind on your posts. I like/need to spend a little time to absorb the info, e.g. -

Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon?

 

Still trying to get my head around this one, and I like to think I have good visualization skills. Analytical skills? :meh:

 

6,700+ visits to this thread in three months, :up:

Just wanted to check in SF. Still fascinated, and grateful for the effort you put in. I've been holding onto an eclipse post for too long. The photos are outstanding as always. The ones from # 338 today are just my cuppa.

 

I'll confess to being a few weeks behind on your posts. I like/need to spend a little time to absorb the info, e.g. -

Why Do We Only See One Side of the Moon?

 

Still trying to get my head around this one, and I like to think I have good visualization skills. Analytical skills? :meh:

 

6,700+ visits to this thread in three months, :up:

 

I've missed you a lot, my friend. I had become a little worried that you never made it down off that Georgia mountain. You add a lot to this thread. I'm very appreciative.

Before morning has broken.... Enjoy the Moon-Venus-Mercury-Mars.

BGP astronomy nerds: If you are up before dawn the next two mornings, you are in for a treat. The waning crescent moon and dazzling planet Venus pair up in the east before sunrise. Given clear skies, it’ll be hard to miss them. Whenever the two brightest objects in the night sky pair up in the pre-dawn sky, it's worth checking out.

 

Also, if you have binoculars you might be able to catch another duo---Mercury and Mars--- appearing close together. Mars will be about twelve times more faint than Mercury, which will appear near the horizon in the direction of sunrise. As the pre-dawn darkness begins to give way to dawn, look for Mercury more or less in line with the Moon and Venus. You should have no trouble seeing Mercury, which will be about eight times brighter than Regulus. If your vision is as poor as mine, you may need binocs to see Mars.

 

Should be a pretty spectacular show. Given an unobstructed eastern horizon, you'll be treated to the Moon-Venus pairing and may be fortunate enough to catch the Mercury-Mars duo below the Moon and Venus. Happy viewing !!!

What is the most distant thing you can see with your naked eye? Any ideas???

 

Hint: The light that you see coming from here originated back at the beginning of the period known as the "ice ages."

At a distance of about 49,140,730,000,000,000,000 miles from Earth sits the CLOSEST major galaxy to us --- ANDROMEDA. Can you believe that you can see(with your naked eyes) something that almost 50 Billion Billion miles away? That is truly amazing! Shoot, I struggle just to see through my neighbor's kitchen window.