Meteor Shower tonight!

Stay up all night Monday night, and keep looking towards the sky into the early light of Tuesday, December 14th to see the best meteor showers of the year. More than 100 meteors will fly through the night sky every hour. Peak showers will be early Tuesday, between midnight and sunrise. And you’ll be able to see them easily with the naked eye. That is, if it’s a clear night. The meteors are caused by debris of what was once believed to be an asteroid or comet. They will appear to come from the constellation Gemini, hence their name. Gemini is easy to find if you look toward the east in the night sky, and find its two large stars, the twins, Castor and Pollux. Click HERE to find out how to find Gemini in the night sky. Some meteors will be visible through December 16th. For more info on the meteor shower go to NASA.

While your staying up all night to watch the sky, mark your calendar for 3:13 am Tuesday December 21st for the Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse. That day will also be the Winter Solstice. I’ll write about what that special day means in my next Moon Letter. Be sure SIGN UP to receive my monthly newsletter that talks about what the Full Moon means to you.

Venus, Mars, and Saturn in the Sky

Update August 7th, 2010

We have the triangle of planets setting in the west through August, a New Moon in Leo on Monday August 9th, and the Perseids meteor shower on Thursday August 12th. Venus, the sparkling diamond, is the most beautiful and brightest light in the sky, aside from the Moon. It is no coincidence that the two most beautiful lights in the sky are considered feminine, or yin, energies in astrology. Watching Venus in the night sky is a real pleasure, second only to watching the Moon. To find Venus, look to the west after sunset. In August she is pretty high in the sky. To find her think of the the eastern horizon as 12 on a clock, and the western horizon as 6; then Venus is about at 5 o’clock in the early evening, setting lower in the west a few hours later . She is the brightest light you will see in the sky and she really sparkles. Venus has been in the evening sky since March 2010 and will continue to be visible in the evening light till the end of October, when she passes between the Earth and the Sun. She will reappear as the Morning Star in November.

Venus, Mars, and Saturn are all together in the sky, and will be in the zodiac sign Libra from Sunday, August 8th until September 9th. Depending on how clear the night sky is, you might be able to see them. On Saturday, they make a triangle in the sky, with Venus the lower point, and Mars, an orange color to the upper left, and Saturn, more golden, to the upper right.  These three planets move at different speeds, so their relationship will change as August progresses. On Sunday, the waning crescent Moon will join them. The planets will be below the Moon, and they will all set about 2 hours after the Sun sets. The New Moon is on August 9th, invisible at first, since it is so close to the Sun that it can not be seen. But as the Moon moves further from the Sun you will see the beautiful sliver of the crescent, that I call the High Priestess Moon. So from August 11-13, the waxing crescent Moon will be seen with Venus, Mars, and Saturn, as she moves to join them in the zodiac sign Libra.

So what does it mean, astrologically speaking, to have the two yin energies, Moon and Venus, and two yang energies, Mars and Saturn together? I’ll address that in another post.