Out walking this morning, I couldn't believe how huge the moon looked. My wife said she thought it was some kind of lunar eclipse, but I couldn't see it. She sent me this email which I found pretty amazing.
This first lunar eclipse of 2009 is one of four lunar eclipses during the year. The first three eclipses are penumbral while the last (on Dec. 31) is partial. The next total lunar eclipse occurs on December 21, 2010. A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle.
Eclipses occur approximately once every three months and always come in pairs. In this case it is the Solar Eclipse leading the way, occurring on January 26 at Aquarius 7 degrees. The Lunar Eclipse follows on February 9 at Leo 21 degrees.
The Feb 9 event is the deepest penumbral eclipse of the year with a penumbral magnitude of 0.899. It will be easily visible to the naked eye as a dusky shading in the northern half of the Moon. The beginning and end of a penumbral eclipse are not visible to the eye. In fact, no shading can be detected until about 2/3 of the Moon's disk is immersed in the penumbra. This would put the period of eclipse visibility from approximately 14:00 to 15:20 UT. Observers in western Canada and the USA will have the best views with moonset occurring sometime after mid-eclipse. To catch the entire event, one must be in Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, or East Asia.
Current Transits - Astrological Month of Aquarius, 2009.
- January 19 - Sun enters Aquarius -
- January 21 - Mercury retrograde enters Capricorn -
- January 26 - New Moon Solar Eclipse at Aquarius 7 degrees -
- February 1 - Mercury turns direct at Capricorn 22 degrees -
- February 2 - Venus enters Aries -
- February 4 - Mars enters Aquarius -
- February 9 - Full Moon Lunar Eclipse at Leo 21 degrees -
- February 14 - Mercury enters Aquarius -
- February 18 - Sun enters Pisces -
Jupiter entered Aquarius January 5, 2009. Jupiter stays in Aquarius, the sign of humanitarian endeavors, community activity and social organizations until January 18, 2010. Jupiter expands whatever sign it moves through. Aquarius is the sign of the visionary and emphasizes the needs of the collective. We can expect an emphasis on teamwork and creating a new vision for the collective during 2009.
Eclipses represent the end of a way of being and the beginning of a new. They operate on a collective level, although those with planets near the degree of the eclipse point are particularly affected. From a collective perspective, something is dying and something else is being born.
The Lunar Eclipse takes place on February 9 at Leo 21 degrees. In the Egyptian pantheon Leo is associated with the jackal-headed god Anubis. Anubis is the new king, closely associated with Chiron. He is the wounded shaman, rising out of abandonment to become a prince among his peers. The new king, the new age, is being born.
On February 5, Saturn and Uranus move into the second of four exact oppositions, the first of which occurred on November 4, 2008. The third and fourth exact oppositions will occur on September 15, 2009 and April 27, 2010.
Whenever these two powerful planetary forces come into either opposition or conjunction, major societal change happens on planet earth. This opposition of Saturn and Uranus describes a period when the old order is threatened. It is to be expected that the old forces will resist and will try to maintain the status quo. Uranus is associated with Wadjet, the cobra-headed goddess who uses intense, fiery energy to clear a pathway through blockages and obstructions. She is associated with Kali in the Hindu pantheon and is also related to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. Uranian energy is sudden, unpredictable and describes the shattering necessary for the birth of a new reality. During the astrological months of Aquarius and Pisces we will have the opportunity to give serious thought to how we wish to implement our new reality.