Comments for page "Planetary Alignments"

dod do

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:43:15 +0000

please tell me the adress of the first crank site that you mentioned

(no title)

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:46:57 +0000

There is no 'planetary alignment' in 2012, other than the conjunctions that occur every year. On June 5th/6th (depending on where you are in the world) there will be a transit, where Venus will pass between us and the sun. I'm really looking forward to that.

Even when they do occur, planetary alignments are just visual phenomena… they look nice, but they don't actually do anything.

(no title)

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:42:13 +0000

Yes with venus but that doeas nothing no need to worrie.

(no title)

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 12:43:49 +0000

so is there an alignment or not because im confused?

(no title)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 06:55:29 +0000

Hi, and thanks for dropping in.

What you say is very interesting, and resonates with me. I think it is interesting on what we (meaning here in the US) focus on, what we fear, and how that relates to the real dangers.

For example, the leading causes of death in the US for 2006 were:

Heart disease: 631,636
Cancer: 559,888
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 137,119
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,583
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 121,599
Diabetes: 72,449
Alzheimer's disease: 72,432
Influenza and Pneumonia: 56,326
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 45,344
Septicemia: 34,234

(source http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/FASTATS/lcod.htm)

But instead of eating right, getting enough exercise, getting our flu shots, and avoiding texting while driving, we worry about whether or not the solar system is going to pass through the galactic plane, and whether or not the ancient Maya were out to get us.

(no title)

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:23:58 +0000

I teach History and English Lit at the high school level. One area we touch on is the Garrison theory and the politics of fear. It is very amusing that pop culture mirrors basic human fears during key stages in human history. Cold War, we had nuclear doomsday and alien invasions. War on Terror and Global Warming, we need to have more abstract doomsday scenarios like ice ages, meteors, and all variety of natural forces out to get us. These seem to mirror the more abstract qualities of the threat like terrorism. It is as if we have a deep subconscious desire to focus our fear on something, or have our fear focused for us. What is interesting in all of this is the perspective shift in recent years from unifying us nationally to unifying us globally. Could have something to do with the nature of dare I say, Global Climate change? Love the site. Cheers all.

Rare alignment on June 5-6, 2012

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:10:00 +0000

Actually, there is a unique alignment, called a transit of Venus, occurring June 5-6, 2012. While it has no bearing on the fate of the earth, the transit of Venus is worth celebrating, for it is how we came to know with more certainty the size of our solar system and the scale of the cosmos. Will it affect people worldwide? Hopefully, just as the June 8, 2004, transit of Venus inspired enough people to make that spectacle the #1 Most Popular Event in all of June 2004, according to Google's Zeitgeist feature.

During a transit of Venus, the planet Venus passes earth on the inside orbit, and it's alignment is such that Venus appears (to protected eyes) like a black dot moving across the face of the sun. Edmund Halley encouraged global expeditions to time the apparition, from which the sun-earth distance could be calculated. With that distance known, one could calculate the distances to all the other planets using Kepler's elegant laws. Indeed, fantastic international expeditions were mounted in 1761, 1769, 1874, and 1882, which had more intriguing stories than any modern Hollywood film.

Transits come in pairs, eight years apart. Then there is a lag for about 105 or 120 years. Nothing mystical about the numbers, just the way the geometry of the solar system works. The transits of 2004 and 2012 will be the last pair until about December 2117. So when someone barks about a spectacular alignment happening in 2012, embrace the genuine celestial highlight of June 5-6 (the date depending on where you live) that helped us to understand our place in space. Witness the transit yourself, if you can. Then rightly dismiss the December 2012 hoax.

Details about the 2012 transit of Venus and its predecessors are at www.transitofvenus.org.