Moon Muses

Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator

The Fourmilab Lunar Perigee and Apogee Calculator calculates the dates that the moon is closest and furthest from the earth. It also has a table showing the full and new moons for the selected year.

You can also download the page and run the calculator from your own computer without being connected to the internet.

Inconstant Moon

The Moon at Perigee and Apogee article explains why the moon is larger and/or brighter at certain times of the year. We don’t notice it much, usually, because the differences visible for the full moon only happen every 29 days or so and our visual memory is not that exact.

Stellarium

I loaded Stellarium and was amazed at how cool this FREE program is. It

is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.
It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go.

I like the feature where you can turn on the graphics to show what the different constellations are supposed to represent. It’s awesome!

Vegetarian Blog Search | Fatfree Vegan Kitchen

Vegetarian Blog Search | Fatfree Vegan Kitchen

Buttermaking – Make your own butter

Butter made from milk that comes from grass-fed cows is actually GOOD for you. This Buttermaking recipe includes pictures and useful tips on where to get the ingredients and equipment.

New Moon Report

This month’s New Moon Report at StarIQ.com talks about

The Capricorn New Moon is a time to lay out your agenda for the year ahead. While it’s not necessary to spell out your plans in full detail, this is an opportunity to connect to your core and align your intentions. Make at least one commitment to improve yourself and the discipline and order it brings are likely to grow. This focus on your own sense of purpose in whatever area of life you choose is an empowering act with positive long-term consequences.

The Capricorn New Moon will be Tuesday, January 8, 5:37 am CST. Start planning and dreaming tonight!

XMM-Newton Detects Pulsed Heartbeat Of A Weird New Type Of Star

XMM-Newton Detects Pulsed Heartbeat Of A Weird New Type Of Star

Found to be spread throughout the Milky Way galaxy, a new pulsating star type is detected: The rotating radio transient (RRAT) star, which seems to pulse every 4 seconds. Not so weird, really, is it?

Who Are You, Really?

This book has the best explanation I’ve ever read of energy channels and energy flows in Part 2:Experiencing Energy with chapters on Infinite Energy, The Secrets of the Spiritual Heart, and Transcending the Tendency to Close.

I loved the chapter titled “Removing Your Inner Thorn.” We put together such elaborate protection mechanisms when it would be easier to face the pain, deal with it, and move on.

NASA Leonid shower flux estimator

This Leonid shower flux estimator applet can tell you

• What is the best location for viewing the upcoming meteor shower?
• What night do I need to go out?
• How active is the shower expected to be?

It comes with many cities worldwide for estimating best viewing times, but to calculate your own local best time use the google maps tip for finding latitude/longitude based on street address (posted below) and then plug that in as a User-Defined location. Huzzah for the Automatic Systematic Articulated Global Meteor Shower FLUXTIMATOR!

Get Latitude and Longitude values from Google Maps

Here’s a handy way to find latitude/longitude from any street address, from this tooltip at Tech-Recipes.com
Google Maps do not display latitude and longitude values, but there is an easy trick to get these numbers. This technique will provide the latitude and longitude coordinates of the center of the map displayed by Google Maps.

Looking up an address in Google Maps centers the map on that address if it was found. Because this trick provides the latitude and longitude of the center of the map, do not move the map around manually after getting the search result because that will change the center position.

When the location you want is in the center of the map, copy and paste this code into the location bar of your browser and press enter:
javascript:void(prompt('',gApplication.getMap().getCenter()));
A little dialog box will pop up displaying the coordinates which can be copied and pasted for use elsewhere. This code can be bookmarked and then used in the future by selecting the bookmark.

Then you can go to Degrees, Minutes, Seconds and Decimal Degrees Latitude/Longitude Conversions to convert the decimal degrees to minutes and seconds.