Sidereal time

Beginning this week, New York based astrologer Aimee Thomas, will give her predictions. She writes:

With Uranus, the planet of technology and innovation, more than halfway through its home-sign of Aquarius, technical progress like instant communication between New York and India has become commonplace. The new opportunities that Uranus' technological innovations have afforded me include the chance to write an astrology column for a newspaper that is published on the other side of the world. As you read your horoscope this week, you may notice that I mention something called the Taurus Stellium. This refers to an unusual gathering of the seven inner planets - Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn - that were all lined up in the sign of Taurus on May 3. Even though the aspect was exact last week, most of the planets are still very close together in the sky and the ramifications of their alignment will be experienced for the rest of the month. This Stellium will activate one particular house in your astrological chart and stir up the area of your life ruled by that house.

Aimee Thomas is an astrologer, licensed psychotherapist, and freelance writer. She did her Masters in Social Work from New York University. Trained in psychoanalysis at Washington Square Institute in New York, she has been counselling individuals since 1993, using a unique combination of astrology and traditional psychotherapy. She explores ways in which astrology and psychology can work together to help individuals maximise their full potential.

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WE had gone through an exercise of casting a sample horoscope for a birth in Chennai at 11 a.m. on February 1.

Let us now examine another method of casting the horoscope. This method uses the concept of Sidereal Time. When the earth revolves round the sun, the positions of the moving earth at various times can be measured against the relatively fixed background of the stars. Now the stars too are indeed moving, but they seem to be stationary. Now, looking out of the window of a speeding train, we see the telegraph poles flashing past. As against those poles, a distant hill appears not to move. Instead, it seems like the hill is coming along with us as the poles flash past backwards! Similarly, in relation to the earth, the distant stars seem not to move. They become points of orientation against which other nearer movers can be charted.

"Sidereal" in our context means "determined by, or from, the stars." Sidereal time has units called Sidereal Year, Sidereal Month, Sidereal Day, Sidereal Minute, Sidereal Second. A Sidereal Day is the duration taken for the Vernal Equinox to pass over the meridian from one time to the next passage. This interval is about 4 minutes shorter than a Mean Solar Day. A 24-th part of Sidereal Day is a Sidereal Hour, one-sixtieth of a S. Hour is a S. Minute, and one-sixtieth of a S. Hour is a S. Minute, and one- sixtieth of the latter gives us a S. Second.

Queries Answered

Is it possible astrologically to estimate the probability of planes being hijacked, and avoid travelling when the risk is high?

R. Sinha, Jamshedpur

There are principles for excluding certain days as inauspicious generally. Some days may be suitable for other undertakings, but inauspicious for undertaking travel. Certain directions of travel on certain days of the week are astrologically not recommended. In the case of plane accidents including the risks of being hijacked, a number of factors come into play, such as the day, the time of departure, the direction in which the journey is oriented, the horoscopic Maha Dasa, Bhukthi, and even the shorter planetary sub-slots of the commander. Obviously it will not be possible to work out the combined effects of all of these. Hence it is better to avoid travelling during times that are not recommended.

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Good Dates:

May 7 up to 12 noon; May 8 from 12 noon onwards; May 10 up to 7.30 a.m.

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Section  : Miscellaneous
Next     : Aries