Everything you need to know: zodiacal light or false dusk

Zodiacal light

The zodiacal light is an eerie light extending up from the horizon. No matter where you are on Earth, springtime or autumn is the best time to see it.

The zodiacal light – or false dusk – is an eerie light extending up from the western horizon in late winter or early spring. You might also see it in the east before dawn begins to light the sky, in late summer or early autumn, in which case it’s called the false dawn.

Maybe you’ve seen the zodiacal light in the sky and not realized it. Maybe you glimpsed it while driving on a highway or country road at this time of year. This strange light is a seasonal phenomenon. Springtime and autumn are best for seeing the zodiacal light. Suppose you’re driving toward the west in springtime the hour after dusk. You catch sight of what you think is the lingering evening twilight, or the light of a nearby town, just over the horizon. Instead, what you’re seeing is the zodiacal light. It looks like a hazy pyramid of light extending up from the western horizon, after evening twilight ends.

Springtime? Autumn? Is there a difference between Earth’s two hemispheres?

What is zodiacal light?

How I can see the zodiacal light?

Photo credit: Robert Snache

Springtime? Autumn? Is there a difference between Earth’s two hemispheres? Yes and no. For both hemispheres, springtime is the best time to see the zodiacal light in the evening. Autumn is the best time to see it before dawn. Look for the zodiacal light in the east around the time of the autumn equinox. Look for it in the west after sunset around the time of the spring equinox.

Comet Catalina closest this weekend

Comet Catalina closest this weekend

Hints on how to perceive the comet’s gradual motion across the sky as it sweeps closest – but not too close – around January 17.

View larger. | Facing northeast beginning around 1 a.m. local time – the time on your clock from most parts of the globe – until sunrise from January 15 to 21, 2016. Comet Catalina passes very close to the stars that form the Big Dipper as it nears its closest point to Earth. Illustration by Eddie Irizarry using Stellarium.

UPDATE JANUARY 14, 2016: Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) will pass nearest to Earth at a very safe distance this weekend, on January 17. At its closest, the comet will be some 68 million miles (110 million km) from Earth. It isn’t visible to the eye alone, but binoculars should reveal it as a small fuzzy patch of light in the sky after midnight and before dawn. If you have a small telescope, this comet will make a fantastic target. Although the actual movement of the comet is difficult to perceive in real time because of its distance, you should be able to see that the comet has shifted its position, over perhaps a quarter of an hour, through a telescope. With your ‘scope, take a good look at the comet as well as stars in the vicinity of this celestial visitor. Try making a simple sketch of the comet’s location relative to nearby stars. Then, look again through the telescope eyepiece about 15 or 20 minutes later, and you will clearly see Comet Catalina has changed position!

NASA to Make Major Space Station Cargo Transport Announcement Today

NASA to Make Major Space Station Cargo Transport Announcement Today

NASA will make a major announcement today at 4 p.m. EST regarding the future of commercial resupply launches to the International Space Station (ISS). The announcement will be made during a news conference from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s website at:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

The event will include a brief question-and-answer session with media.

The news conference participants are:

• Ellen Ochoa, Johnson Space Center director
• Sam Scimemi, ISS Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington
• Kirk Shireman, ISS program manager at Johnson
• Julie Robinson, ISS chief scientist at Johnson

Media may attend the briefing at Johnson, or ask questions by phone by calling the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111 no later than 3:45 p.m. Accreditation for international media is closed for this event.

For more information on the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

For breaking news and features, follow the station on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/Space_Station

-end-

THRACOLOGISTS DISCOVER ANCIENT THRACIAN ROCK STEP PYRAMID IN EASTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS IN SOUTHERN BULGARIA

Publicado a 23/12/2015

An Ancient Thracian rock step pyramid with a rock sun temple dating back to 2500 BC has been identified in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria by an expedition of historians and thracologists.

Source: http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2015...

THRACOLOGISTS DISCOVER ANCIENT THRACIAN ROCK STEP PYRAMID IN EASTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS IN SOUTHERN BULGARIA

December 21, 2015 · by Ivan Dikov · in Antiquity, Prehistory, Ancient Thrace

The newly found Thracian rock step pyramid was hacked into a rocky plateau – here viewed from a distance. Photo: TV grab from BNT 2

An Ancient Thracian rock step pyramid with a rock sun temple dating back to 2500 BC has been identified in theEastern Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria by an expedition of historians and thracologists.

The Thracian pyramid in question was shaped out of the natural rocks in the mountain near the town of Kovil, Krumovgrad Municipality, Kardzhali District.

It is about 15 meters tall, and consists of five stepped terraces, with the sun temple hacked into the rocks inside it, according to Prof. Vasil Markov, a historian specializing in the civilization of Ancient Thrace.

Markov is the head of the University Research Center for Ancient European and Eastern Mediterranean Cultures at the Southwest University “Neofit Rilski” based in Bulgaria’s Blagoevgrad.

Soyuz undocking, reentry and landing explained

Publicado a 11/11/2013

How does an astronaut return to Earth from the International Space Station? What does it feel like to re-enter the atmosphere? How does the Soyuz capsule function? Watch and find out. This video is based on an actual lesson delivered to the ESA astronaut class of 2009 (also known as the #Shenanigans09) during their ESA Basic Training. It features interviews with astronauts who have flown on the Soyuz and dramatic footage of actual landings.

Produced by the ESA Human Spaceflight and Operations (HSO) Astronaut Training Division, Cologne, Germany, in collaboration with the HSO Strategic Planning and Outreach Office, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, with special support from Roskosmos.

Narration Voice: Bernard Oattes

MYSTERIES OF THE GOLDEN WOMAN OF UGRA by Paul Stonehill

www.world-mysteries.com

MYSTERIES OF THE GOLDEN WOMAN OF UGRA

by Paul Stonehill

Introduction

Siberia is a part of the Asian territory of the Russian Federation between the Ural Mountains in the West and the mountains of the Russian Far East; and between the Arctic Ocean in the North and the steppes of Kazakhstan and Mongolia in the South. It is divided into Western Siberia (occupying predominantly Western lowlands and Altai mountains) and Eastern Siberia (comprising elevation occupying mostly the Mid Siberian plateau).

Western Siberia occupies the territory between the Ural Mountains in the East, and the Yenisey River in the West. 

Paul Stonehill -- THE YIH KING (BOOK OF CHANGES)

THE YIH KING (BOOK OF CHANGES)

Charles Gould published his book Mythical Monsters in London, England, in 1886 (W. H. Allen & Co.). He discussed mythical creatures, and attempted to demonstrate that there some legendary animals indeed existed. The author’s main emphasis was on the Orient, and dragons, sea serpents and the Chinese phoenix that populated ancient folklore of China.

An ancient Chinese book of mysterious origins (the Yih King) mentioned by Gould (as quotations from a comprehensive Chinese encyclopedia the Yuen Klei Lei Han, completed in 1710 CE) contained information about dragons and other very curious matters, whose meaning was not clear to most Chinese (or just those who possibly did not possess the necessary training). This book escaped the mass burning of Chinese historical books and records ordered by Emperor Shihuangdi in 213 BCE. According to the French researcher Monsieur de la Couperie (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society), the Yih King is the oldest of the Chinese classics and a mysterious book that requires prolonged attention to make it reveal its secrets. 

Those Chinese who had studied in Europe in the XIX century and who knew the Yih King, had claimed that information about electricity, steam power, astronomical laws, spheroid nature of Earth and many other sciences and matters were contained in the ancient book. There were secrets that the Chinese scholars hoped to unveil after applying to the study of their classics a thorough knowledge of modern sciences. Charles Gould, however, refused to accept the idea that there could be a possible connection “between their rude notions and our sciences”. “It is not a mysterious book of fates and prognostics, wrote Gould, but a valuable collection of documents of old antiquity…Perhaps Emperor Shihuangdi, who made sure the mysterious book was not to be burned with other collections of documents of old antiquity during as his atrocious policies demanded, knew how to read the book and unveil the secrets contained on its pages. Perhaps his magic mirror and the eternal illumination of the tomb were some of the secrets he unveiled.

What was the importance of the Book of Changes to Shihuangdi?

The Yih King (I Ching), or Book of Changes, may be one the oldest sacred texts in the world. It is one of our greatest treasures of wisdom on Earth. It is a most obscure, complex, and mysterious work of mental and moral philosophy and divination.

The book was written around 2850 BCE. It is the most widely read of the five Chinese Classics. The book has been of great interest to many people. One of them was dispatched to the Orient by a great French king.

Jean-Baptiste Regis was a Jesuit who was sent to China in 1698 at the age of thirty-five on a mission to study science and religion. He spent close to forty years in the Orient, and was instrumental in preparing the general map of China. Chinese Emperor K'ang-hi (1662-1722) was quite friendly to the Jesuits, and a number of important Chinese books and sources were open to them. Regis was one of a number of French Jesuits in the country; King Louis XIV sent a group of them there and they were engaged in astronomical observations and Chinese geographical, cartographical, and topographical research. They had received special training by scientists at the Paris Observatory, and used state-of-the art instruments. The Jesuits made a number of scientific expeditions throughout China, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia and Manchuria; measured the Great Wall, and made excellent maps. Those who knew China well regarded their map of China to be a masterpiece. No matter how enticing, I will not describe the exploits of the French King’s missionaries in China. What is important here is that Jean-Baptiste Regis appreciated ancient Chinese books, and translated the Yih King. Julius Mol, in Stuttgart, edited the translation in 1864. The first volume contained Prologomena, a valuable and fascinating introduction to the classics of China.

Jean-Baptiste Regis died in Beijing in 1738. He played the most active role in making the map of China, a land that was still a mystery to Europeans in the XVII century. We really do not know what he learned in the Yih King, and how much it helped him in his endeavors on behalf of his order and the French King. 

I suspect the knowledge gained by Jean-Baptiste Regis is not lost, but is guarded. 

In pre-dynastic times, the mythical Five Emperors (Wu Ti) ruled China. The Five Emperors ruled in succession during the "golden age of antiquity" (prior to 2357 BCE) and have usually been considered sages and cultural heroes, if not semi-divine beings, by the Chinese. Hence we find that these Five Emperors; Fu Hsi (One who subdues Animals), Shen Nung (the Divine Farmer), Huang-Ti (the Yellow Emperor), Shao Hao, and Chuan Hsu, have each been credited with many inventions as far as 5,000 years ago. In August of 2001, FATE Magazine published my article about the Yellow Emperor, a legendary giver of knowledge. 

The author of the Yih King is the legendary Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi (2953-2838 BCE). 

This legendary Emperor Fu Hsi (Fuxi) divined the truth of the Eight Trigrams. From the simplicity of yang and yin, light and dark (or, mathematically, 1 and 0), Emperor Fu Hsi conceived of eight possibilities. 

The mathematician and philosopher (as well as emperor) Fu Hsi is actually the first documented practitioner of binary combinatorial analysis. Attributed to Fu Hsi are combinations of throws, organized into trigrams. There are eight trigrams to which Fu Hsi assigned human and natural attributes. 

Fu Hsi paired the eight trigrams according to their opposites. Heaven is paired with earth, fire with water, mountain with lake, and wind with thunder. The Emperor observed how these pairs act upon each other. He arranged the trigrams in this early heavenly sequence with the opposites across from each other.

The eight trigrams: water, earth, thunder, wind, heaven, lake, mountain, and fire represent the primal energies of the universe. Each trigram is composed of three lines. The broken stroke symbol that indicates the “passive” force; this is called ”Yin”. The continuous stroke symbol that indicates the “active” force; it is called “Yang”. Grouping pairs of trigrams into hexagrams can make a total of sixty-four combinations.

Chinese King Wen produced the current groupings, based on patterns of trigram attributes, during his years spent as a political prisoner around 1150 BCE. King Wen attached judgments, i.e. rules, pronouncements, and hints, to each hexagram.

Confucius wrote additional text consisting of imagery that involves the trigram attributes that interact within each hexagram.

In Yih King (I Ching), lines, half lines, circle, and points represent abstract ideas. In Chinese literature, one of the sixty-four figures formed of six parallel lines (continuous or broken), forming the basis of the Yih King. The hexagrams were seen as the symbolic representations of various situations and circumstances one may encounter. To underscore the importance of the book, one need to understand that one cast of the I Ching can generate several different hexagrams, which adds depth to the interpretation. This four-valued logic has been compared to the biochemistry of DNA amino acids.

The Yih King’s significance in Chinese traditional culture, science, philosophy, and medicine is unsurpassed. It became the vessel of all archetypical possibility, but its primary function is that of divination. 

The Book of Changes is the classic textbook of the art of divination. In addition to the Yih King, divining blocks, drawing lots, temple oracles, and astrology are common forms of divination throughout the Orient.

Confucius (K'ung-tzu, 551-479 BCE.), or most likely one of his disciples, wrote appendices to the Yih King, and this passage, written around 500 B.C., describes his philosophy on numbers:

“The numbers belonging to heaven are five, and those belonging to earth are five. The numbers of these two series correspond to each other, and each one has another that may be considered its mate. The heavenly numbers amount to 25, and the earthly to 30. The numbers of heaven and earth together amount to 55. It is by these that the changes and transformations are effected and the spirit-like agencies kept in movement."

There are several translations of the Yih King into English. One of the oldest is

The Yih-king: A new translation from the original Chinese, by Le Chevalier Charles Joseph de Harlez. The author, de Harlez, was Professor in the University of Louvain, Belgium. His book was translated into English from the French by J. P. Val d'Eremao, and published in the Oriental University Institute, 1896. 

What wonderful discoveries are in store for Chinese archeologists when they survey the mysterious Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor in?

Paul Stonehill

Author of 

The Soviet UFO Files (1998)

Co-author of

UFO-USSR (2005)

rurcla@hotmail.com

NOTE: This article may be reproduced as long as it is not changed in any way. Full credit must be given to the author. In case you use the article, please let me know by mailing me at:rurcla@hotmail.com