NEW MOON REPORT
Nehemia Gordon from Jerusalem, Israel compiled the following New Moon Report for the month of February 2010 and the beginning of the Twelfth Biblical Month.
On February 15, 2010 the moon was sighted from Israel. The moon was first sighted: from Jerusalem by Willie Ondricek at 17.56; from elsewhere in Jerusalem by Dervorah Gordon at 17:57; from Alon Shvut by Bruce Brill at 18:02.
The next new moon is expected to be visible from Jerusalem near sunset on March 17, 2010 when the moon will be 3% illuminated and 18.410 above the horizon at five minutes past sunset. This will most likely be the new moon of the Abib and will start the month of Abib (Nisan). The barley should be abib well before then.
Since the March/April newsletter will be published after the Barley and New Moon Reports come in, I am including a chart here for the New Moon of the Abib on March 17, 2010.
Chart 515 shows the new moon, Venus, Mercury, and the Sun in the constellation Pisces at 5 minutes past sunset on March 17, 2010 as viewed from Jerusalem. There are 70 of separation between the moon and Nogah (Venus). The moon is shown enlarged in this chart. It will have a bright crescent being 3% illuminated. Venus will also be shining brightly at a magnitude of –3.91.
Chart 515 – The New Moon of the Abib in
Pisces with Venus, Mercury and the Sun on 3/17/10
Nogah is the Bright and Morning Star but is seen here in the evening. Catab (Mercury) represents the messenger angel Gabriel who is also the announcing angel for the King, blowing his trump to announce the King’s presence or arrival. The Sun represents Messiah as the bridegroom. The moon is Yahweh’s faithful witness, here announcing that it is the beginning of the new year. The constellation Pisces represents the nation of Israel. This is all something to ponder on when sighting the New Moon of the Abib this year.
I had a viral infection in my back muscles and heart and was not able to do the newsletter until now. I had excruciating pain in my lower back and yesterday (March 3) my heart was beating at a rate of 120 beats per minute while I was sitting still. I had chest X-rays and an EKG. Everything is fine now and I believe the virus has pretty much run its course. My heart rate is back to normal today and most of my back pain has vanished (it came back). I had the back pain over the last couple of weeks. I could not sit at the computer for over a couple of minutes at a time. I have not answered many e-mails that I received yet because I have been unable to. I will be getting to those after I publish this much belated newsletter.
I was able to let the online subscribers know via e-mail that I had been ill and that this newsletter would be late. I received many e-mails with prayers and encouragement toward my situation. I thank all of you who sent them to me. It seems it’s always something when newsletter time comes of late that puts a thorn in my side. I am planning on getting the March/April 2010 newsletter published in a couple of weeks.
STANGE OBJECT IN ASTEROID BELT
There was a strange object that appeared in the asteroid belt in January. Astronomers are a bit puzzled with the object since they have never seen anything like it before. I did not think of this object as much of a sign since it is very dim – magnitude 20 – and far from the range of apparent brightness to be visible with the unaided eye. It also does not appear to be on an orbit with the sun, which would take it toward the inner planets. It can only be seen with large telescopes. It is only strange in the sense that nothing like it has ever been seen before. There are most likely many such strange objects that have as yet to be seen, but we see more and more of them as our telescopes and other instruments get better. The article below is from the Sky & Telescope website which was written by Kelly Beatty and released on February 2.
A
"Whodunit" in the Asteroid Belt
“The mystery of a comet-like
object circling among the main-belt asteroids has deepened, now that
astronomers have slewed the Hubble Space Telescope over for a close-up look.
At first astronomers thought the object designated P/2010 A2
was a comet, but this Hubble Space Telescope image, taken January 29th with the
Wide Field Camera 3, suggests that it's not behaving like a normal comet. NASA / ESA / D. Jewitt (UCLA)
Today's release of an HST image taken four days ago shows that P/2010 A2 is no normal comet. There's a strange X-shape feature at its brightest end (I hesitate to call it a "nucleus") that defies easy explanation. "This is quite different from the smooth dust envelopes of normal comets," explains David Jewitt (University of California at Los Angeles), who led the Hubble effort. The Hubble view also clearly shows a pointlike object hovering nearby, about 1,000 miles from the "X" and seemingly connected to it by a thread of material. Comets within the asteroid belt aren't unprecedented. Jewitt's website comments that four others are known. Most notable among these is 133P/Elst-Pizarro, first spotted as an asteroid in 1979 and then found to have a cometary appearance in 1996.
But apart from its long tail of debris, P/2010 A2 doesn't look much like a comet, at least in the HST images taken on January 25th and 29th. Moreover, it lacks the emissions that are usually found in a comet's coma and tail. "No gas yet," Jewitt told me, "but we are still looking." Unfortunately, a request to observe this curiosity with the Spitzer Space Telescope was turned down.
Enlarging the Hubble Space
Telescope image shows the unusual crisscrossing filaments of the comet-like
object designated P/2010 A2. Note the how one strand extends to the "nucleus' at left. This cropped view is about 4,000 miles
(7,000 km) across. NASA / ESA / D.
Jewitt (UCLA)
The most likely explanation for this object's sudden
appearance (it's a stretch to call it "dramatic" — it's only 20th
magnitude) is that a pair of small, unseen asteroids collided, creating the
trail of debris first spotted on January 6th by the LINEAR telescope in
New Mexico. So
would a smashup involving two main-belt asteroids result in something like
this? Perhaps. "Bill Bottke and I are thinking
about what kind of modeling would be useful to do with this object," notes
David Nesvorny (Southwest Research Institute), "but we have nothing
definitive so far." Bottke notes that while a collision seems plausible,
it's also possible we are witnessing an asteroid that's been spun up (by
gradual interactions with sunlight) to the point that it started shedding mass.
Jewitt says that there's no handle yet on whether
the "nucleus" is tumbling or spinning rapidly. But he says more
Hubble sessions are planned in the months ahead.”
I could not bring this object up in any of my
astronomy programs and could not find it in CBAT. I did find its coordinates for March 5th
and it is slowly moving through the constellation Gemini.
THE WOMAN AND THE DRAGON
This article was originally scheduled for the March/April newsletter, but because of lack of activity for February, I am putting it in here. There will still be plenty to write about in next month’s newsletter.
I have written on this subject matter in previous newsletters, my book and DVD set, but it has been a while since I last wrote about it. Here it is again with a slightly different angle.
The following are excerpts from Revelation 12:1 to 13:1 from the KJV.
“And there appeared a great wonder (sign)
in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: And she being with
child cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder (sign)
in heaven; and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns,
and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew (draggeth) the third part of
the stars of heaven….. and the dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was
born.”
Chart 516 shows the constellations Bethulah (Virgo) and Hydra,
which represent the woman and the dragon respectively from Revelation 12. The picture that this particular astronomy
program shows of Virgo is a bit off. She
should be facing a bit in the opposite direction, more toward the serpent,
though the palm frond and staff of wheat or barley are held in the correct
hands. Hydra represents the dragon and
the serpent, one in the same. I chose
this program because it shows the snake with multiple heads. In ancient planespheres, Hydra is shown with
seven heads. He is the “dragon” who
“stood before the woman.” The tail here
is also greatly shortened from ancient pictures where the snake wrapped around
1200 (one third) of the Zodiac.
The star 59 Hydrae in the chart is part of the tail, which extends even
further below the horizon as seen here. Figuratively speaking, as Hydra rises
in the east, it drags one third of the other stars in their rising along with
it. Though the
scriptures say that he flings them to the earth at some point in time.
Chart 516 – Virgo, Hydra and Paschal
Full Moon rising in the east-southeast as seen from Jerusalem in the early
evening of March 31, 2010
…And to the woman were given two wings of
a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she
is nourished for a time, and times, and half and half a time, from the face of
the serpent…. And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with
the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
In some planespheres Virgo is shown with no wings,
while in others she has wings. In the
secular astronomy program that I used to make Chart 516, she has wings (only
one showing here, but other planespheres show two wings), which are quite
fitting to Rev. 12:14.
The following scriptures are from the NIV, which
does a much better job in translating this part of Revelation than the KJV.
Revelation 13:1-5 (NIV) – And the dragon stood
on the shore of the sea. And I saw a
beast coming out of the sea. He had ten
horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous
name….The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great
authority….and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.
During the Fall Feasts when they occur late in the
year from late September to mid-October, and during the Spring Feasts, the constellation
Cetus, representing the dragon, is seen standing on the west-southwest horizon
and from Jerusalem appears to be standing on the shore of the Mediterranean
Sea. At the same time, Hydra, who has
seven heads, is rising in the east-southeast and appears to be rising out of
the Dead Sea as seen from Jerusalem. In
the fall this is seen in the early morning sky and in the spring in the early
evening sky. These are not seen like this for any other part of the year, but
only during the Spring and Fall Feasts. This is an
amazing portrayal of Revelation 13:1 (NIV).
During the Fall Feasts the constellation Draco (the dragon) is seen
being cast down to the earth during the same time. During the Spring Feasts, the dragon is seen
ascending into the heavens when hydra is rising out of the sea. Also see the September 1996 and the
September/October 2003 (has better pictures) issues of Biblical Astronomy
for further info.
Chart 516 shows Bethulah and the dragon over the
east-southeast horizon as seen from Jerusalem about 90 minutes after sunset on
March 31, 2010. The horizon is the
curved line below the constellation pictures.
Here the Paschal Full Moon is seen at the time of this event on Passover
evening.
