Okay, about two weeks ago, about five planets all came into alignment, and it was supposed to be this great, once in a hundred years type of thing. Apparently, they’re still there. You can see them underneath the moon very clearly if you look out just after sundown. I have a few questions:
For all the pagans out there, what signifigance does this hold?
Is there a specific time during the alignment that is more special than others, or does this just mean the entire week/month that they’re aligned is super special happy time?
How often does this type of thing really occur? I’ve heard this particular event may not occure for anywhere between 20-100 years. Kinda a big gap, if you ask me.
The moon effects the earth, our place in the galaxy effects the earth, does this alignment have any kind of environmental impact on our planet? (you know, like higher tides, crazy horses, mountains singing Johnny Cash, stuff like that).
Aside from being neat, is there any signifigance to this event?
Well, an occurrence of an event every hundred years might seem rare to us, but over that 4.5 billion some-odd years that the planet has been here, there have been 45 million allignments.
This is only significant is you are a believer in astrology. More can be learned at The Bad Astronomer’s web site. The chart showing the aggregate gravitational affect of the planets on the Earth is particularly telling.
Man, I love the Bad Astronomer! Great link, Attrayant. I remember in high school physics someone asked the obligatory question about the effects of long-range gravity (is that right?), and its relation to astrology, birth signs, et al. The teacher did the calculations just like BA did, and added them up. She then calculated the gravity a doctor would act on a baby being born. Guess which was a greater value?
Another thing to keep in mind is that, while this specific alignment is rather rare, similarly spectacular alignments of the various planets happen every few years. A few years back, for instance, there was a “string of pearls” alignment of all the visible planets, where they were spread out evenly in the sky. Then there’s closer alignmnets involving fewer planets, which can actually be even more spectacular, or occultations of a planet by the Moon (especially remarkable if the Moon is at considerably less than full), alignments between planets and stars, etc.