2007 Is Off to a Great Start!

I'm not completely unhappy with the start of the new year! In fact, it is off to a very good start!

I will admit that the first work day of the year did not start off that well. There were some issues brought to my attention and that is never a warm and fuzzy thing, but I see myself really taking aggressive steps to fix them. I also was very gently chastised by someone I work closely with and have a lot of respect for and immediately fixed the issue raised. So I am feeling very good about these things, not bad. I am stressing about them to some degree but stressing in the right way, if that makes sense.

I'm feeling good about this year, though. Good in all ways. I think I will grow more as I usually try to and I think that medically this will be a better year as well. I feel confident and strong. I'm delighted with the possible astronomical events lined up, such as Uranus being very visible (as visible as a 4 billion mile away and low magnitude planet can be); Venus putting in appearances as both the evening star (now through August) and the morning star (August through the end of the year) and reaching magnitude -4.5 from 7 - 12 September; Mars reaching a brilliant -1.4 magnitude in the evening in November; Jupiter at magnitude -2.3 and at perihelion on 7 June (a Thursday which solves the problem of coming in late to work but creates the problem of what if we get a call while I'm outside with the telescope...); and Saturn at a magnitude zero (half as bright due to the rings being nearly edgewise) will be rising early already and quite nicely visible in Leo - all year! Mercury will be the toughest catch - visible only a short time, from 2 January to 12 February after sunset, 14 May to 4 June. Best viewing time will be predawn in November.

There will also be two total lunar eclipses - one on 3 March (fortuitously on a Saturday!) and one on 28 August, a Tuesday. The August one will be in the very wee hours of the morning... I may want to arrange my work schedule accordingly, so as to not miss it. It will be worth it, as this is the last year the moon will be so lofty and high in the sky as it is now. The moon goes through an 18.61 year cycle of rising very high, and very low. January and December are the best months to see the full moon at its highest (hopefully December will work out, as the full moon on 3 January was occluded by poor weather conditions). Other times, the moon will ride high in its crescent phase. One interesting fact: the summer months full moons, because of the riding high of the moon in the warm, moist air, may appear yellow, orange or red and only dimly light up the night sky. That will look amazing and be really condusive to good viewing.

Well! Happy New Year!