Lunar Stanstill

I've been reading about the moon appearing to stand still in the sky during 2006. Can anyone explain what this means in terms of Astrology? particularly for Pisceans?

hi

go to

http://www.jonathancainer.com

andclick on the left hand menu where it says 2006 forecasts and he talks about it all there
at the bottom of the page you can check out pisces 2006 as well
x

Cool link star-lover ~tonight's Moon was the first here
plainly visible for hours in many weeks (clouds, clouds...).

I like to trace the plane of the ecliptic as I follow the line
of the planets ~ it moves by the hour, week, month.

Thanks Starlover - I really like Jonathan Cainer, I think he's one of the most accurate Astrolgists - is that the right term? - anyway, he is really good.

Thanks again,

Sue x

Impossible

Psychic Sue, as we all know the Moon cannot actually stand still in the sky as it is in orbit about the earth. If it stood still, actually, or if it even slowed down it would fall to earth. It is only its orbital speed and centrifical force that balances out gravity's pull.

Since it is in an earth-centric orbit, it cannot be seen as being retrograde like planets which travel along a sun-centric orbit. From the sun's position, the view as well as a helio-centric chart, would show no retrogrades.

So, what could account for the Moon "appearing" to stand still? I can't suggest an answer short of Mars wandering out of its orbit and deflecting the Moon's orbit or something. Can you explain your statement a little more fully? Dave

After reviewing the links above, it seems that the standstills are apparent in relation to the horizon and the equator not in relation to the ecliptic. The cause would be the combination of the small skew between the moon's orbing and the ecliptic and its relation to the skew between the equator and the ecliptic.

Personally, I don't think that this is likely to have a strong influence. But it may have some implications especially of looking at what stars the moon visually occultates, etc. But then this just has to do with exact locations of the moon and not to do with this specific phenominon directly.

A Quote

From the website:

In 2005 and 2006 we are in a major lunar standstill season. For several years now some of my astrological camping colleagues and I have been trying to establish what lunar standstills are and when they occur. There is usually no reference to them in most standard astronomy books. Some reference is made to them by authors who have written about ancient megalithic sites such as Callanish on the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland.

Click to expand...

Apparently astronomers don't know what the lunar standstills are either. And note that the phenomena occurred in 2005 as well. Now, anyone want to volunteer what the date of the standstill was? Did you see it? Why or why not? And if it is so obscure, why bother?

I check my astrology program for transits several times each day. In 2005, my own experience was that the moon moved predictably forward every single day. Since the moon moves quickly even on a daily basis a standstill would be very hard to overlook.

As for the the standstill being in relationship to the horizon, this would mean the moon came up at the same time on consecutive days, right? Didn't happen. At least not here in So Cal. Maybe this is one of those phenomenon limited to the far far far north. Really far.

Warning: This may get technical

Similar to what I wrote before, I think they are referring to a stand-still in terms of *lattitude.*

Basic sphirical trig: You measure straight lines on a sphere along a great circle. If you don't know what a great circle is, it is probably worth reviewing this subject, but think of it as a circle that is formed when a sphere is bisected by a plane. All great circles divide the sphere exactly in half.

The sky is thought of as a sphere, and it appears to be such for our observational purposes.

Ok, you have four great circles to consider. The horizon, the equator, the ecliptic, and in this case the lunar orbit. The ecliptic is off from the equator by 23.25 degrees. The moon's orbit is off the ecliptic cy six degrees, iirc. Each of these circles cross eachother at two points:

The ecliptic crosses the equator at 0Ari and 0Lib. The moon crosses the ecliptic at the two nodes. The horizon crosses the ecliptic at the ascendant and descendant, and crosses the equator in such a way that a given point on the horizon will always correspond to a given celestial lattitude.

Understandable so far?

Normally, one will see the moon rise at different points on the horizon every day as it travels along its orbit which is fairly close to the ecliptic. As the moon moves north, it will rise further to the north. As it moves south, it will rise further to the south. These cycles are not exactly in phase, and the moon's nodes slowly move retrograde. What this means is that over time, the way in which the moon's apparent N/S motion (vs. the ecliptic) combines with the Ecliptic's skew vs. the equator. At certain points, the Moon's orbit may be skewed to the ecliptic such that it is parallel to the equator for a short time.

A couple points:

1) This happens twice a lunar cycle. Yes, it happens twice *every* lunar cycle.
2) Some times may see a lunar cycle that is closer to the equator than others. So this effect may *seem* more pronounced.

The bigger question is what is gained by looking at equatorial nodes and "lunastace" points rather than ecliptical nodes?

Sorry, you have lost me - I am not an Astrologer, although reading through your posts is fascinating.

I did mean that the moon APPEARS to standstill. I read somewhere that at times the moon looks very far away and then at other times it looks so near you could touch it - but I think this also happened in 2005 as someone else said.

Sue x

For Psychic Sue

The Moon is both measurement-wise and visual-wise closer to us at some times as its orbit is not perfectly circular. In addition to the Moon being closer at times, the visually apparent larger size can be augmented by both coloration due to atmospheric conditions as well as closeness to the horizon (rising or setting) due to magnification caused by the line-of-sight passing thru more air as you look along the Earth's surface rather than "up" thru less of the air mass that surrounds us. Dave

PS: None of the phenomena noted in these messages has any astrological impact for most practices.