Leap of Faith

We live in precarious times. The Doomsday Clock has just been moved on again, and now stands at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been since its creation. The inertia of the powerful in the face of global warming and a struggle for democracy is deeply troubling. We stand on the brink of changes we cannot control, and we have no idea whether we shall eventually fly or fall.

Amid this crisis come two major planetary shifts in 2023. The first is Pluto's initial foray into Aquarius from Capricorn, taking place near the Aries equinox on 23rd March. Pluto spends a few months here before retrograding back into Capricorn on 11th June; then, a few days later as the Northern solstice approaches, an object named Sedna enters Gemini.

You might or might not have heard of Sedna, named after an Inuit water goddess and discovered in 2003. It has an orbital period of approximately 11,400 years, and is currently very near perihelion - as close as it gets to the Sun - meaning that from our perspective it's travelling relatively fast. In any case, it leaves Taurus (where it first arrived in 1966) and enters Gemini on 15th June. After a brief trip back, it'll finally settle in Gemini next year, and stay there for the next four decades, according to current calculations.

Welcome to the café

Hi! I'm Theano, an astrology student who's been at it for longer than I care to remember. I've skulked on the edge of the internet for quite some time now, and it would seem I am finally ready to take the plunge and actually discuss astrological phenomena in my own voice. We'll see how that goes. :)

Focus On: (20000) Varuna

Basics

Class: IR-type cubewano, probably a dwarf planet
Location: Kuiper belt
Orbit length (approx): 280.76 years
Discovered: 28th November 2000 at 09:51 UTC, from Kitt Peak Observatory in Arizona by Spacewatch (Robert McMillan)
Events at time of discovery:

• November 20 – Alberto Fujimori, President of Peru, faxes his resignation from a hotel room in Japan, having fled Peru after facing corruption charges. Fujimori would be officially removed from office by Congress on the 22nd.
• November 28 – Death of Gregg Barton, 88, American actor
• – Death of Robert Bentley, 93, American animator
• – Death of Liane Haid, 105, Austrian actress

Focus On: (6235) Burney

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.36 years
Discovered: 14th November 1987 at 10:29 UTC, from the Kushiro Observatory, Hokkaido, Japan, by Seiji Ueda and Hiroshi Kaneda
Events at time of discovery:

• November 14 – Birth of Sofia Assefa, Ethiopian middle-distance runner
• November 15 – In Braşov, Romania, workers rebel against the communist regime led by Nicolae Ceauşescu.

Focus On: (3361) Orpheus

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Near Earth, Apollo group
Orbit length (approx): 1.33 years
Discovered: 24th April 1982, 07:12 UTC, from Cerro El Roble Astronomical Station, Chile, by Carlos Torres
Events at time of discovery:

• April 24 – German singer Nicole wins the Eurovision Song Contest 1982 (held in Britain) with the song Ein Bisschen Frieden.
• – Death of Ville Ritola, Finnish Olympic athlete
• – Birth of Kelly Clarkson, American singer-songwriter, talk show host
• – Birth of David Oliver, American hurdler

Focus On: (1923) Osiris

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Inner main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.80 years
Discovered: 24th September 1960, 09:01 UTC, from Leiden, Netherlands, by Ingrid and Cornelis Johannes van Houten (on photographic plates taken by Tom Gehrels at Palomar Observatory)
Events at time of discovery:

• September 22 – Birth of Scott Baio, American actor
• September 24 – The Howdy Doody Show presented its 2,343rd and final episode, after a run that started on NBC on December 27, 1947. After the marionette Howdy Doody, and host Buffalo Bob Smith, gave their farewells, Clarabell the Clown – who had never spoken – surprised his audience by saying, "Goodbye, kids."
• – USS Enterprise, the first atomic-powered aircraft carrier in history, and the largest ship ever built up to that time, was launched at Newport News, Virginia.
• September 25 – Birth of Eduardo Yáñez, Mexican film and television actor

Focus On: (490) Veritas

Basics

Class: Ch-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.66 years
Discovered: 4th September 1902 at 00:20 UTC, from Heidelberg, Germany, by Max Wolf
Events at time of discovery:

• September 2 – Birth of Peter Pitseolak, Inuit photographer & author
• September 3 – U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt narrowly escaped death in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, after a streetcar collided with the carriage in which he was riding. Roosevelt's bodyguard, agent William Craig, was killed.
• September 4 – The first completely electric railway line, the Ferrovia della Valtellina, began operations in Italy.
• – The Absaroka National Forest was established in the U.S. state of Montana.
• – Edward Elgar's Opus 43, Dream Children, was played for the first time.
• events
• September 5 – Birth of Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer and studio executive

Focus On: (474) Prudentia

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.84 years
Discovered: 13th February 1901 at 22:27 UTC, from Heidelberg, Germany, by Max Wolf
Events at time of discovery:

• February 13 – William McKinley is formally declared the winner of the 1900 U.S. presidential election.
• – At the Mengo Hospital in Uganda, two doctors first note the outbreak of what would become an epidemic of African trypanosomiasis, or "sleeping sickness".
• – Birth of Paul Lazarsfeld, Austrian-American sociologist, founder of the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University
• – Birth of Lewis Grassic Gibbon (pen name for James Leslie Mitchell), Scottish novelist

Focus On: (399) Persephone

Basics

Class: X-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.33 years
Discovered: 23rd February 1895, 21:43 UTC, by Max Wolf at Heidelberg

Some notable events around time of discovery:

• February 6 – Birth of Babe Ruth, American baseball player
• February 14 – Birth of Max Horkheimer, German philosopher, sociologist
• February 21 – Birth of Henrik Dam, Danish biochemist, Nobel Prize recipient
• February 25 – The first rebellions of the Cuban War of Independence break out.

Focus On: (269) Justitia

Basics

Class: Ld-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.23 years
Discovered: 21st September 2024 (time unknown), from Vienna, Austria, by Johann Palisa
Events at time of discovery:

• August 3 – Birth of Rupert Brooke, British war poet
• August 12 – Birth of Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 13 – Birth of Leopold Ružička, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
• September 16 – Birth of Nadia Boulanger, French composer and composition teacher
• September 26 – Birth of William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse, British aviator, first airman to receive the Victoria Cross
• September 28 – The 1887 Yellow River flood begins in China, killing 900,000 to 2,000,000 people.

Focus On: (114) Kassandra

Basics

Class: Asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.38 years
Discovered: 23rd July 1871 (time unknown) at Litchfield Observatory, Clinton, NY, by Christian Heinrich Friedrich Peters
Events at time of discovery:

• July 10 – Birth of Marcel Proust, French writer
• July 20 – C. W. Alcock proposes that "a Challenge Cup should be established in connection with the Association", giving birth to the FA Cup for Association football in England.
• July 21-August 26 – The first ever photographs of Yellowstone National Park region are taken by William Henry Jackson, during the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.
• August 9 – A rare major hurricane causes significant damage on the islands of Hawaii and Maui.
• August 13 – Birth of Karl Liebknecht, German politician

Focus On: (58) Concordia

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.43 years
Discovered: 24th March 1860 (time unknown), from Düsseldorf, Germany, by Robert Luther
Events at time of discovery:

• March 22 – The Grand Duchy of Tuscany is annexed to the newly formed Kingdom of Italy.
• April 2 – The first Italian Parliament meets at Turin.
• April 3 – The Pony Express begins its first run.
• May 1 – A Chondrite-type meteorite falls to earth in Muskingum County, Ohio, near the town of New Concord.
• May 9 – Birth of J. M. Barrie, Scottish author

Focus On: (57) Mnemosyne

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.60 years
Discovered: 22nd September 1859 (time unknown) from Düsseldorf by Robert Luther
Events at time of discovery:

• September 7 – Birth of Margaret Crosfield, British palaeontologist, geologist
• October 6 – Birth of Frank Seiberling, American inventor, co-founder of Goodyear
• October 16 – John Brown raids the Harpers Ferry Armory.
• October 20 – Birth of John Dewey, American philosopher, psychologist and educator
• November 24 – Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.

Focus On: (55) Pandora

Basics

Class: M-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.58 years
Discovered: 10th September 1858 (time unknown), from Albany, NY, by George Mary Searle
Events at time of discovery:

• August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable
• October 3 – Birth of Eleonora Duse, Italian actress
• October 19 – Birth of George Albert Boulenger, Belgian naturalist
• October 27 – Birth of Theodore Roosevelt
• November 16 – The 2,400,000th day of the Epoch of the Julian day is reached.

Focus On: (38) Leda

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.54 years
Discovered: 12th January 1856 (time unknown), from Paris, France by Jean Chacornac
Events at time of discovery:

• January 8 – Borax deposits are discovered in large quantities by John Veatch in California.
• January 9 – Birth of Lizette Woodworth Reese, American poet and teacher
• January 12 – Birth of John Singer Sargent, American artist

Focus On: (10) Hygiea

Basics

Class: C-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 5.56 years
Discovered: 12th April 1849 (time unknown) from Naples, Italy, by Annibale de Gasparis
Events at time of discovery:

• 1849 – Global healthcare and pharmaceutical company Pfizer was founded in New York.
• January 23 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
• July 23 – The French scientist Hippolyte Fizeau measures the speed of light, with an instrument placed on the Earth.
• September 17 – Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery.

Focus On: (9) Metis

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.69 years
Discovered: 25th April 1848 (time unknown) at Markree Castle, Ireland, by Andrew Graham
Events at time of discovery:

• From Wiki: "1848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the political and philosophical landscape and had major ramifications throughout the rest of the century."
• February 21 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London.
• March 29 – Queen's College, London, founded, the world's first school to award academic qualifications to young women.
• May 13 – "Maamme", the national anthem of Finland written by German composer Fredrik Pacius and Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, was performed for the first time.

Focus On: (8) Flora

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.27 years
Discovered: 18th October 1847 (time unknown), from London, UK, by John Russell Hind
Events at time of discovery:

• September 30 – The Vegetarian Society is formed in the United Kingdom (it remains the oldest in the world).
• October 17 – Birth of Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian composer
• October 19 – Charlotte Brontë publishes Jane Eyre in the UK under the pen name of Currer Bell.
• – Birth of Aurilla Furber, American author, editor, and activist

Focus On: (7) Iris

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.69 years
Discovered: 13th August 1847 (time unknown), from London, UK, by John Russell Hind
Events at time of discovery:

• August – Yale Corporation establishes the first graduate school in the United States, as Department of Philosophy and the Arts
• August 21 – Birth of Hale Johnson, American temperance movement leader

Focus On: (6) Hebe

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.78 years
Discovered: 1st July 1847 (time unknown) from Driesen, Poland, by Karl Ludwig Hencke
Events at time of discovery:

• June 11 – Birth of Dame Milicent Fawcett, British suffragist
• June 16 – Birth of Luella Dowd Smith, American educator, author, and reformer
• July 1 – The United States issues its first postage stamps.
• July 9 – Birth of Wong Fei-hung, Chinese healer, revolutionary

Focus On: (5) Astraea

Basics

Class: S-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.14 years
Discovered: 8th December 1845 (time unknown) from Driesen, Poland, by Karl Ludwig Hencke
Events at time of discovery:

• 1845 – Friedrich Engels' treatise The Condition of the Working Class in England is published in Leipzig.
• – Eugénie Luce founds the Luce Ben Aben School in Algiers.
• August 28 – The journal Scientific American begins publication.
• September 9 – Potato blight breaks out in Ireland, beginning the Great Famine.
• December 2 – Manifest destiny: U.S. President James K. Polk announces to Congress that the Monroe Doctrine should be strictly enforced, and that the United States should aggressively expand into the West.
• December 9 – Birth of Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus series

Focus On: (4) Vesta

Basics

Class: V-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 3.63 years
Discovered: 29th March 1807 (time unknown), from Bremen, Germany, by Heinrich Wilhelm Matthias Olbers
Events at time of discovery:

• March 25 – The United Kingdom Slave Trade Act becomes law, abolishing the slave trade in most of the British Empire with effect from 1 May (slavery itself is abolished in British colonies in 1833).
• – The Swansea and Mumbles Railway in South Wales, at this time known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger-carrying railway in the world.
• April 14 – African Institution holds its first meeting in London; it is intended to improve social conditions in Sierra Leone.

Focus On: (3) Juno

Basics

Class: Sk-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.36 years
Discovered: 1st September 1804 (time unknown), from Lilienthal Observatory, Germany, by Karl Ludwig Harding
Events at time of discovery:

• 1804 – World population reaches 1 billion people.
• July 27 – The Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reformed the way that candidates for President and Vice President are chosen, is ratified by Tennessee, removing doubt surrounding adoption.
• October 8 – Jean-Jacques Dessalines holds his coronation as Jean-Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti.
• December 2 – Coronation of Napoleon I: At the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, Napoleon crowns himself as the first Emperor of the French in a thousand years. Witnessing this, Simón Bolívar dedicates himself to liberating Venezuela from Spanish rule.

Focus On: (2) Pallas

Basics

Class: B-type asteroid
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.61 years
Discovered: 28th March 1802 (time unknown), from Bremen, Germany, by Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers
Events at time of discovery:

• February – The Rosetta Stone is brought to England by Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner.
• March 11 – The Rosetta Stone is presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London, which in turn presents it to the British Museum.
• March 25-27 – The Treaty of Amiens between the French Republic and the United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition. The treaty also ends the French Revolutionary Wars.
• April 10 – The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India begins with the measurement of a baseline near Madras.

Focus On: (1) Ceres

Basics

Class: C-type dwarf planet
Location: Main belt
Orbit length (approx): 4.60 years
Discovered: 1st January 1801, 19:49 UTC, from Palermo, Sicily, by Giuseppe Piazzi
Events at time of discovery:

• January 1 – Legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland is completed under the Act of Union 1800.
• January 3 – Toussaint Louverture triumphantly enters Santo Domingo.
• – Birth of Gijsbert Haan, Dutch-American religious reformer