Mary Stewart Adams

Dante Alighieri’s epic poem “The Divine Comedy” is regarded as one of the most influential works of art in western civilization. He completed it 700 years ago and then died this week, September 13 or 14th, in 1321, exiled from his beloved Florence.

There’s a discernible pulse, like a heartbeat, sounding out in the star picture this week, culminating Sunday, August 5th, when the Moon meets the star Regulus at dawn, and Venus meets the star Spica at dusk.

In August the better part of the Milky Way is visible, arching over the dome of the night from northeast to southwest, passing over the top of the sky where we find the asterism known as the Summer Triangle.

There’s a True Blue Moon headed our way Sunday, August 22nd.

The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks overnight August 11-12, falling through the night sky like seeds bearing the promise and potential of the new year.

In old British tradition, the Cross Quarter Day was known as Lammas, for “loaf mass,” a celebration of the first wheat harvest that was brought in from the fields at the halfway point in the Summer. But because of the Earth’s wobble, which causes a precession, the halfway point in this Summer isn’t August 1st, it’s actually August 6th.

One letter that’s getting a lot of attention right now is the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, “delta.” Now in the world of astronomy, the delta star is one of the four brightest stars in a constellation, and this according Bayer designation.

The Moon has two orbital rhythms that vary by about two days: The sidereal rhythm is the time takes the Moon to complete one orbit around Earth; and the synodic rhythm, which is the time it takes for the Moon to catch up with the Sun again.

Consider, Earth orbits the Sun with Venus on one side, and Mars on the other. When these two planets come together in our sky, like they will this week, it’s like a moment in the cycle when the active principle of Mars infuses the love principle of Venus with forces for further realization.