Skypatterns Skytalk

Sunday, May 20th there will be a visible solar eclipse for us all to enjoy. In L.A., it happens at 4:47 PM, New York at 7:47 PM, London at 12:47 AM, Delhi at 5:47 AM, and Sidney at 9:47 AM.

So we’ve seen these before, but now that we are all more conscious of the cosmic events and how they effect us all, this one is very special.

If you are watching from the land running from Northern California to Texas, you’ll be seeing an annular eclipse, in which the rim of the Sun becomes a brilliant ring completely encircling the black silhouette of the Moon.

The Sun will move down the afternoon sky when a dark indent begins on one edge. The indent will deepen, eventually turning the Sun into a fat crescent – or, for the western half of the continent, a thin crescent. This is the silhouette of the new Moon traveling along its monthly orbit around the Earth.

Watch as the eclipse deepens for the sky to turn a darker shade of blue, and for Venus to appear east of the Sun.

Every year in Tibet and other parts of the world people celebrate this full moon, as the Buddha’s birth. It is known all over Asia as either ‘Wesak’ or ‘Buddha Purnima’.

In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, during this Full Moon we connect to the ‘Wheel of Time’, Kalachakra, with the Mandala for World Peace. This is a wonderful day to look into ourselves for the change we wish to see in the world.