Wintry skies produce “rainbow smiles” or upside-down rainbows

SPACEWEATHER.COM has a beautiful picture of an upside-down rainbow. To quote: “The technical name for this phenomenon is circumzenithal arc or “CZA” for short–and it’s no rainbow. CZAs are formed by sunlight shining through plate-shaped ice crystals in high clouds.”
These ice rainbows are more common in fall/early winter when the sun is low — so keep an eye peeled for them. The photo was taken recently in Alabama. Consider it a smile in the sky just to brighten your day.

NASA crashes satellites on Moon; Moon files lawsuit

The Moon, our quiet unassuming little Earth satellite, filed a lawsuit today for damages as a result of what the Moon’s lawyer termed “a shabby lack of consideration by NASA for my client’s health and safety.”
While NASA declared that “Everything worked out beautifully” in the controlled crash of two scientific probes into the Moon’s South Pole, the Moon was of the opposite opinion. “Couldn’t you hear me screaming in pain?” the Moon asked. “Even if I had any ice, it wouldn’t be enough to pack my crater against the swelling.”

Essenes were astrologers, too, as Dead Sea Scrolls show; Was Jesus an astrologer?

We astrologers seem to have taken for granted that the Bible is anti-astrology. A quote from the Bible has been widely interpreted as a condemnation of astrologers and astrology (although there are other interpretations). But it may surprise you to learn that the earliest Jewish writings – namely, the Dead Sea scrolls discovered at Qumran — included astrology lessons.
The Essene scrolls, the Torah (Old Testament) and Talmud, all have references to astrological or astronomical material. They include not only interpretations of the stars and planets, but the fact that they observed other phenomena such as new and full moons, eclipses and comets.
Sid Jefferies, on his web site FactsBehindFaith.com, states that “the magi who attend the Birth of Jesus and prophesy so accurately his future are not really three ‘kings.’ These Persian magi are now properly translated as astrologers in many Bibles.”

The Three Wise Men and the Three Pyramids, and the Star

The discovery of a Roman coin from 6 BC gave one astronomer a key to unraveling the mystery of the legendary star. The coin shows a ram looking back over his shoulder at a huge star. Michael Molnar bought a coin from Antioch, Syria in 1990; the result was a book, The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi that unravels the identity of the Star of Bethlehem.

Saturn imitates David Copperfield, makes his rings vanish into thin air

Saturn shows us one of his amazing tricks this week, as he makes his rings vanish into thin air. Is he imitating that shapeshifter Neptune? Is he having a makeover?