Sunday, January 25, 2009
When red is not auspicious
When red is not auspicious
VASTHU SASTRA
By T.SELVA
The first day of Chinese New Year will see the first solar eclipse of the year, so precautions are recommended amidst all the merry-making.
THE first eclipse of the sun for 2009 occurs tomorrow, the first day of Chinese New Year, and it is a time to be cautious.
This annular eclipse will happen between 4.30pm and 7pm in Malaysia. A dark red shadow will creep across the sun and this can be observed from many countries on this side of the world, including Australia, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Taiwan, as well as our country.
This eerie reddish light is viewed as unfavourable astrologically.
Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the Earth and sun. This is an uncommon event because the moon usually remains either above or below Earth’s orbital plane.
The various stages of a solar eclipse.
In astrological studies, any eclipse signals a time to be wary and this is especially true if the sun is involved because all living beings are dependent on the sun for light. There are also subtle eclipses of the moon but its impact on the universe is much less.
Why is a solar eclipse inauspicious? During the eclipse, the power of negative energy increases 1,000 times as compared to other times. When the environment becomes conducive for negative energy to amass, the chances of it affecting people increases.
Since ancient times, the sun has been viewed as an auspicious star and a life force. It is also known as the remover of all obstacles and the giver of health.
It rules the digestive system, heart and blood circulation and influences an individual’s strength, energy, self confidence, leadership and many other qualities.
The impact of the negative energies when the sun is obscured causes a lack of courage, fatigue and low self-esteem.
People are advised not to carry out activities as usual during the eclipse period as they may behave irrationally. Do not view the eclipse directly, and it is better not to travel during the period and stay indoors.
I understand this can be difficult with it being Chinese New Year but revellers should try to take precautions at least during the three-and-a-half hours of the eclipse.
People who were born during an eclipse should take even more care when such cosmic events occur because they will experience the effects of the eclipse more deeply than others.
Pregnant women and senior citizens should be extra careful and should not consume food or drinks during the eclipse period. And newborns should not be exposed to the rays.
Everyday activities that should be avoided during the time of the eclipse are sleeping, conjugal relations, swimming, holding meetings and weddings and all religious or special events.
To ward off the negative rays of the sun, people can use kusha or dharba grass (holy grass used in Hindu rituals). To mitigate the ill effects of the eclipse, the grass should be used as a cushion or placed on the bed and pillow, used in food and beverages, put in vehicles and by the main doorway of the house. (Dharba’s scientific name is Desmostachya bipinnata; in Australia, its common name is halfa grass and in the US, it is known as big cordgrass or salt reed-grass).
After the eclipse, people should wash and clean their houses to remove all “harmful energies” that would have set in and offer prayers.
Although the Jan 26 lunar eclipse is only partial and not like the total eclipse that occurred on Aug 1 2008, people should be careful. The next total eclipse will take place on July 22 and will be visible in India, Nepal, China, Hawaii, and the Pacific Ocean.
This solar eclipse will be the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the 21st century and will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds.
- wong chee tat :)
Annular Solar Eclipse of January 26 2009
An annular solar eclipse is visible from parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, and the South Pacific. The Sun will form a "ring of fire" around the intervening Moon. It is not visible from North America.
Details:
Annular Solar Eclipse of January 26
The first solar eclipse of 2009 occurs at the Moon's ascending node in western Capricornus. An annular eclipse will be visible from a wide track that traverses the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. A partial eclipse will be seen within the much larger path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes the southern third of Africa, Madagascar, Australia except Tasmania, southeast India, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. (Figure 1).
The annular path begins in the South Atlantic at 06:06 UT when the Moon's antumbral shadow meets Earth and forms a 363 kilometre wide corridor. Traveling eastward, the shadow quickly sweeps south of the African continent, missing it by approximately 900 kilometres. Slowly curving to the northeast the path crosses the southern Indian Ocean. Greatest eclipse[1] takes place at 07:58:39 UT when the eclipse magnitude[2] will reach 0.9282. At this instant, the annular duration is 7 minutes 54 seconds, the path width is 280 kilometres and the Sun is 73° above the flat horizon formed by the open ocean. The central track continues northeast where it finally encounters land in the form of the Cocos Islands and onward to southern Sumatra and western Java (Figure 2). At 09:40 UT, the central line duration is 6 minutes 18 seconds and the Sun's altitude at 25°. In its final minutes, the antumbral shadow cuts across central Borneo and clips the northwestern edge of Celebes before ending just short of Mindanao, Philippines at 09:52 UT. During a 3 hour 46 minute trajectory across our planet, the Moon's antumbra travels approximately 14,500 kilometres and covers 0.9% of Earth's surface area. Path coordinates and central line circumstances are presented in Table 1.
Partial phases of the eclipse are visible primarily from southern Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Local circumstances for a number of cities are listed in Table 2. All times are given in Universal Time. The Sun's altitude and azimuth, the eclipse magnitude and obscuration[3] are all given at the instant of maximum eclipse.
This is the 50th eclipse of Saros 131. The family began with an unusually long series of 22 partial eclipses starting on 1125 Aug 01. The first central eclipse was total in the Northern Hemisphere on 1522 Mar 27. It was followed by 5 more total eclipses before the series produce 5 hybrid eclipses from 1630 to 1702. The first annular eclipse of Saros 131 occurred on 1720 Aug 04. The series will produce 29 more annular eclipses the last of which is 2243 Jun 18. Saros 131 terminates on 2369 Sep 02 after a string of 7 partial eclipses.- wong chee tat :)
Install RealPlayer 11 in Ubuntu 8.04
1. Visit real player site: http://www.real.com/linux
2. Click "Download RealPlayer" button and save file into your home directory
3. Now open terminal and run following commands (I downloaded RealPlayer 11 and it's file name is RealPlayer11GOLD.bin, replace this name with your downloaded file name):
$ sudo chmod +x RealPlayer11GOLD.bin
$ ./RealPlayer11GOLD.bin
4. Installation will start and will ask you to press [Enter]
5. Then it will ask you for installation directory path, press [Enter] if you don't sure about it
6. To finish type F and press [Enter]
Ans that's it. After the installation, you will find it from 'Applications > Sound & Video' menu.
- wong chee tat :)
