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Here are a few nifty astrological things related to dwarf planet Eris.

First of all, some things I definitely wasn't the first to notice.

The dwarf planet Eris, before it was officially named, was originally nicknamed Xena.

And many years ago, someone on an astrology forum I read pointed out that Lucy Lawless, the actress who played Xena on the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess, has the astrological "Xena" in an interesting position in her astrological chart.

Namely - conjunct her sun, moon, Saturn, ascendant, and lunar node all in Aries, and all in the 1st house.

Plus, since Aries is ruled by Mars (the planet associated with war), this strong emphasis on Aries seems fitting for an actress whose possibly best-known role is a warrior princess. (Best known role to me, anyway - though I also remember her from the remake of Battlestar Galactica.)

In addition, she has Mars in the 1st house. (Though her Mars is in Taurus rather than Aries.)

Here's an interesting page about Eris, with Lucy Lawless's chart near the top, from PhilipSedgwick.com:

And the AstroDatabank article on Lucy Lawless:

And now, here's some stuff I noticed on my own. Though it's pretty easy to spot if you have the idea to look, so, it's very possible I'm not the first person to ever notice this. (But, I briefly searched the web, and couldn't find anyone else who already pointed out the following astrological details.)

The TV show Xena: Warrior Princess featured lots of gods and goddesses from mythology, including Greek mythology.

So, some years ago, sometime after Eris was named in 2006 - it occurred to me to wonder if maybe Eris (Roman name: Discordia) was ever portrayed on the show.

And indeed, she was. The actress who played Discord was Meighan Desmond, born October 7, 1977, according to her official bio page.

And, it turns out Meighan has her sun around 13 Libra, opposition Eris/Xena at 13 Aries.

A neat contrast to Lucy Lawless's sun conjunct Eris/Xena. :-) (Though Lucy's aspect between sun and Eris/Xena is less exact - sun at 8 Aries and Eris at 11 Aries.)

The sun is often associated with the archetype of the hero.

So, it's rather neat that the actress who played the hero of the show has sun conjunct Xena (later renamed Eris), while the actress who played Discord, one of Xena's villainous opponents, has sun opposition Xena (later renamed Eris).

It also seems worthwhile to point out the fact that the astrological aspects "conjunction" and "opposition" are opposites of each other.

Because a conjunction means two planets are somewhere around 0 degrees away from each other, which is as close as two planets can possibly get to each other in an astrological chart - while an opposition means two planets are somewhere around 180 degrees away from each other, which is as distant as two planets can possibly get from each other in an astrological chart.

So, interestingly - Lucy Lawless and Meighan Desmond's sun/Eris (Xena) aspect angles are close to complementary of each other.

Or actually, I believe the correct term in geometry is "supplementary" - as in "supplementary angles", which is defined as two angles which add up to 180 degrees.

In astrology, the opposition is one of the aspects most associated with discord and conflict. There are other aspects associated with discord, friction, disharmony - for a few examples: the square, quincunx, sesquisquare, and semisquare.

But, "opposition" probably is the aspect name that actually sounds the most discordant, at least in English, since the term "opposition" is frequently used in ordinary non-astrological English when discussing conflict.

(Though there is also the non-astrological plain English expression/idiom "square off". I wonder if that expression was inspired by astrology?)

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Pluto's Heart

Saturday, July 11th, 2015 06:43:13 GMT

Astronomy With a Bit of Astrology

Here's an article from Phys.org about Pluto's "heart", with a picture:

A quote from that article:

New Horizons will swoop to within about 12,500 kilometers (nearly 7,750 miles) of Pluto's surface and about 17,900 miles (28,800 kilometers) from Charon during closest approach at approximately 7:49 a.m. EDT (11:49 UTC) on July 14.

As for the heart - well, I think it's adorable. :-)

So maybe Pluto shouldn't be considered to be in debility in Libra and Taurus after all. :-)

(In astrology, usually Venus is considered the ruler of Libra and Taurus, and Venus is associated with love. ♥)

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Pluto Flyby - New Horizons' Closest Approach - July 14, 2015, around 11:49 AM UT (7:49 AM EDT)

Tuesday, July 14th, 2015 09:24:15 GMT

Astronomy

The New Horizons flyby of Pluto will (hopefully) reach its closest approach on July 14, 2015 at approximately 7:49 AM EDT (11:49 AM UT) - just hours from now.

And one article I stumbled across - Wired.com - New Horizons’ Finest Moment Could Be Its Hour of Destruction (posted July 13, 2015) - provides this remarkably exact time: "7:49:58 AM Eastern time"

And also says:

"With all sensors trained on Pluto, New Horizons won’t phone home for 21 straight hours."

Another link - New York Times - New Horizons' Pluto Flyby (July 14, 2015) - says in the last section of the animated slideshow near the top of the page:

"Confirmation that New Horizon survived the flyby is not expected until after 9:00 p.m., in part because signals from Pluto take four and a half hours to reach Earth."

More links:

Quoted from the last link:

"Pluto is 2,370 kilometers (1,473 miles) in diameter, give or take 20 kilometers. This makes it undisputedly larger than Eris, the second largest object in the Kuiper Belt at 2,336 kilometers with a potential error of +/- 12 kilometers, and ends a decade-long debate over which object is larger."

However, Eris still has more mass. Another recent link:

Quote:

"It’s worth noting that Pluto and Eris’ masses have been precisely known for some time — Eris is around one-third more massive than Pluto. By measuring the characteristics of moons orbiting both dwarf planets, an accurate mass can be calculated."

Addition, Aug. 9, 2015, 1:10 AM EDT: Quoted from this page from The Guardian:

"The New Horizons probe has made contact with Earth, proof that the spacecraft survived its historic flyby of Pluto.

The signal was received at precisely 8.52.37pm Eastern time."

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