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| Blood Moon (Wikimedia Commons) |
This first Saturday of the new year is a good time to look
ahead and see what 2019 will bring us in the way of historic anniversaries,
astronomical events, and quirks of the calendar.
And now for the thirtieth, fiftieth, seventy-fifth, one hundredth,
two hundredth, and nine hundredth time…
On February 20: Sing Happy 200th birthday to Frederick Douglass!
And perhaps this will be the year that “DC” turns into “Douglass Commonwealth”(?) (If you don’t get the reference, see https://wapo.st/2QoXguf to decrypt the new
meaning proposed for our DC postal code.)
On June 4: It’s the Centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment
giving women the right to vote nationwide. Look at how far we’ve come in 100
short years…or for glass-half-empty folks, look at how far we still need to go
after 100 long years.
On June 6: We will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the
D-Day invasion.
On July 20: It’s been 50 years since that first “small step
for a man” on the moon. Hope the Air & Space Museum is back open before then!
On August 15-17: It’s been half a century since Woodstock! “And
everywhere was a sound and celebration. And I dreamed I saw the bomber jet
planes riding shotgun in the sky turning into butterflies above a nation,” sang
Joni Mitchell, still the best at summing it all up. Want to be there for the Golden
Anniversary Concert on August 16-18? Keep checking this site for tickets to go
on sale:
On November 11: It’s been 30 years since throngs of joyous East
and West Germans took sledgehammers to the oppressive Berlin Wall and allowed
people to move freely through one city. Although the destruction of the wall
was not completed until 1991, November 11 is the date to celebrate (see https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/europe/berlin-wall-fast-facts/index.html)
And sometime during 2019 – we’re not sure of the month, let
alone the exact date – we can celebrate the 900th anniversary of the founding of
the Knights Templar. You have probably heard of this order of crusaders from historical
thrillers and movies like The Maltese Falcon, National Treasure, and The Da
Vinci Code. The forbidden order of knights figure in some way in every grand
conspiracy theory ever advanced by crackpots of the past 900 years. Their
leaders and members were wiped out, on the order of the King of France on Friday
the 13th of October 1307 – which has given Friday the 13th a bad name ever
since.
So – for those of you who believe that Friday the Thirteenth
is an unlucky day – here are the two mornings this year you may not want to get
out of bed:
September 13th and December 13th.
The year 2019 gives us two palindrome dates (the numbers are
the same, read forwards or backwards). The first one is the palindrome date expressed in American date order (month, day, year): September 10, 2019 – 9 10 2019. The
second is the palindrome date in international date order (day, month, year): 9
October 2019, or 9 10 2019.
And now for the Countdown Date of 2019:
20 19 18 17 16 15 – which is to say: 2019 January 8 (2019/1/8)
at 17:16:15 (5:16 and 15 seconds PM).
Next, we will go wind the clock forward to see what the
heavens have in store for us in 2019 (with descriptions from EarthSky.org, SeaSky.org
and National Geographic Science Astronomical Events 2019 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2018/12/new-years-top-stargazing-events-eclipses-moon-space/):
January 20-21 - Super Blood Wolf Moon eclipse. Late on the
20th, Earth's dark shadow will creep over the full Wolf Moon, turning the
silvery orb blood red during the year’s only total lunar eclipse. By cosmic
coincidence, this full moon will also be especially close to Earth that night,
making it a so-called Supermoon.
January 22 - Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. A conjunction
of Venus and Jupiter will be visible on January 22. The two bright planets will
be visible within 2.4 degrees of each other in the early morning sky. Look for
this impressive sight in the east just before sunrise.
February 19 – Biggest supermoon of the three supermoons of
2019. EarthSky.org adds: “By the way, that bright star accompanying the
February supermoon is none other than Regulus, the brightest star in the
constellation Leo the Lion.” (https://earthsky.org/?p=299494)
March 21 - Full Moon, Supermoon. This full moon was known by
early Native American tribes as the Full Worm Moon because this was the time of
year when the ground would begin to soften and the earthworms would reappear.
This moon has also been known as the Full Crow Moon, the Full Crust Moon, the
Full Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon. This is also the last of three supermoons
for 2019. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look
slightly larger and brighter than usual. [From http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-2019.html]
May 18 - Full Moon, Blue Moon. The Moon will be located on
the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully
illuminated. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the
Full Flower Moon because this was the time of year when spring flowers appeared
in abundance. This moon has also been known as the Full Corn Planting Moon and
the Milk Moon. Since this is the third of four full moons in this season, it is
known as a blue moon. This rare calendar event only happens once every few
years, giving rise to the term, “once in a blue moon.”
November 11 - Rare Transit of Mercury Across the Sun. The
planet Mercury will move directly between the Earth and the Sun. Viewers with
telescopes and approved solar filters will be able to observe the dark disk of
the planet Mercury moving across the face of the Sun. This is an extremely rare
event that occurs only once every few years. The next transit of Mercury will
not take place until 2039. This transit will be visible throughout all of South
America and Central America, and parts of North America, Mexico, Europe, the
Middle East, and Africa. The best place to view this event in its entirety will
be the eastern United States, Central America, and South America. [https://secretsofuniverse.in/2018/12/16/a-rare-astronomy-event-is-taking-place-in-2019-and-it-will-be-worth-a-watch/]
If I’ve missed anything important, by all means send in your
entries to round out this catalog of hot dates for 2019!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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