~> Eclipses in Cartography ~
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The Annular Sun eclipse of June 10th 2002 (23h49 GMT) at 19°55' Gemini was quite remarkable because Saturn was close, at 18°40' Gemini. The distance apart in declination between the Sun at 23N03 and Saturn at 21N40 was 1°23'. To complete the picture, the Moon's declination was 23N14, the trio Sun-Moon-Saturn was opposite Pluto and, if this was not enough, it was also parallel to Venus, Mars and Jupiter, then in Cancer. This is not just a Sun eclipse. It's a big one (as had been the 21st June 2001 also).I always find rewarding to do the cartography of such strong moments, to look at the parans of eclipses : where the vertical lines (MC or FC) cross the curves (AS or DS) on a world map. Following the symbols of my French version of Jim Lewis and Ariel Gutman's book (Astro*Carto*Graphy, Book of Maps. Llewellyn, 1989), the two strongest paran were : 1. Sun-Moo-Sat/AS * Ura/MC This crossing happened right on top of Kashmir (of Pakistan) at the terrestrial latitude of 33N~34N~35N. Because of the Earth's spin and the relatively slow motion of the celestial bodies, this latitude is touched all around. Strong events followed indeed at this latitude on Earth ;-(Not only the Pakistan was already making the news on May 25th with it's missile test to show India, but then on June 14th a suicide bomber killed 9 and injured 40 in front of the American consulate in Karachi (34N). And near 33N, the 1st of July witnessed the tragic bombing mistake of an Afghan wedding. Also Abdul Kadir (n°2 in Afghanistan) was assassinated on July 6th.Then around America, big fires were burning in Colorado near 13th June and after that, I heard on June 26th of about 50 Miles of fire in Arizona only and that 11 other states were touched by the disaster ;-(( While other places were flooded, like in Texas, on 4th of July Independence Day, all America seemed look for possible terrorists. The one who eventually turned up showed his face just before lunch time at L.A. Airport (34N), as an Egyptian shooting at a queue of people boarding on an EL AL plane. Other strong news in that period : 12th June, GW Bush says OK to invest in medicine against dirty bombs. 17th June, Israel talks about building a wall of 71 Miles between Israel And Palestine. 21st June, earthquake (Magn 6) in Iran, killing 250. 25th June, WorldCom can't hide it's false accounts done by Anderson. 26th June, Al-Qaeda kills 10 in Pakistan. 11th July, Bush starts talking about a future war against Iraq (Baghdad's latitude is 33N20). No comments. 2. Sun-Moo-Sat/FC*Plu/MC*Ura/AS This crossing occurred between North of France and South East England at the terrestrial latitude of 49N~50N~51N. With the eclipse on FC, we saw on 10th July Europe present it's new agricultural policies including big reforms (less subsidies).With FC, there's also a matter of frontiers. Europe is taking measures to send asylum seekers back to their countries when possible. On May 23rd, it was decided to close down the Sandgate refugee camp near Calais in France, where the number of illegal immigrants was just too high.Then, the paran is not far also of where, on 4th August, 10 years old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were kidnapped and killed by the school caretaker Ian Huntley and his girlfriend Maxine Carr (couple arrested on 17th August). I suspect other strong events touch the Earth latitudes around 50N.This small article is just to show how strong aspects in longitude & declination can be. Of course, the media brings us mainly the bad news. I hope some of you, readers, were able to experience some more positive effects of this last eclipse. On my side, it was OK. Except for stupid computer problems, I moved my office a to it's definitive place early July and then ended up coming to the UAC conference... It was great!  This scan was taken from "Carto Graphic Phenomena 2002"
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