CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-TORONTO:

TORONTO WELFARE OFFICE OCCUPIED:

The following story and appeal for assistance comes from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP). If you're down Toronto way see if you can't drop by and lend a hand.

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URGENT: Angry Occupation of Metro Hall Happening Now:‏
December 8, 2009 11:11:04 AM
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

More Than 150 Angry Social Assistance Recipients Storm and Occupy

Municipal Welfare Offices

OCCUPATION HAPPENING NOW:

Metro Hall

55 John Street

South-east corner of King and John (two blocks east of Spadina)

COME OUT AND SUPPORT THE ONGOING OCCUPATION. DEMAND THE CITY RELEASE MONEY PEOPLE NEED TO SURVIVE.

December 8th, 2009 - Members of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and more than 150 people struggling to survive on Ontario Works and ODSP are presently occupying the 12th floor of Toronto's Metro Hall.

The group is refusing to leave until they receive the Special Diet Benefit that they are entitled to.

The City is responsible for administering social assistance in Toronto, and people are currently being denied their right to the Special Diet Benefit. More people than ever are being forced to live on welfare in Ontario. They face two major problems. First of all, the income they receive does not let them pay their rent and feed their families properly.

Secondly, welfare offices do all they can to deny even the small benefits people are supposed to get. When they apply for Special Diet, Community Start Up and other benefits, they are denied their rights. This must stop.

COME OUT AND SUPPORT THE ONGOING OCCUPATION. DEMAND THE CITY RELEASE MONEY PEOPLE NEED TO SURVIVE.

OCCUPATION HAPPENING NOW:

Metro Hall

55 John Street

South-east corner of King and John (two blocks east of Spadina)

**

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

10 Britain St.

Toronto, ON

M5A 1R6

416-925-6939

ocap@tao.ca

www.ocap.ca

**

NEXT ASTRONOMICAL EVENT:

LUNAR OCCULTATION OF THE PLEIADES TOMORROW, SEPTEMBER 2ND/SEPTEMBER 3RD:

Tomorrow there will be another treat for amateur astronomers as the Moon occults the Pleiades star cluster. The Moon will cross the middle of the cluster thereby occulting 5 of the famous "seven sisters". There are a few caveats. In eastern Canada the Moon will cover fewer of the stars in this cluster. Also Saskatchewan, being as it doesn't observe daylight savings time, will see the events "an hour earlier" than here in Winnipeg. Here in Winnipeg the occultation of all the stars in the cluster will be visible from 12:29 am Sept 3rd until 1:56 am. In Saskatchewan the occultation will begin at 11:30 pm September 2nd. Points west of Winnipeg will observe the full series of occultations. Times for the occulatations in MDT and PDT can be found via the Time and Date site. Here is a list of when the Moon occults various stars in the Pleiades cluster in Central Daylight Time and when the star reappears. More on this later if I have time.

STAR................Time of Occultation

Celaeno 12:29 am

Electra 12:42 am

Taygeta 12:42 am

Maia 12:53 am

Asterope 1:01 am

STAR................Time of Reappearance

Electra 12:56 am

Celaeno 1:20 am

Taygeta 1:37 am

Maia 1:46 am

Asterope 1:56 am

THE CONSTELLATION LEO:

The constellation of Leo is ideally placed for observation in the late spring/early summer sky. After nightfall it lays almost due south, and the proximity of the planet Saturn to the constellation makes for interesting viewing.

The ancient Sumerians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Syrians, Jews, Hindus, Turks, Greeks and Romans all recognized this group of stars as a lion. In Chinese astronomy it was, however, represented as a horse, and some claim that the Incas recognized it as a springing puma. The Egyptian association of this constellation has provoked many possible explanations. One says that because the Sun is in Leo during the hottest time of the summer and the lions come to the Nile to cool themselves then that the constellation was named for the lion. Another theory is that the power of the Sun in midsummer led to its being associated with the most powerful of beasts. Pliny wrote that the Egyptians worshipped the stars of Leo because the waters of the Nile rose in its annual flood when the Sun entered Leo. The Sphinx was said to represent Leo's body with the head of the adjacent constellation of Virgo. This, however, is disputed as most Egyptologists maintain that the head represents one of the early kings or the god Harmachis.

The Greek legend of this constellation associates it with the Nemean Lion. The first labour of Heracles was to slay the lion which had been terrorizing the area around Nemea near Corinth and bring back its invulnerable skin. After attempts to slay the lion with arrows and a sword were unsuccessful Heracles threw away his weapons and wrestled with the lion. Some accounts say that he strangled it. Other accounts say that he broke its neck or that he thrust his arm down its throat and choked it. After he had killed the beast Heracles found that he couldn't skin it, but Athena, in the form of an old crone, came to him and suggested that he use the lion's own claws to do the job. After this he took to wearing the lion's skin as armour, and it was said that when he returned to Eurystheus who was his taskmaster for the twelve labours that the King was so frightened by his appearance that he hid in a large bronze jar. From this point the king only communicated with Heracles through a herald.

The Romans often associated this constellation with Bacchus, the god of wine, who was often dressed in a lion's skin. It is also supposed to be both the 'Lion of Judah' and the lion on the British coat of arms.

The most prominent star of Leo is Regulus(see above diagram). The name means "little king" as does its Greek name "Basiliskos". The name Regulus dates from the 15th century. Its Arabic name Qalb Al Asad means "heart of the lion", and it was often referred to in the same way in Latin as "Cor Leonis". The star is about 85 light years distant and is the faintest of the first magnitude stars with an apparent brightness of 1.4. It is a young blue dwarf star, only a few hundred million years old and has a mass of about 3.5 times that of the Sun. It spins very rapidly with a rotation period of only 15.9 hours. Regulus is actually a triplet system. Its two faint companions are a binary system that orbits Regulus A about every 130,000 years.

Regulus lays closest to the ecliptic of all the brightest (1st magnitude) stars in the sky. This means that it is regularly occulted by the Moon. The next occultation of Regulus is due for western Canada On June 19th. It will, unfortunately, occur during daylight (see following list). It may still, however, be visible given clear skies and a good telescope. The occultation will not be visible in the eastern part of Canada, but residents of the southern USA may be able to see the event in dark skies. If this event were to happen during darkness it would actually be quite spectacular from here in Winnipeg because Regulus will "skim" the edge of the Moon rather than being fully occulted. This means that it will "blink on and off" as it passes behind mountains on the Moon. This may be visible if you drive south or west of Winnipeg one or two hours. The further west (or south) you are the longer the period of occultation. Here is the schedule for major cities in western Canada.

City:

Winnipeg: 7:36 pm

Saskatoon: Disappears 6:02pm; reappears 6:43pm

Regina: Disappears 6:06pm; reappears 6:48pm

Edmonton: Disappears 5:47pm; reappears 6:39pm

Calgary: Disappears 5:45pm; reappears 6:45pm

Vancouver: Disappears 4:28pm; reappears 5:42pm

As a side note the present excellent conditions for viewing Saturn and its rings won't last very much longer. As May and June go by the position of this planet will be lower in the west, and by the end of June it will be too low for a decent telescopic view. At the end of June, however, there will be an outstanding conjunction of Saturn and Venus. On June 30th between 10 and 11 pm Venus and Saturn will be within a degree of each other in the lower western sky. This will be the closest planetary conjunction of the year.

But back to Leo. The second most visible star in the constellation is Denebola (see map above). The name is a contraction of the Arabic 'Deneb Alasad' which derives from "the tail of the lion" in that language. It is a blue white star with an apparent magnitude of 2.1. it is about 39 light years distant. Its apparent luminosity varies slightly over a period of a few hours. This star has a strong infrared excess which means that it has a disc of cool material about it like the disc from which our solar system formed.

Another named star in Leo is 'Algieba' (Gamma Leonis in the above diagram). This comes from the Arabic 'Al-Jabhah' which means "the forehead" even though its position in the constellation means that it is more part of "the mane" of Leo than the forehead. This star is actually a binary system with an apparent magnitude of 1.98. The two component stars have magnitudes of 3.3 and 3.5, but they sum up to a brighter star to the naked eye. With a telescope they are 4 arc seconds apart. One is an orange colour and the other is yellow-white in colour. The stars orbit each other with a period of about 500 years. Both these stars are giant stars that are about 36 light years from Earth.

There are a number of other named stars in Leo. Delta Leonis is called Zosma, meaning "the girdle" from its older Greek name meaning "hip". It is the northern vertex of the triangle marking the haunches of Leo. It is about 56 light years distant, with an apparent magnitude of 2.6 and is a blue-white subgiant. Zeta Leonis called Adhafera from the Arabic for "lock of hair" lies in the lion's mane directly above Algieba along the curve of the sickle that defines Leo's head.

It is a white giant star with apparent magnitude 3.4 and is about 115 light years away. Theta Leonis is called 'Coxa' from the Latin for "hip" or sometimes 'Cheratan' or 'Chort' from the Arabic for "two small ribs". It is the star that marks the right angle of the triangle that defines the lion's hindquarters. It is a blue-white main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of 3.3 and is about 78 light years away. Lambda Leonis (not shown in the above diagram) is called Alterf from the Arabic for "the glance" . It lies to the west(right) of the tip of the sickle (epsilon Leonis in the diagram above) that defines the lion's head. It is an orange main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of 4.3 and is about 260 light years distant. Mu Leonis, at the top of the sickle, is called Rasalas from the Arabic for "northern part of the lion's head". It is an orange giant star with a magnitude of 3.9 and a distance of 180 light years. Finally there is Omicron Leonis to the west (right) of Regulus in the above diagram. This star is called Subra for "the mane" in Arabic even though it lies in the lion's paws. It is a blue-white main sequence star with a magnitude of 3.5, and it is about 55 light years distant.

A group of stars that used to be considered part of Leo, ie the tuft of his tail, were made their own constellation in 240 BC by Ptolemy III. These stars are the Coma Berenices and more on them later. The star Wolf359 in Leo is one of the closest stars to Earth, about 7.7 light years distant.

Molly Note: Molly's dim little feline mind has come up with the realization that when she refers to the stars in constellations that she is exploring that many may not be familiar with the Greek alphabet as she is (it's standard scientific usage and Molly has also visited Greece and learned "a little" of the language). So...if you wonder what the alphas and omicrons mean you can look it up on the Wikipedia site about this matter or, for a simpler and more convenient explanation go to this site about the Greek language.

OCCULTATION OF SATURN AND THE STARS OF GEMINI:

The Moon, now in its first quarter has moved out of the constellation Gemini and is now entering Leo via the very dim constellation of Cancer (hardly visible at all except in the clearest skies) When you look up tonight you can see the Moon separated by only about 2 or 3 degrees from Saturn which now lie just to the west of Regulus, the star that marks the beginning of the "hook" in Leo. Saturn is actually quite good for viewing at this time as its rings have a 15 degree tilt, and are quite visible. Tomorrow (april 25th), however, may be even better as the Moon and Saturn will reach their closest approach. In Northern Canada, Alaska, the west coast of Canada and the upper north west of the USA there will actually be an occultation of Saturn by the Moon. The occultation will occur at about 10:28 UT in Vancouver and at about 10:30 UT in Victoria BC. This translates to a local time of about 2:40 am in Victoria. In Edmonton Alberta it will begin slightly earlier, at 10:17 UT. Go to the Lunar Occulatations site for further information.

As long as the Moon is leaving Gemini it's perhaps time to visit the stars of this constellation. Refer to the above diagram for what follows, and imagine it as being rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise so that Castor is higher in the sky than its brighter companion Pollux. The above diagram, however, better illustrates how this constellation resembles two stick men side by side, the "twins". The apparent orientation of Gemini changes throughout the year. Presently it is gradually returning from a "left" rotation, and it will gradually become more horizontal until it is no longer visible come the month of June. When it returns in the late fall it will considerably rotated "clockwise". At that time one of the stars is within the Milky Way and one is outside of it. This is connected with the legend of "cattle theft" associated with this constellation (see later).

The twins are called the Dioskouroi in Greek mythology, meaning "youths of Zeus (the god), and Pollux is often referred to as 'Polydeuces'. The Greek legends probably derive from more ancient Indo-European myths as the twin horsemen, the Asvins, occur in the Vedas and the Alcis twins figure in Germanic mythology. In Rome they were sometimes confused with Romulus and Remus. In China, on the other hand, these stars are associated with the yin and yang of nature. The twins in such legends are usually depicted as unequal. Another Greek example of such a configuration is the Ampion/Zethus pair from Thebes. Various versions of the Greek legends exist. Sometimes both twins are immortal, sometimes neither and sometimes only one. If only one it is Pollux/Polydeuces who is the immortal one. The most common legend is that Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduced their mother Leda, and that the two brothers were born from eggs. The representations of the Dioscuri in vase painting feature skullcaps that are said to be remanants of the eggs.

In some versions Tyndareus, King of Sparta, is merely their step father. In others he is the father of Castor but not of Polydeucis. Their sisters were Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. They were reportedly brought up by the centaur Chiron(represented by the constellation Centaurs), and later they joined Jason, who was also reportedly brought up by Chiron, in the quest for the Golden Fleece. They also were said to have rescued their sister Helen when she was carried off by Theseus and Pirithous. Seems like Helen tried more than once to get out of Sparta. The twins had a general connection to Sparta, and their duality was reflected in the two kings of Spartan government. Their grave shrine was at Therapne, across the Eurotas River from Sparta.

The Dioscuri met their match in the twin brothers of Thebes, Idas and Lynceus, when Castor and Polydeuces abducted the daughters of Leucippus, Phoebe and Hilaeira, known as the Leucippides ("white horses"). Seems the Greeks did a lot of kidnapping. Castor was supposedly killed in this encounter, and his brother pleaded with Zeus to grant him half his immortality. From that time forward each twin spent alternating days on Olympus and in Hades. Thus they weren't present at the siege of Troy. When the constellation is rotated clockwise it appears as if one of the twins is "stealing the cattle" from the Milky Way while the other looks on. Castor and Polydeucis are considered the patrons of mariners because of their role in calming a storm during the voyage of the Argo.

The two brightest stars of Gemini are Castor (now higher than Pollux) and Pollux. Pollux is the brightest at a magnitude of 1.1. It is an orange star that lies at a distance of 36 light years (lys). Castor is the second brightest at magnitude 1.6. It is a blue white star at a distance of 46 lys. It is actually a septuplet, and the individual stars have far lesser magnitudes than the combined brightness of the naked eye object. Mebutsa (on the upper arm of Gemini, going west comes from the Arabic for "lion's paw", but the name is only recent. it is a yellow white star of magnitude 3.0 and lies 685 lys away. Going further to the west we come to Tejat, and orange red star of magnitude 2.9 that lies 150 light years away. On the lower arm of Gemini we find Wasat, meaning "the middle" in Arabic, another recent name. It is a whitish double star of magnitude 3.5 (the brighter of the pair) and is 58 light years away. The now demoted "planet" Pluto was found close to this star in 1930. Further to the west is Mekbuda, which also means "lion's paw". It is a yellow white variable star with magnitude 3.7 to 4.2 every 10 days. It is 1,400 lys away. Then at the furthest west we come to Alhena meaning "mark on the neck of a camel". It is a blue white star of magnitude 1.9 and is about 85 lys away. One named star not shown in the above diagram is Propus, the "forward foot" of Castor. It is a little to the west of Tejat. It is an orange red variable star (magnitude 3 to 4 over 233 days), and is about 185 light years away.

The reader should note that the magnitudes listed above are "inverse". The smaller the number the greater the apparent brightness. In a city sky pretty well all that can be seen of Gemini is Castor and Pollux. On an exceptionally clear night some of the other stars named above can be visualized.