Mongolia | Zaisan Tolgoi | Good Heavens!

Again, I don’t know why I waste on my time on you Dolts, but I will go ahead anyhow and point out that there is a plethora of Interesting Stuff Going On In The Heavens This Week. First and perhaps foremost, there is a New Moon at exactly 9:31 a.m. on the morning of the 25th (UB local time). This marks the beginning of the New Year according to the Lunar calendar. The New Year is celebrated here in Mongolia as Tsagaan Sar (White Month), the biggest holiday of the year. For various arcane reasons understood only by professional calendarists, the Chinese celebrated the beginning of the Lunar Year during the last New Moon, back in January. Often the Chinese and Mongolian New Years coincide. Anyhow, the Tibetan New Year this year is also on the 25th of this month, not last month like the Chinese New Year. So let’s hear it for the Tibetans!

I usually greet the dawn on the first day of the New Year at Khiimoryn Ovoo, which is located on a knoll just behind my hovel in Zaisan Tolgoi. Usually several thousand Mongolians (men only, women go elsewhere) show up here to greet the rising sun. This year the sun promises to appear at 7:42, but hey, these days you can't count on anything. I will try to be there, but I won’t make any promises either.

Greeting the Dawn at Khiimoryn Ovoo during 2007 Tsagaan Sar

And as if a New Moon on the morning of the 25th (local time) is not enough we will also be treated to the spectacle of Mars, Jupiter, and Mercury in close proximity in the sky to the south-southeast! How exciting is that!

Graphic courtesy of Sky and Telescope

And if that is not enough to get your heart palpitating there will also be a Quadruple Transit of Saturn's Moons!!!

"Titan, Mimas, Dione, and Enceladus will pass directly in front of Saturn and we'll see their silhouettes crossing Saturn's cloudtops — all four at the same time," says Keith Noll of the Space Telescope Science Institute . . . The Hubble Space Telescope will be watching this one—and some amateur astronomers will be able to watch too, though only big Titan and its shadow may be visible from the ground. The timing favors observers along the Pacific coast of North America, Alaska, Hawaii, Australia, and east Asia.

There is a lot more incredible stuff happening in the Heavens toward the end of the week, but I think that is enough for you to digest for now. Stay tuned for more . . .