Tuesday 29 September 2009

Megrez: Star that gives you a Silver Spoon

Are you born with a silver spoon in your mouth? You are if you satisfy one of the three conditions the English idiom sets for a person born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Either you are born into wealth and privilege or have good fortune that you did not earn but inherited from your family or simply you have every good thing happening around you with least efforts on your part. In all these cases there is the influence of the great star Megrez up on you. In this blog post, I examine the Star Megrez in terms of Astronomy, Asterism, Constellation and Cosmics and outline recommendations to improve your lifestyle.

Astronomy

Megrez is a bright hot star beaming with bluish-white colour in the northern sky. The word Megrez comes from Arabic “Al-Meghrez Al Dhaneb Al- Dubb Al- Akbar” meaning “the base of the tail of the Great Bear”. Al-Meghrez also means Buttocks. It is located in the constellation known as Ursa Major or in simple language “Great Bear”. Megrez is a part of seven star combinations known as Big Dipper Asterism. The other stars are Dubhe, Merak, Phekda, Alioth, Mizar and Alkaid all in the Great Bear. Beautiful star Megrez is the faintest amongst the seven stars. Its strategic position in the Asterism and the fact that to the north of the star there lies a starless sky except for the Messier 40, a Deep Sky Object of unusual and curious nature has made Megrez a legend in the sky.

Megrez is astronomically referred to as “ Delta Ursa Major“. It is classified as A3 V indicating it is blue-white dwarf with a variable brightness. It is a star of fourth magnitude in brightness with 3.3 visual magnitude. Megrez though ranked fourth as Delta in Greek alphabet, is the last in terms of brightness amongst the seven stars in the Big Dipper asterism. It is located in Right Ascension (Celestial Longitude) 12 hour 15 minutes and 25 seconds and Declination (Celestial Latitude) 57 degree 01 minutes and 57 seconds. A hydrogen fusing star, Megrez has surface temperature of 8,600 Kelvin; though the radiation is lesser than the Sun its higher internal compression makes Megrez 20 times luminous than the Sun. It is about 81 light years away and about 2.5 times the size of the Sun. It is fairly a northern star and is moving away from earth at a speed of 8.4 miles per second. Megrez has two companion stars: Delta Ursa Major B an 11 th magnitude star and Delta Ursa Major C a 10 th magnitude star both are located about three arc-minutes away from Megrez. The companions are too faintest to be seen without the aid of a telescope. Moreover, Megrez shares equidistance from the North Pole with the star Caff ((Beta Cassiopeia) which has led Megrez to be called as “ Kaffa “ by some writers erroneously.

I am reproducing a drawing made by Abu'l-Husayn Abdu'r-Rahman as-Sufi (Azophe), 10 th Century Persian Astronomer in his book

"Suwarul-Kawakib", (Uranometry) of the Great Bear below:

Drawing : Great Bear by Azophe

ss83 new

Credit: http://www.icoproject.org/img/ss83.jpg

I have rotated the drawing to align it to the north. To trace the stars in English language, I give below a star map:

Star Map : Ursa Major

ursa-major-lrg new

Credit: http://www.greatdreams.com/constellations/ursa-major-lrg.jpg

You can observe the following: the strategic position of the star Megrez in the middle of the spoon linking the handle to the bowl; the star-less region above the star Megrez; the double star optical illusion north of Megrez lying between Alioth and Megrez known as Deep Sky Object Messier 40. In the above sky map M 40 is not typed.

Asterism

Megrez is a part of the Big Dipper Asterism, the most famous out of all asterisms. Big Dipper is also known as Wagon in USA and Plough in UK. The appropriate word is ladle because all the seven stars in the asterism form a ladle. This asterism is noted in astronomy because the seven stars in the asterism are related to each other in terms of speed , motion and the direction towards these are moving away from earth. This remarkable fact is known as “Ursa Major moving Group”. In Hindu mythology the asterism is called Saptha Rishi (Seven Stages), who incant the name of Vishnu in unison.

Constellation

Megrez belongs to the constellation Ursa Major. In Greek mythology, the legend of Ursa Major the Great Bear goes like thus: Callisto daughter of King Lycaon, king of Arcadia, became a companion of Artemis (Diana) Goddess of Hunting, after taking a vow to remain as chaste nymph. Zeus known for ravishing virgins had his sight on Callisto and eventually seduced her. Callisto became pregnant; on finding this Artemis became wild and chased Callisto away from her group. Later Callisto gave birth to a son who is called as Arcas. Enraged that Callisto gave birth to a child, Artemis turned Callisto into a bear to be hunted by her. Zeus thought otherwise and sent Callisto the bear to the heaven in the northern sky. Forever, the mother bear lurks in this region bestowing blessings to those who love her, albeit evading her hunters.

Cosmics

On the positive side Megrez is a star of great fortune. The star gives you the silver spoon from the time you are born till your end, put it in other words milk and honey for you in your entire life span. Megrez provides you with wealth, happiness, success and quiet type of life. It makes you a prudent and cautious person, sometimes hesitating initially or postponing matters, but later taking full responsibility and completing the task in hand. If you are under the influence of Megrez you are basically diminutive in nature, with a medium height but with an over-developed buttock. You generally shy away from public cynosure; you are not the kind of party types with lots of friends; you will have chosen friends, colleagues and relations upon whom you spend lavishly. You will always enjoy higher life style than your parents. You are not a great talker, but a quiet doer and a smart worker. You have equanimity in belief, attitude, composure and behaviour.

Equally important are the negative comics: In most cases you prefer being silent than to say a firm No. This could be misinterpreted by people around you. Their subsequent actions might embarrass you and you will regret why you have not spoken with a firm voice initially. You will continue to face the same situation over and over again. Though you are quiet in outward appearance internally your mind works in stereographic manner. Consequently, anyone who brushes you will get slithered by the bear’s claws that you possess.

Improving Your Life

The following are few recommendations to improve your life:

1. You should select blue, white and light colours for your dress; always opt for two – piece dress

2. Numbers 2 and 7 do wonders for you

3. You must sleep, keeping your head towards the North

4. You must select business management course for your studies

5. You should select your spouse with lower living standards than  yours

6. Any business that borders on buying and selling especially across the oceans will take you to the top.

7. You should use the alphabet “Z” in your name or sound similar to it; for example if your name is Cynthia you pronounce it as “Zynthia”

8. On your study or work table keep a model of steering wheel of a ship

9 During leisure, watch action or sport films where there is car race, car-chase, horse-race or Ice-skating etc.; Watch films with children (they know better) space cartoons where the movement is fast and thrilling

10. The effect of the star Megrez is not much pronounced in cases of persons who are born in locations above 33 degree north in latitude or below 33 degree south in latitude.

You can contact me via E-mail:cosmicgems@gmail.com or Webpage http://www.cosmicgemslanka.com

Muthu Ashraff

Cosmic Adviser

 

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