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Literally, whiteness. A measure of the reflecting power of a planet, in ration to its absorptive capacity; expressed in a figure which represents the amount of light reflected from an unpolished surface in proportion to the total amount of light falling upon it. The albedo of the Moon and Mercury is 7; Venus 59; Earth 44; and Mars 15. Thus, the changeable character manifested by Moon and Mercury is seen to be connected in some way with their low reflective capacity. An entirely different set of Lunar characteristics comes of the fact that as the Moon approaches an opposition to the Sun its surface temperature rises some 70-odd degrees above boiling point, and in consequence it emits a wide band of infra-red frequencies that are several times more powerful than any of the rays it reflects from the Sun. During the first few minutes of a Lunar eclipse, the surface temperature falls to a sub-zero level and the infra-red emanation ceases. The dimly-lit surface of the Moon at the Lunation is due to light reflected back from the Earth, which with its high albedo would appear to the Moon-dweller as four times larger and many times brighter than the Moon as seen from Earth. There are some indications that Jupiter emits a ray of its own in addition to its reflected ray, but astrophysicists are not as yet in accord on that point.

A book or table containing a calendar of days, weeks and months, to which are added astronomical or other data. Its use dates back at least to the Alexandrian Greeks. The Roman almanac was the fasti – days on which business could be transacted. The earliest of which we have concise record is that of Solomon Jarchus, 1150 A.D.. Purbach published one from 1450-6. His pupil Regiomontanus issues the first printed almanac in 1475. The most outstanding almanac maker of the Middle Ages was Nostradamus. All English almanacs were prophetic until the year 1828; and until 1834 the stamp duty was 1s.3d. per copy. The first almanac in the U.S. was issued in 1639 by William Pierce. It was exceeded in popularity by Poor Richard’s Almanac (1732-57) issued by Benjamin Franklin. Watkins Almanac, issued since 1868, has an annual circulation of upward of two million copies. The chief Astrological Almanacs of the present epoch are ‘Raphael’s’, first published in 1820, and ‘Zadkiel’s’, first published in 1830. All governments now issue an Ephemeris and a Nautical almanac. See ‘Ephemeris’.

Elevation above the horizon, measured by the arc of a vertical circle. A planet is at meridian altitude when it is at the Midheaven, the cusp of the Tenth House.

That which moves. A term loosely applied to the heavens. Milton speaks of the ambient air; Pope of ambient clouds. Ptolemy used it to describe the tenth sphere that by its compelling force moved all other spheres with it from the East across the heavens. Since Copernicus exploded this concept, the modern astrologer is free to apply this excellent term to the Earth’s surrounding magnetic field as varyingly charged by virtue of the cycles of the planets, the Sunspot cycle, and other cosmic phenomena.