Date: Fri, Mar 15 2002
Sender: Simon Cassidy <scassidy@earthlink.net>
From: East Carolina University Calendar discussion List
Subject: Re: The Week of Weeks of Nights of Full Moon

Simon Cassidy wrote (Mon, 18 Oct 1999):
>
> Dear Friends,
> since Peter has added my original Week of Weeks message to his web-pages,
> (at http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/cassidy/weekof.htm) and since that
> first page of the almanac has just run its course, I enclose herein the
> second page of this full moon almanac (from September 99 to March 2002):
> ......

Simon continues:
The second page (at http://www.hermetic.ch/cal_stud/cassidy/weekof2.htm)
having now run its course, I enclose below the third page of my rule-based
(see last two paragraphs below for the rules) full-moon almanac:


      *************************************************************************
            THE WEEK OF WEEKS OF NIGHTS OF FULL-MOON, SIMON CASSIDY, 2002.
      *************************************************************************
      PAGE 3        EVEN STRAND                      ODD STRAND
               ______________________
      2002                           SATUR DAY  APRIL 27                   2002
      2002     MAY 26                SUN   DAY________________________     2002
      2002     ______________________MON   DAY                             2002
      2002                           TUES  DAY  JUNE 25                    2002
      2002     JULY 24               WEDNESDAY________________________     2002
      2002     ______________________THURS DAY                             2002
      2002                           FRI   DAY  AUGUST 23                  2002
      2002     SEPTEMBER 21          SATUR DAY________________________     2002
      2002     ______________________SUN   DAY                             2002
      2002                           MON   DAY  OCTOBER 21                 2002
      2002     NOVEMBER 19           TUES  DAY________________________     2002
      2002     ______________________WEDNESDAY                             2002
      2003                           THURS DAY  DECEMBER 19                2002
      2003     JANUARY 17            FRI   DAY________________________     2002
      2003     ______________________SATUR DAY                             2003
      2003                           SUN   DAY  FEBRUARY 16                2003
      2003     MARCH 17              MON   DAY________________________     2003
      2003     ______________________TUES  DAY                             2003
      2003                           WEDNESDAY  APRIL 16                   2003
      2003     MAY 15                THURS DAY________________________     2003
      2003     MAY 16                FRI   DAY                             2003
      2003     ______________________SATUR DAY  JUNE 14                    2003
      2003                           SUN   DAY________________________     2003
      2003     JULY 14               MON   DAY                             2003
      2003     ______________________TUES  DAY  AUGUST 12                  2003
      2003                           WEDNESDAY________________________     2003
      2003     SEPTEMBER 11          THURS DAY                             2003
      2003     ______________________FRI   DAY  OCTOBER 10                 2003
      2003                           SATUR DAY________________________     2003
      2003     NOVEMBER 9            SUN   DAY                             2003
      2003     ______________________MON   DAY  DECEMBER 8                 2003
      2004                           TUES  DAY________________________     2003
      2004     JANUARY 7             WEDNESDAY                             2004
      2004     ______________________THURS DAY  FEBRUARY 5                 2004
      2004                           FRI   DAY________________________     2004
      2004     MARCH 6               SATUR DAY                             2004
      2004     ______________________SUN   DAY  APRIL 4                    2004
      2004                           MON   DAY________________________     2004
      2004     MAY 4                 TUES  DAY                             2004
      2004     ______________________WEDNESDAY  JUNE 2                     2004
      2004                           THURS DAY________________________     2004
      2004     JULY 2                FRI   DAY                             2004
      2004     ______________________SATUR DAY  JULY 31                    2004
      2004                           SUN   DAY  AUGUST 1                   2004
      2004     AUGUST 30             MON   DAY________________________     2004
      2004     ______________________TUES  DAY                             2004
      2004                           WEDNESDAY  SEPTEMBER 29               2004
      2004     OCTOBER 28            THURS DAY________________________     2004
      2004     ______________________FRI   DAY                             2004

      *************************************************************************
The above is one cycle of a repeating pattern of 49 nights of full-moon for each
of the two strands of full-moons (the sixteen-slot even strand and the sixteen-slot
odd strand). I use the words "even strand" and "odd strand" because I originally
visualized the scheme as a pair of necklaces (or one two-stranded necklace) with
one pearl for each night of full-moon and thin coral cylinders to divide the
pearls into slots (groups of three or four consecutive full-moon nights). Seven
distinct grades or colors of pearl would represent the cycle of weekdays and I
use the odd/even terminology without any bias towards either strand but only
because I am used to using the lunation numbers given by Jean Meeus in his lunar
eclipse canon.

The above scheme was inspired by a desire for a lunar calendar with emphasis
on the several week-days, each month, when the moon's light is available
all night and also for a lunar calendar which separates lunar phase-months into
two classes, depending on whether they are odd or even in sequence. This odd-even
feature has to do with the alternating function of the female ovaries and a
purported natural tendency of ovulation to synch up to the phases of the moon
(when living without artificial night lighting).

The text-based scheme, as set out above, also gives the MONTH-DATE (in UPPER
CASE) of the night(s) for which the moon is predicted by this scheme to be
fullest. The envisaged necklace form would not necessarily contain any such
solar calendar information but would benefit from a pendant indicating the
current position in the lunation and weekday cycles. The solar calendar months
and dates don't repeat from one page (of a week of weeks) to the next,
but the weekdays and lunations do.

This cycle is based on the separation between the periods of full-moon for each
strand. This interval is two lunations long and can usually be reckoned as 8 weeks
and 3 full-moon days. By using a full-moon period of four days for each 32nd. lunar
phase-month (one of the sixteen periods of full-moon on each strand), one can round
out the number of days of full-moon to 49, or a "week of weeks", for each strand.
This "week of weeks" strategy thus improves the approximation of the synodic month
from 29.5 days to exactly 29.53125 days. This is too long by only about 0.00066
days per lunation.

For extrapolations longer than a century, this residual error (in the "week of
weeks" scheme), of one day every 1500 lunations, can be compensated for, by moving
the four-day full-moons (one on each strand of the scheme) forward one slot for
each 3rd. repetition of the cycle (page 3, above, being my first such case).
This is conveniently achieved in the linear text-based scheme above, by merely
moving the dividing line at the bottom of each strand's four-day full-moon period,
upwards to the next text-line. An almanac of 150 pages (each page, as above,
showing a "week of weeks of full-moon nights" for each strand) would thus cover
4802 lunations in 141,806 calendar days (about 388.25 years). This gives a
long-term average lunation of 29.53061  days, with an error of less than a
nucthemeron (24 calendar-hour period or "day") in four thousand years.

-- Dee's Years, Simon Cassidy, 1053 47th.St. Emeryville Ca.94608. ph.510-547-0684.


Copyright 2002 Simon Cassidy
Emeryville Ca. U.S.A.
All rights reserved.