Thiruvallikkeni Vaikasi Amavasai 2024 - Black Moon

Today 6.6.2024 is Vaikasi Amavasai and Rohini nakshathiram too – at Thiruvallikkeni divyadesam there was periya veethi purappadu of Sri Parthasarathi Emperuman.   Sure you know that today is New Moon, sooner we will have Full moon too in 15 days – ever  heard of Black Moon !! – and why is a strange car featured here !!

Sam Quint (Tommy Lee Jones) is a former thief hired by the FBI to steal a computer disk which contains incriminating evidence against The Lucky Dollar Corporation of Las Vegas. After stealing the disk, Quint is pursued by Marvin Ringer (Lee Ving), another former thief and acquaintance who works for the company. At the same time, a prototype vehicle called the Black Moon, which can reach speeds of 325 miles per hour (523 km/h) and runs on tap water, is being tested in the desert by Earl Windom (Richard Jaeckel). Quint and Windom later cross paths at a gas station, where Quint hides the disk in the back bumper of the Black Moon. Windom is hauling the Black Moon to Los Angeles, and Quint, still being pursued by Ringer and his men, follows Windom and his team there.

A web search today (6.6.2024) led me to some International headlines of which one on D-day makes an interesting read.

President Biden is in France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when tens of thousands of allied troops landed on the beaches at Normandy and turned the tide in World War II. It's a pilgrimage that many American presidents have made, but as Biden does it, the lessons of 80 years ago are being debated once again — and hold particular resonance for his reelection bid.  The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it is the largest seaborne invasion in history.

The anniversary comes as a land war rages once again in the European continent with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raising the stakes as World War II fades from people’s memories and into the history books.  Presidents, prime ministers and monarchs from NATO nations gathered at a paradoxical moment. They are unusually united but experiencing growing dread. The alliance has a new sense of mission in opposing another war started  on territorial expansion — this time in Ukraine. But at no point since June 6, 1944, has the unshakable US leadership of the West and support for internationalist values been so in question. Democracy is facing its sternest test in generations from far-right populism on the march on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Geopolitical empires like Russia and China are, meanwhile, resurgent and threatening to obliterate the global system dominated by Western values that has prevailed since World War II.

Biden during his speech drew a direct line between the service and sacrifice of American veterans on D-Day and the plight of Ukraine 80 years after allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, issuing a stark call to once more stand up for democracy and defeat autocracy.  Biden on Thursday cited an unrepayable debt owed to US, British, Canadian and other troops involved in Operation Overlord. He walked among row upon row of white crosses and Stars of David shaded by pine trees and oaks overlooking Omaha Beach. This is where more than 9,000 fallen Americans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia lay at rest thousands of miles from the land they left to save foreigners they’d never met.

In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude.  At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar eclipse.  The original meaning of the term 'new moon', which is still sometimes used in calendrical, non-astronomical contexts, is the first visible crescent of the Moon after conjunction with the Sun.  This thin waxing crescent is briefly and faintly visible as the Moon gets lower in the western sky after sunset.  

Amāvásyā is the lunar phase of the new moon in Sanskrit. Indian calendars use 30 lunar phases, called tithi in India.  Amāvásyā though the sky would be black and Moon would be absent  is often translated as new moon since there is no standard term for the Moon before conjunction in English.

The dark skies during a new moon provide ideal conditions for spotting skywatching targets that would otherwise be outshined by moonlight.  Every so often a new moon is known as a "Black Moon". This is a rare occurrence.    A Black Moon is not an official astronomical term but there are two common definitions for the term according to Time and Date:

1.         The second new moon in a single calendar month. 

2.         The third new moon in a season of four new moons.  

 

The last Black Moon, by the seasonal definition of the term, occurred on May 19, 2023. The next black moon will occur on Dec. 30, 2024, and will be the second new moon in a calendar month.

That description at the 2^nd para is about American Science Fiction thrill movie of 1986 – ‘Black Moon Rising’  directed by Harley Cokliss, written by John Carpenter, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Linda Hamilton, Robert Vaughn, Keenan Wynn, and Richard Jaeckel.  The plot revolves around the theft of a prototype vehicle called the Black Moon.  This car is from the 1986 film, Black Moon Rising, a prototype in real life as well as the film. There was only ever one Concordia II made, though duplicates shells were assembled for interior shots and a rather barebones version made for stunt driving.

மறையாய நால் வேதத்துள் நின்ற மலர்ச்சுடராம் எம் ஸ்ரீபார்த்தசாரதி எம்பெருமான் - திருவல்லிக்கேணி அழகன் வைகாசி  அமாவாசை புறப்பாடு  அவசரம் இன்று 6.6.2024.

                                    Moon (Nilavu, chandamama) gives happiness and that way the ascending phase provides lot of optimism.  For us, Srivaishnavaites, we surrender unto His feet.  It is HE who protected the mountains, the skies, the winds and everything else and HE for sure would protect us from all the travails.   Here are some photos of today’s purappadu at Thiruvallikkeni divyadesam.

adiyen Srinivasa dhasan
Mamandur Veeravalli Srinivasan Sampathkumar
6.6.2024