On June 4, 2002, at 5:41:40 Greenwich Time, Chad Trujillo and Mike Brown at Caltech, operating the ground-based Oschin Telescope, at Palomar, California, discovered the largest Keiper Belt Object (KBO) since the discovery of Pluto. It was named QUAOAR (pronounced KWAH-o-wahr) for the Creation Force of the Tongva tribe, the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin, sometimes called the San Gabrielino Native Americans. More about the Tongva people can be accessed at: www.tongva.com
Quaoar is about the size of Pluto’s Moon, Charon. Compared to other solar system bodies, Quaoar’s diameter is 800 miles while Pluto is 1400 miles and our own Moon is 2100 miles. Quaoar is not considered to be Planet X or Transpluto. When Neptune was discovered in 1846, its orbit differed markedly from astronomers’ calculations. It was assumed that another planet was pulling it off course. When Pluto was discovered in 1930, it was considered too small to exert such a pull— the search continues.
Quaoar takes 288 years to orbit our Sun and its orbit is nearly circular, with its tilt being only 8% yet Pluto’s tilt is 20%! While Quaoar is 42 AU away from Earth (1 astronomical unit is the distance between the Earth and the Sun), this object is so bright that, within a month of discovery, the astronomers were able to trace Quaoar’s position back 2 decades in their survey data, the earliest being 1982! Even an advanced amateur astronomer could have spotted it. No satellites were observed. In 2006, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to study Pluto and other Kuiper Belt Objects.
Less than a day after Quaoar’s discovery, a Swiss Ephemeris program was developed to calculate its position from 1900-2036. This ephemeris can be accessed at this astrological website.
www.karmastrology.com/quaoar.shtml
Go to Ephemeris 1900-2036 and click. This website has a lot of the information that I have given here but with an astrological perspective.
In March 2003, I attended the Belgrad (Serbia) Astrological Congress, at which I was one of the speakers. I attended a lecture on Quaoar given by the president of the Yugoslavia Astrological Association, Aleksandar Imsiragic. I belong to the Centaurs Yahoo List so I was familiar with Quaoar as a Kuiper Belt Object but I could not relate to any of the interpretations suggested on this E-List. The highly respected astrologer, Jonathan Dunn, observed that, “Quaoar seems to signify creation, procreation, demanding, trying experiences, being placed under a microscope, viewing less attractive aspects, flaws or complexities, scientific activities; also, questioning, constructing, clarifying, revealing, creating abstract mental models, a spirit of discovery, the big picture.”
Considering that Quaoar was at 10° Sagittarius (2002-03, although moving about 1° per year) opposing my Moon at the time of my mother’s death, I was very interested in what Aleksandar had to say. He have several key phrases to describe Quaoar’s action:
- After something bad, comes something new, some new expansion of consciousness
- A price must be paid, a painful process, before something new happens
- A break with something, a break with the past, so that we can move onto something new
- Something must die first and then something happens, something new that is beyond death.
- Because of the Tongva association, the symbolism of Quaoar may be connected with “creating through dance or rhythmic creations.”
When Quaoar opposed my Moon in Gemini, the loss of my mother was incredibly painful. This is a woman whom I had known for my entire life. Yet, out of the ashes of this pain, I grew in awareness and personal empowerment. This transit affected a healing in my family relationships and this, too, was very empowering. By the time Quaoar left the opposition to my Moon (December 2002), I no longer felt the pain of loss. I created new traditions for my father and myself. I have been able to move on.
Earlier, when Quaoar squared my Sun in Virgo, my dear friend, JoeAnne, moved away to Virginia Beach. I felt once again abandoned but, as the square became exact, I finally began visiting her, since the trip was only 4 hours from my home. This became a regular and transformational journey. The transformational healing occurred because JoeAnne and her husband treated me so special, I learned about Nikkon magnets (which I feel have saved my life) and I began having regular Cayce Spa treatments. When Quaoar squared my Ascendant, an important friendship suddenly ended. This was so painful but I realized that we both needed to move on in different directions.
I discussed the transits of Quaoar with friends. One reported that, when Quaoar opposed her 6th House Mars, her unemployment finally ran out and she was thrust into a new job for which she was highly under-qualified and yet overpaid. This was a great learning experience for her that has allowed her to advance herself professionally in ways not before possible. Around the same time, she became pregnant, something that she and her husband did not want! Yet, it was a miraculous event that became a positive financial turning point in their lives.
While not connected with Quaoar, Aleksandar stated that, in 2012-2014, when Pluto in Capricorn squares Uranus, this could be a violent time, a death so to speak. We may be forced to make a break with the past and evolve into a New World Order. Quaoar will be approaching the Galactic Center at this time. In terms of the Pluto-Uranus square, I have predicted that the summer of 2012 will mark the beginning of a 10 year recession. In ASTROLOGY REALLY WORKS, the Magi Society states that this square, active during the time of the Great Depression, often causes bank closings. The End of the Mayan calendar is said to occur with the Winter Solstice of 2012. Just looking at an ephemeris for this date will not show any significant patterns. I have observed rare events that will indeed make this a highly significant time: 1) Venus will make its last crossing over the face of the Sun in June 2012. The radical concepts initiated in 2004 will now move into the mainstream of thinking, 2) Neptune will enter its ruling sign of Pisces for the first time since the 1800s, 3) Transpluto will move into its ruling sign, Virgo, for the first time in 1200 years! As they oppose each other, this will contribute to a new leap of consciousness for humanity in general.
Lynn, 2001-2002 was when John came back to the mainland for a one week stay (end of May) and then never returned to our home on Maui (where I was). Mother blacked out and was taken to the hospital… lots of tests. No real diagnosis. Dizzy. Finally turned out (when I came home and took her to an ear specialist) that she had had a hemorrhage in her inner ear. Then back to this area and did a couple of proposals and tried to figure out what was going on with John (he was in a total depression and not functioning). Rented an apt here and put John in it. Flew back to Maui, packed out the house, sold what I could, gave away what I didn’t want to pack, and was on a plane back here in 3 weeks! Moved in with John but already knew I was going to separate. In October (3rd week), I moved out of the apt and in with my daughter. Then a robbery took place at gunpoint leaving my daughter’s apt. in February 2002. We moved into a new gated condo in May 2002 and things got better and smoother. However, work was consistent and available. Pay was not “great” until spring of 2002. Then the pay got steady and healthy. Work too abundant from end of 2002 til July 2003.
In 1958 we moved to the city from the country in the fall— a traumatic move for me. Big change of school, friends, way of life. And I felt very “unsettled” until after I started high school which would have been Aug/Sept 1960.
1995-96 period
My natal Mars (Gemini) is in the 6th house. I collected unemployment during November 1994- August 1995 with a month long job that ended suddenly in June 1995. I accepted a proposal manager job at Sprint International in August 1995 knowing that the position was way over my head but the money was great and desperately needed. I struggled with every proposal, assuming that I would fired when they realized I didn’t know what I was doing. I worked very long hours commuting from Burtonsville, MD to Reston, VA.
In Sept, 1995 (1 mo. after starting at Sprint), I found out I was pregnant with my 3rd. This freaked my husband and me out.
While working at Sprint, Dave, the boys (ages 4 and 2) and me drove around on weekends looking at houses. I remembered being uncomfortable getting in and out of a small car while being pregnant and putting the boys in the car seats in the back.
Dave found the house in Kensington in March, 1996. Dave worked all hours (even sleeping on the floor) on the house to get it to pass inspection. Heather was born May, 1996; we moved to Kensington in July 1996.
Lynn, I remembered something else about the 58-60 timeframe. Mom went back to school to become a beautician and got her license, opened her own shop. I became the ““housewife”” who was responsible for cleaning, babysitting my sister, cooking dinner 5 nights a week, doing own homework and herding sister thru hers, etc. It was a great way for me to learn how to multi-task. Could have been a great way for me to learn how to be a good manager but I didn’‘t——or maybe I did. I learned all the ways not to manage! especially my sister. So it wasn’‘t as high drama…but it was a major change in lifestyle.
groups.yahoo.com/group/AstroLife/files/Quaoar-1850-2010-Riyal.txt
science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/07oct_newworld.htm
I was thinking about the trauma piece I put together for you, and it really makes sense. My 1995/1996 period was a roller coaster. The pregnancy/birth of Heather was almost too much on top of everything else, but it made Dave and I really work hard to change things. And of course, she’s wonderful.
Also, I had shattered my left foot in October 1996 (Heather was born in May 1996), and within a couple of weeks of this, Helena moved in “to help out.” Standing up to this situation—to eventually kick her out—was empowering.
Astrologically, Quaoar seems to signify creation, procreation, demanding, trying experiences, being placed under a microscope, viewing less attractive aspects, flaws or complexities, scientific activities; also, questioning, constructing, clarifying, revealing, creating abstract mental models, a spirit of discovery, the big picture [says Jonathan Dunn].
Quaoar, which was named after the creation force of the Tongva tribe who were the original inhabitants of the Los Angeles basin, is located about 4 billion miles (6.5 billion kilometers) from Earth in a region beyond the orbit of Pluto known as the Kuiper belt.
The surface of the body is thought to be a dark, tar-like substance, and thus it does not have a very bright reflection, or albedo. However, Chad Trujillo, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology and one of Quaoar’s discoverers, says that the object is big and bright enough for advanced amateur astronomers to detect.
Armed with precise coordinates and a 16-inch (41-centimeter) telescope fitted with a CCD camera, an amateur should be able to obtain images on successive nights that will show a faint dot of light in slightly different positions, according to Trujillo.
“Many top-notch amateurs have 16-inch telescopes or larger and CCDs. Located at a dark site with equipment like that, this would be a fun target,” he said.
Quaoar is currently detectable a few degrees northwest of the constellation Scorpio.
Trujillo and his colleagues will continue to search more Kuiper belt objects. They have currently searched just 7 percent of the sky and thus expect that they will find many more objects the size of Quaoar or larger, perhaps objects that are bigger than Pluto.