[2004.12.05 0248h]

   [music] linkin park \\ breaking the habit

two days ago, in the morning, i had a dream in which i was trying to take
a picture of a strange phenomenon in the sky where at least two celestial
bodies had closely clustered together.  if i remember correctly, one of
them was either jupiter or saturn, and one of them was earth's moon.  the
celestial bodies were hovering close to the horizon, probably because they
had just risen or were just about to set.

i also remember that, towards the end of my dream, i took a look at my
watch and realized that it was early afternoon, so i assume that i
observed the celestial event sometime in the morning or around noon in my
dream.  i vaguely remember there being not much light out during the
observation, so i would probably place the event near sunrise.

what made me remember this vision in my dream once i woke up were the
unrealistic apparent sizes that the celestial bodies took on in my dream.  
normally, almost any major celestial object, aside from the sun, the moon,
and the earth, looks like a speck when viewed from earth without the aide
of telescopes and whatnot.  however, the celestial bodies clustered in my
dream had apparent sizes comparable with that of the earth's moon.  one of
the bodies had an apparent diameter roughly half that of the earth's moon.

what was most surprising, however, was that later on that day, during
eventide, i stumbled upon a news story that stated that jupiter was to
pass behind earth's moon in a few days.  this is apparently a very rare
event, as the next time many north americans will be able to witness such
an event again will be sometime in 2026.  unfortunately for people living
in the state of california, such as myself, the occultation will have
ended by the time the two bodies rise over the horizon.

on the other hand, this detail strikes me as another similarity to the
event in my dream, where the celestial bodies were clustered near the
horizon, but none of the bodies were hiding behing any of the others.  in
another parallel, the event will take place early in the morning for most
north americans, although before sunrise in the majority of cases.  in
addition, the news article also mentioned the occultation of a number of
jupiter's moons, any of which could have been represented by one of the
unidentified celestial bodies in the vision in my dream.