I'm not sure if anyone's been following the news about a satellite that's due for imminent re-entry. The European Space Administration is expecting it to make impact within the next two days. This reminded me of a horary judged by Olivia Barclay about Kosmos 1402, a Russian spy satellite that fell back to earth just months after its launch. I've written an article on Skyscript's In Mundo page – https://skyscript.co.uk/inmundo/satelli ... from-1983/. I had a lot of fun with this. Any thoughts on where this satellite might land?

Great piece, Wade, thanks! I enjoyed it.

Like you, It feels a bit beyond my skill to predict where this particular device will fall on earth with the kind of precision Olivia says she delivered. However, I will share an artful observation that occurred to me while contemplating your article: I did a search for news regarding the reentry to see if it had happened yet (as of this moment it has not), and came across the European Space Agency's blog entry giving updates on ERS-2. Reading through, I noticed that they've posted an update as of yesterday that includes a 'ground track' world map, which is marked with their predicted "center of impact window" located in eastern Africa.
When I looked at the ESA's map, the image of the Capricornus constellation used in your article immediately sprang to mind -- where Deneb Algedi is marked on the Capricornus drawing you used looked to be in approximately the same spot as the center of impact window in the map on the ESA blog. So, I saved both and then layered them in Gimp. Check it out (first one is original image sizes; second is scaled to same size):
Anyway, I know it's not specific to an astrological assessment of the chart, but I thought it was interesting how the images aligned and marked about the same spot. Most of the other depictions of Capricornus I found online have the constellation positioned differently, so they wouldn't produce the same effect. But this particular colorized reworking of Johannes Hevelius’ depiction of Capricornus, from Uranographia (1690) does. I thought this was pretty cool - but it's also 3 AM here, and I'm just waking up ;)

Interesting post Wade. You look like Sherlock doing overtime!
Adding the artistic touch of Jason, it's about time we start a business here!

I think the background sky of Fixed Stars adds a touch of geo-localization or visualization that is interesting.
Alphee Lavoie in his book 'Lose this book and find it with Horary' (p.116-120) uses the Local Space Chart and seems to have good success with it. I have not tested it yet.
Other options you are familiar with
In Planetdance,
Horoscope >Extra > Local Horizon and Compass

Have you had any luck with Astro*Carto*Graphy in your work?

Cheers!
Ouranos

In Olivia's case, Mercury returns to Earth, with Earth being the 4th house.

Mercury is at 19 degrees 43 minutes Capricorn, while the cusp of the 4th house is at 14 degrees 51 minutes Sagittarius, a difference of 4 degrees 34 minutes (as Mercury is retrograde, it's an approaching antiscial conjunction).

Therefore, Mercury enters Earth 4 days later.

Wade's horary case, in the position where Saturn falls in Pisces, which signifies the demise of the satellite (Mercury's fall and detriment), Saturn also symbolizes mortality, positioned in the 7th house, in descent.

Saturn in Pisces represents the ocean, with a separation of 17 degrees from its descent, roughly equivalent to 2 days.

Saturn IC line crosses South Africa.

Olivia's horary case, IC-Sagittarius 14 degrees 51 minutes, is in the Indian Ocean (rising), but close to the equator, not near the Tropic of Capricorn.

All this time, I had no idea I was receiving replies to posts in the Skyscript forum – turns out, I had email notifications turned off! Apologies for the delay in responding.

Jason, I love what you've shown. Yes, I had the ERS-2 map from ESA & other agencies yesterday, but even 1° of difference between these reports results in vastly different maps, and with such a wide window (±24hrs), I disregarded them. I am now livestreaming the descent though, so if you care to join, you can do so here on FronteraEspacial's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnIRpo3w6wk.

I so badly want this to fall on a Russian mountaintop; if it did, I would use this chart in every mundane class I teach until I die. But I am rather more expecting an unceremonious descent into the vast swaths of ocean that cover our planet. The current re-entry prediction (which is given with no confidence interval, so take it or leave it) currently marks somewhere in very southern latitudes. Just 45min ago, it was predicted to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere somewhere northeast of Hawai'i, so there's quite a bit of change minute by minute. You'll see in the screengrab below that as I'm typing, the satellite is transiting somewhere above the Pacific Ocean between the continental United States and New Zealand.



Ouranos, yes, A*C*G works wonders in the approaches that I use, and I think my expectations would follow something along what Wei has demonstrated. Here's the kicker though – often, and I mean so often I could probably produce a webinar about it – the 'thing' happens when conjunctions or oppositions become exact across 6th/12th cusps, or 8th/2nd cusps. Angles are important, obviously, and that's what we tend to focus on with A*C*G, but exact connections (or perhaps 'semi-exact,' as I mean within 5°) to intermediate cusps are relevant too. So much research to be done.

Wei, thanks for your additions, I love the maps you've included. Here is the A*C*G map for Olivia's chart. It's hard to find exact longitudinal data, but we do have the latitude (25° S 83') – and I think it fell somewhere in the circle drawn on the map. Notice that this is the intersection of Venus(IC)-Jupiter(AC)-Uranus(AC). Jupiter ruled Olivia's 4th house, and Venus was in Aquarius (again pointing to Russia, as this was a Russian satellite).

Here is a Local Space Chart taken from Planetdance
I have highlighted Mercury identified as the Satellite.

The Azimut chart should be read from left to right.
In the northern hemisphere, the north point of the horizon is at 0 degrees, at the extreme left/right of the chart, and each tick mark indicates 10 degrees of azimuth. The MC will be shown on the meridian, due south, at 180 degrees azimuth, in the centre of the chart.

In the southern hemisphere, the north point of the horizon identifies the MC at 0 degrees azimuth, in the centre of the chart. The south point of the horizon, at 180 degrees azimuth, is at the extreme left/right of the chart.

Altitude should be read from top to bottom.
The maximum altitude that a planet or point can have is 90 degrees. This marks the zenith. The minimum altitude is -90 degrees, marking the nadir.

The top end of the red lines, identified with a small circular spot, mark the actual position of the planet or point in the sky in relation to the horizon and cardinal points.

Not sure if the calculations are correct but I can't wait to see where it will land.
Ouranos

Thanks for this, Ouranos, I look forward to seeing how this lines up with what happens or has already happened. From what I gather, ERS-2 may have already re-entered the atmosphere, and we simply don't know where. The ESA hasn't been able to confirm sighting of it:

"UPDATE 17:35 UTC (18:35 CET) – We have now reached the end of the final reentry window. We have received no new observations of ERS-2. This may mean that the satellite has already reentered, but we are waiting for information from our partners before we can confirm. Stay tuned." [Source]

We finally have confirmed re-entry in the North Pacific Ocean between Hawai'i and Alaska (37° N 24', 151° W 54') at 17:17 UTC. A relocated version of my horary puts the Moon on the ascendant in this location, and Saturn just passing over the local meridian.

The satellite did indeed land in the western hemisphere, veering north, which means the angular compass directions were more reliable here than in Olivia's case. Re-entry occurred at 17:17 UTC when the Moon, in the first term of Leo, opposed Venus and Mars across the 6th and 12th house cusps, within degrees of the launch chart's 2nd/8th cusps. (I mentioned the likelihood of a configuration like this above.)

The Sun and Saturn were rising over the ascendant when the satellite landed. ERS-2's launch chart had Sagittarius rising, and ascendant-ruler Jupiter was retrograde at 14° Sagittarius. The transiting midheaven upon re-entry (19° Sagittarius) would've brought that retrograde planet to the local meridian.

This was a very cool, unique, interactive thread! Had me on the pumped to see the results. Thanks, Wade, Ouranos, and Wei :)

Nice little run.
Thank you for your post Wade and all the spatial engineers from the NASA (Jason, Wei, Ouranos) who contributed!

NASA and astrology are truly interconnected.