Friday March 15th 2002 - edited by Patty Greenall This week in Astro News: ~ The new comet ~ ~ Astrologer's Diary ~ ~ New Service from the Astrological Association of Great Britain ~ The new comet Ikeya-Zhang swings round behind the Sun on March 18 and is then at its closest to the Sun, writes NICK KOLLERSTROM. The Sun is at zero Aries at the Spring equinox, so the comet appears at the start of the zodiac in Aries, and enters into Taurus on March 27. This comet has an unbelievably large orbit and takes hundreds of years to go round! It goes way beyond Pluto and was last passing by Earth in 1661. This was a time of great change with the start of modern science and the Restoration. In that year Newton entered into Trinity College Cambridge, the Royal Society was founded and the merry monarch Charles II came back to the throne - it was all happening. Experts believe this comet won’t be quite as bright as Hale-Bopp, but it will break all records for the longest interval between comet appearances. Forget Halley’s Comet by the way, that disintegrated after its last fly-by so we won’t see it again. The Ikeya-Zhang comet shows real stamina in surviving the icy wastes of outer space, it went twice as far away as Pluto! We’ll have a good while to spot it after March 18, because conveniently enough after its solar rendezvous (in between the orbits of Mercury and Venus) it will pass close to Earth. It should then, in April, become about ‘third magnitude’ (the brightest stars are first magnitude) which means that Londoners won’t see it though their neon-lit pollution-haze but rural dwellers should readily spot it. With luck its tail will look like a giant paintbrush ‘drawn swiftly across the black wall of heaven.’ The new comet was spotted both by Kaoru Ikeya of Japan and Daquing Zhang of China on February 1 last year. It was the sixth comet that eagle-eyed Mr Ikeya has found! Comet Ikeya-Zhang is not visible to the naked eye yet - so for more news about which piece of space to watch, watch this space... Astrologer's Diary Satuday March 16: Vedic Astrology by Komilla Sutton, The London Voluntary Resource Centre (formerly Jones Brothers) Holloway Rd, London. 10am-6pm £40. Sunday March 17: One-day seminar by the Centre for Psychological Astrology at Regents College, Inner Circle, Regents Park, London NW1 Invisible Allegiances: Pluto and the Inner Planets 10am-5pm, £40 Monday March 18: Astrological Lodge of London, 50 Gloucester Place, London, W1. 6pm Free beginner's class; 7pm Planetary rulerships by Paul Newman £5 (members £3). Are you holding an astrological event - especially one outside London!! - that you would like others to know about? Write to jon@bubble.com with subject heading: Astro Events with website links. Please note - we cannot promise to include ALL submissions but will do our best. New Service is Top for the Charts The Astrological Association of Great Britain is proud to announce that you can now speak LIVE to an expert astrologer. For an instant in-depth telephone consultation about your full horoscope call 0845 120 1416 or +44 207 436 9101 (a confidential 30-minute reading costs £29.50, payable by credit card. Or cheque/postal order from UK.) Lines are open 9am-9pm GMT, Monday to Friday. Four weeks ago, the Astrological Association of Great Britain launched this new, live fixed-fee, telephone chart reading service. It has since proved big hit with callers from all over the world. AA President Roy Gillett told Astro News: "I am delighted with the warm response that we have had. Once, if you wanted a reading of your full birth chart, you would have to struggle to find a genuine, reputable astrologer. Then, you would have had to make an appointment and travel miles. Now, at last, there's a quick and easy way to get your questions answered by a real expert - from the comfort of your own home." Mirror reader Julie Roberts from Rochester was equally enthusiastic. "I rang last Tuesday and spoke to an astrologer called Maria. Within moments, she was telling me details about my childhood that she could not possibly have known... then she said some fascinating things about my future. If you missed any of Friday's Astronews articles, click on the Archive Thought for the Day link in the left hand frame.