I know I can’t be the only one wondering where the time has gone as we are now into August?! It feels like just yesterday I was writing this piece for all the kickass Cancers and Leos out there – sheesh! Also, sorry about the misprint with the lion’s date range in the previous zodiac post. You feisty furballs are in the spotlight until the 22nd of this month, so git it in! For today, I’ll continue with a little more Leo info; and then pop the bubbly for Virgo (August 23-September 22), who will be showing up and showing off at the end of the month!
Something cool about the Leo stars that I want to share is the Leo Triplet, or the M66 Group, which is a group of three spiral galaxies interacting with each other within the constellation. The galaxies are Messier 65, Messier 66 (the largest and brightest) and NGC 3628, which is also referred to as the Hamburger Galaxy – and I need to live there! The Leo Triplet is approximately 35 million light-years away from Earth, so all three swirling magical galaxies can be viewed rather clearly through super high-tech and not so super high-tech scopes alike, hooray!
Credit: By Hewholooks - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
Our very own Milky Way is also a spiral galaxy; but in comparison to just NGC 3628’s lengthy tidal tail (a thin, elongated region of stars and interstellar gas that extends into space from a galaxy) taking up 300,000 light-years worth of space, our galaxy only has a radius of 52,850 light-years. Only, as if 50,000 light-years isn’t space-ous, ha! But really, giving a Leo in your life some spiral galaxy juju would be a pretty rad gesture in my opinion. We make it easy since we’ve got your Milky Way needs covered – many pieces in our outer space jewelry collection can be customized with our home galaxy!
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Oh, and if you didn’t already know – we can turn any galaxy image (that’s available to the public/free use or perhaps even taken by you yourself through a scope) into a nifty custom piece of jewelry! Just like this set of custom pocket watches that was ordered for a wedding – so cool!
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One of the birthstones that represent the month of August is Spinel, which is Latin for “spina” (arrow). Black Spinel stone, in particular, is one of the rarest minerals that comes from the Spinel family; and it can be found in our ultra gorgeous and artsy Orbit ring. Also featured in the ring is Azurite Malachite (Earth) and Copper Calcite (Moon), with the Black Spinel acting as bits of space glittering around these two tantalizing entities.
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What’s up, Virgooooos?! I haven’t forgotten about you.
Want some good news, Virgo? Your ruling planet Mercury came out of the often abhorred retrograde mode a few days ago; so, all the zodiac signs out there are probably expressing a collective sigh of relief and (hopefully) feeling the beginnings of a smoother shift as we kick off a new month. The next retrograde period is October 31-November 20, so make sure you handle yo’ biz to get your house in order beforehand.
Perhaps even paying homage through a Mercurial piece will help appease the temperamental planet, which was named after the Roman messenger of the gods. We have lots of options for offerings!
Go forth and kick some booty this month, friends!
xo
Brittany