The Motherboard
I woke up the morning of the Southern Solstice with nervous excitement. It was the shortest day of the year, but there was much to be accomplished. Months of work in isolation led up to these monumental moments.
I selected the date the first Annulus would be printed long before it came. I had not yet studied the craft, but an Astrologer calls the choosing of a moment in the future to perform an action an “Election”. I chose this day for a very simple reason: The Great Conjunction, an alignment of Jupiter and Saturn. It was only a coincidence that their closest approach occurred on the Winter Solstice.
Heralded as a spectacle by even mainstream news outlets over the course of the infamous year, who dubbed it the “Christmas Star”, these slow-moving gas-giants would never again be so visually close in our lifetimes, the two coming within 0°06 degrees of one another. Great Conjunctions are long but extremely regular alignments, occurring every 20 years, a cycle noticed and remarked upon for centuries.
I drove to the Batemans’ carpentry shop in downtown Salt Lake City. I hugged my cousins Abi and Judd upon arrival, but we were masked as the times demanded, and once inside, socially distanced as much as possible.
We spent the morning making final-adjustments to the design on the computer. It was still a long way from perfect, but I knew the process of making the first Annulus would help answer many questions, leading to improved iterations down the line. When we were satisfied, we chose a plank of Walnut to shape its form. Once cut to size, the wood was mounted onto a CNC machine, where a drill dug divots into its surfaces for the next few hours. I certainly had no idea how long it would take, so like a human labor, the moment of birth was largely left to chance.
This picture of Judd and I was taken just after the border of the first Annulus was cut out of its plank, at 2:18 pm. At this time, Jupiter and Saturn were culminating at their highest point above us in Salt Lake. With Uranus having just risen, every single planet was in the sky above us. Though of course, since the Sun was still out, only it and the perfectly 1st quarter Moon could be seen in the blue sky as I walked out of Bateman Restoration with my Creation.
I drove up the Rocky Mountains that form the Eastern Boarder of the Salt Lake valley, to Snowbird, a timeshare where my family has spent Christmas every year since my mom was a little girl. In that cozy, familiar space, I was able to introduce the Annulus to my family, and paint one for the first time. I also learned that our family was growing, with my sister gifting my grandma and I with shirts that said “Uncle” and “Great-Grandma”, respectively.
As the Sun set early that afternoon, we went outside to admire the long awaited Celestial Event. How blessed we were to have clear skies! Jupiter and Saturn emerged gloriously together in the twilight, an auspicious end to a day ’ll never forget.
From left to right: Pluto, Uranus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Sun, Venus, Earth, Full Moon, Ceres, Saturn, Neptune
Brandon’s Annulus
The Day side of Brandon’s Annulus displays anything one might like to see in the sky, whether that object is visible to the naked eye, or not. Along with the Visible 7 from Justin’s Annulus, Brandon’s expands to include orbits for the Ice Giants Uranus & Neptune, as well as Asteroid & Kuiper Belts.
The Night Side displays all 88 standard constellations, of course including an ecliptic with room to show where each of the planets can be.
The pictures here both represent the same chart, the moment my boyfriend TJ was born, from the alternate perspectives of Day and Night. He was born in the evening, with Jupiter shining above Orion high in the sky, and the Waxing Crescent Moon setting in the West. So I generally use the night side to display his.
Who is Brandon?
Hello! I am Brandon Scott Hansen, the inventor and designer of the Annuli. I am actually an Aerial Acrobat by profession, specializing in Silks, Hammock, and Straps. But of course, the Circus lowered its tent pole indefinitely in March 2020, and I was left without a creative outlet.
As I sat around in Quarantine, I became fascinated by Circle Charts, the programs Astrologers use to read Horoscopes for people. As I studied them, I came to understand that they represented highly scientific maps of the sky, and space around us. I learned to use the chart to know that the planet Venus would be visible each day that Spring, just after Sunset. What a skill to have! I wished I had been taught to read them when I was young.
What I realized was that Circle Charts are actually quite bad at communicating what they show; they’re filled with all sorts of roadblocks to learning, with symbols, numbers, houses, and lines. So much to stir up confusion. And their association with Astrology dissuades educators from teaching how to use them. So, I set out to create something tangible to render the charts on, that would be simpler, more welcoming, and more aesthetically beautiful.
I was born in the late afternoon on May 9th, 1994, in Phoenix Arizona. For my mom, the labor was not easy, breezy, beautiful, covergirl. On the contrary; I had been using my umbilical cord as silks for my last few days in the womb, and it had wrapped 3 times around my neck. I was suffocating, heart-rate flatlining, so she was sedated and rushed into the emergency room. In a historical past, that would have been the end of the story, probably for both of us. But through the miracle of modern medicine, I was birthed by c-section, and live to tell you about it now. My mom didn’t wake up for several hours, but by the next morning, we had both stabilized, and were discharged from the hospital. As she walked me out under the hot, spring Arizona Sun, I sneezed twice in her arms. And that little quirk has been, and remains a daily experience in my life.
My chart contains an alignment with the Sun, Moon, South Node, and Lunar Apogee (Lilith) together in the sign of Tropical Taurus. When the Sun and Moon align, we call it a New Moon. When this occurs near a Node, the alignment is so perfect as to cause a Solar Eclipse. But with the addition of Lunar Apogee, the Moon’s furthest point, the Solar Eclipse is Annular. That afternoon, the Moon was still 9° behind the Sun, so the Eclipse didn’t occur until the next morning. But it was visible over the Southwest United States within my first day on Earth.
It took me months of studying my chart to decipher this astronomical fact. But as the pieces came together, my desire to create a better visual tool was fueled, I gained insights into the design of the Annulus itself, and my curiosity about the cosmos only deepened. The first Annulus was printed 9 months after the idea sprouted into my mind, and the full collection of Annuli came the next summer, under the Annular Solar Eclipse of June 2021.
What’s Next?
Earlier this year, after 3 years of dedicated effort, I was finally able to submit a provisional patent application with the USPTO. This means that the Annulus in its many variations are officially Patent Pending, until early 2024. I now have a level of legal protection which allows me to share the boards publicly, and offer them for sale, in the hopes of raising enough to file a formal patent application before the year is over.
Upon which time as it is granted, I’ll obtain full rights over my labor of love until around the next Great Conjunction, in 2040. This will allow me to keep exploring the Annular technology, and improve upon it over the next two decades.
So, I am launching the first two iterations of the Annulus, Wesley’s and Justins via Kickstarter! The campaign begins with the New Moon on May 19th, and will run until the Northern Solstice on June 21st. It is exciting that I finally get to share the results of my passion and hard work with all those who want to have a deeper relationship with the heavens above.