Taurus

Being born in the month of may, I fall under the astrological sign of Taurus.

Calm, patient, reliable, fair, loyal, affectionate, easygoing, sensuous, ambitious, determined and stubborn are among the many things said about individuals born under the Taurus.

In Chinese astrology the equivalent of the Taurus is the snake, which is convenient because I was born in the year of the Snake. Therefore it probably makes me extra stubborn.
















Enough with the astrology, I will now speak of the constellation of Taurus.

It is one of the 12 zodiac constellation, therefore it situated along the ecliptic. It is located between Aries to the west and Gemini to the east. Taurus is made up of seven main stars. The nearest star, 10 Tauri is about 45 light years away from earth.



































http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_(constellation)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_%28astrology%29#Characteristics
http://ottawa.rasc.ca/astronotes/2000/an0011i2.jpg

A short history lesson on Astronomy part 2

While the Greeks made some important contribution in western astronomy, medieval Europe fell into the dark ages and intellectual progress was quite slow at the time.

It was at this time that the Arabic world flourished. Under Islam, the Arab world became highly cultured and translated many of the Greek works were translated into Arabic. They were able to calculate that a year was 365.24219858156 days long, which is accurate to the 6th decimal place.

It was during the renaissance that Europe became interested in astronomy again. It was Nicolaus Copernicus which proposed that Sun did not revolve around the Earth but the other way around, in his Heliocentric system. Galileo was among the first to observe the sky with a telescope. He also greatly improved the telescope at the time


Why is it that we look at stars? I think that looking at the heavens gives us a sense of existence and worth. We can't help feel the overwhelming awe of the mystical characteristics of the universe. There will be always something that we don't know about the universe, in such a way that it keeps it's mysterious appeal.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astronomy#Middle_Ages_and_Islamic_astronomy

A short history lesson on Astronomy part 1.

What were prehistoric people thinking when they first looked up to the sky? It must have been quite the impressive show. Even today, in our so called age of science you can't help but smile when you look up to the stars.

Almost any civilization has had their share of constellation in relation to their cultural folk tales and myths.

The Greeks have Hercules and Perseus protecting their skies from the horrifying Hydra.
While in China, Hydra was seen as a Willow (柳 - Liǔ).



The very first true astronomers were from Mesopotamia, while simple in their intentions, they had an important influence on the sophisticated astronomy.

In ancient India they used sidereal calculation.
"The sidereal astronomy is based upon the stars and the sidereal period is the time that it takes the object to make one full orbit around the Sun, relative to the stars." - wikipedia

All of east Asia's astronomy originated from China. China's astronomy has a long history and is probably, along side with Greek astrology, the most the most influential. Much of early astronomy from China was done with the purpose of timekeeping.

Most of the constellations and stars we know today still retain the name that they were given by the astronomers of ancient Greece. Astronomy was very important to the them and was treated as a branch of mathematics.

The Mesoamerican civilizations, especially the Mayans, used astronomy to created very accurate calenders. Some propose that the Mayans calculated a solar year with somewhat more accuracy than the Gregorian calender that we use today.


to be continued...




Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_constellation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astronomy#Early_history

The universe and God

I'd like to start off my blog with a little philosophical reflection.

Does God have a place in a universe where it was apparently created by some cosmic accident?

According to modern theories the universe was created by The Big Bang. It proposes that the universe was once extremely compact, dense, and hot. By some chance the universe exploded(The Big Bang) and has ever since been expanding and cooling.

It was Einstein who said 'God does not play dice with the universe.' I too agree with his statement. I would have hard time believing that universe is nothing more than a game of dice.

Einstein believed in a sort of pantheistic God. His God was similar to Spinoza's God.
He wrote, 'I cannot conceive of a God who rewards and punishes his creatures, or has a will of the kind that we experience in ourselves. Neither can I nor would I want to conceive of an individual that survives his physical death; let feeble souls, from fear or absurd egoism, cherish such thoughts.'

Although I do not agree with everything Einstein said, I share many of his beliefs. I believe the universe is a like a clock and that God the is the clockmaker and the laws of physics are the gears.


How could this be 'a game of dice'?















Reference: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v23/i1/einstein.asp