“Stars are beautiful, but they must not take an active part in anything, they must just look on forever. It is a punishment put on them for something they did so long ago that no star now knows what it was.”
The Pakri Barwadih megalithic site in Jharkhand, India, serves not only as an astronomical observatory but also as a calendar, with stones marking different seasons and festivals. Originating 3,000 years ago, the site is an enduring testament to the ancient people's celestial knowledge, culture, and connection with nature. Despite its historical value, it suffers from neglect, vandalism, and threats from urbanization and mining, urging immediate preservation efforts.
July’s full Moon orbits closer to Earth than any other full Moon this year, making it the biggest and brightest supermoon of 2022. During the 13 July supermoon, the Moon appeared as much as 14 per cent brighter and 30 per cent brighter. For Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains, this is Guru Purnima (Guru Full Moon), celebrated as a time for clearing the mind and honouring the guru or spiritual master. The Europeans called this the Hay Moon for the haymaking in June and July. The Algonquin tribes of northeastern United States called this the Buck Moon. This full Moon has many other names.
While we on Earth suffer from coronavirus, our star — the Sun — is having a lockdown all of its own. The sun has been reported to have a ‘very deep’ solar minimum with 100 days of 2020 not seeing any sunspots on its surface. The sun is heading toward solar minimum now.
Chandrayaan-2, the second phase of India's lunar exploration program, aimed to demonstrate soft-landing on the moon and operate a robotic rover. Despite the mission's careful planning and execution by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the robotic lander, Vikram, lost contact before touchdown. Despite this setback, the orbiter component remains in lunar orbit, functioning and expected to make major scientific contributions. The mission's cost was less than half the budget of Hollywood blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame."
Chandrasekhar became famous for his discoveries about the evolution of the stars. His work was vast, and he began early, developing his theory of stars’ evolution before he had even turned 20. Google is changing its logo globally to a doodle of him and the Chandrasekhar Limit. That refers to his calculation that once a star reaches 1.44 times the size of our own sun, it doesn’t form a white dwarf as expected but collapses, eventually becoming a black hole.
India has created history today by successfully launching 104 satellites on a single mission, overtaking the previous record for most spacecraft launched at a single attempt, which currently stands at the thirty-eight orbited by Russia’s Dnepr in June 2014, of which thirty-two were deployed from the rocket itself while a thirty-third failed to separate. Salute to ISRO scientists!
The traditional zodiac faces a cosmic twist as NASA's latest calculations reveal a 13th zodiac sign, Ophiuchus, challenging age-old perceptions. Despite its absence in mainstream astrological discourse, Ophiuchus has quietly observed the dance of celestial bodies, its significance subtly acknowledged by sidereal and Vedic astrologers. This revelation questions astrology's foundations as ancient Babylonians divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts, disregarding the varying constellation sizes and shapes. NASA emphasizes the distinction between astronomy's empirical observation and astrology's subjective interpretation.
Today, the summer solstice and full moon coincide — a rare event, indeed, that hasn’t happened in nearly 70 years, according to The Old Farmer’s Almanac. It’s a once-in-a-generation pairing: the start of astronomical summer and emergence of the full “Strawberry Moon.” June’s full Strawberry Moon got its name because the native American Algonquin tribes knew it as a signal to gather ripening strawberry fruit.
Makar Sankranti is about nature, energy of the sun, harvest of new crop, and progress of mankind. It marks the end of Malmaas, an inauspicious month in the Hindu (Panchang) calendar, and the transition of the Sun to the zodiacal sign of Makar (Capricorn) to herald a change in season.
A moon halo is a stunning natural phenomena caused by the refraction of moonlight through ice crystals in the atmosphere, resulting in a luminous ring around the moon. The size and appearance depend on ice crystal properties and the moon's position. Moon halos give scientists insights into atmospheric composition and are considered a good omen in some cultures. The sighting coincided with a rare winter solstice lunar eclipse, unseen since 1638.
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