The calendar is such a commonplace, ordinary thing, but how much do you actually know about the working of it. Why is it like that?
Thousands of years ago, ancient Greek astronomers calculated that the track of the Earth’s axis is constantly, even if in a very slow way, shifting in a uniform pattern. The change is very similar to the manner a spinning top slowly leans one way and then another as it slows down. It is a wobble that happens as its axis changes direction.
Continue reading about Calendars – Why They Can Be A Bit Out
Christmas – is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. Although the precise date of his birth is unknown, December 25th was most likely selected because it coincided with a pagan mid-winter festival. The ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas” mark the days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6th), which was the day of the wise men’s visit.
Predicting the demise of the world has almost certainly been going on since man began thinking, whenever that was. It is warned about in Revelations in the Bible, so that must be about 2,000 years ago.
Although astronomy is the oldest science, it continues to be at the forefront of not only scientific thought, but that of the public at large too. Who has not looked up at the galaxy while walking home late at night and wondered? Having said that though, the ancient people of certainly the northern hemisphere, but probably both, knew the movements of the stars and planets better than most of us do nowadays.
