The gravitational tensor or gravitational field tensor, (sometimes called the gravitational field strength tensor) is an antisymmetric tensor, combining two components of gravitational field – the gravitational field strength and the gravitational torsion field – into one. It is used to describe the gravitational field of an arbitrary physical system and for invariant formulation of gravitational equations in the covariant theory of gravitation. The gravitational field is a component of general field.
then the covariant components of the gravitational field tensor according to (1) will be:
According to the rules of tensor algebra, raising (lowering) of the tensors’ indices, that is the transition from the covariant components to the mixed and contravariant components of tensors and vice versa, is done by means of the metric tensor . In particular , as well as
In Minkowski space the metric tensor turns into the tensor , which does not depend on the coordinates and time. In this space, which is used in the special relativity, the contravariant components of the gravitational field tensor are as follows:
Since the vectors of gravitational field strength and torsion field are the components of the gravitational field tensor, they are transformed not as vectors, but as the components of the tensor of the type (0,2). The law of transformation of these vectors in the transition from the fixed reference frame K into the reference frame K', moving at the velocity V along the axis X, has the following form:
In the more general case where the velocity of the reference frame K’ relative to the frame K is aimed in any direction, and the axis of the coordinate systems parallel to each other, the gravitational field strength and the torsion field are converted as follows:
is an antisymmetric tensor of rank 2, for it . The tensor has six independent components, three of which are related to the components of the vector of gravitational field strength , and the other three are related to the components of the torsion field vector .
The Lorentz transformations of the coordinates preserve two invariants arising from the tensor properties of the field:
The first expression is the contraction of the tensor, and the second is defined as the pseudoscalar invariant. In the latter expression the Levi-Civita symbol is used for the four-dimensional space, which is a completely antisymmetric unit tensor, with its gauge
Equation (2) is satisfied identically, which is proved by substituting into it the definition for the gravitational field tensor according to (1). If in (2) we use nonrecurring combinations 012, 013, 023 and 123 as the indices , and if we pass from the field potentials to the strengths, this leads to two vector equations:
Equations (3) and (4) are two of the four Heaviside's equations for the gravitational field strengths in the Lorentz-invariant theory of gravitation. According to (3), the change in time of the torsion field creates circular gravitational field strength, which leads to the effect of gravitational induction, and equation (4) states that the torsion field, as well as the magnetic field, has no sources. Equations (3) and (4) can also be obtained from equality to zero of the 4-vector, which is found by the formula:
Another couple of gravitational field equations is also expressed in terms of the gravitational field tensor:
where is the 4-vector of mass current density, is the matter density in the comoving reference frame, is the velocity of the matter unit, is the gravitational constant.
In the expanded form the equation for the field strengths with field sources are as follows:
where is the density of the moving mass, is the mass current density.
According to the first of these equations, the gravitational field strength is generated by the matter density, and according to the second equation the circular torsion field is always accompanied by the mass current, or emerges due to the change in time of the gravitational field strength vector.
Gravitational four-force acting on the mass of a body can be expressed in terms of the gravitational field tensor and the 4-velocity of the body:
This expression can be derived, in particular, as the consequence of the axiomatic construction of the covariant theory of gravitation in the language of 4-vectors and tensors.
If we take the covariant divergence of both sides of (5), and taking into account (1) we obtain:
The continuity equation for the mass 4-current is a gauge condition that is used to derive the field equation (5) from the principle of least action. Therefore, the contraction of the gravitational tensor and the Ricci tensor must be zero: . In Minkowski space the Ricci tensor equal to zero, the covariant derivative becomes the partial derivative, and the continuity equation becomes as follows:
The wave equation for the gravitational tensor is written as:
Total Lagrangian for the matter in gravitational and electromagnetic fields includes the gravitational field tensor and is contained in the action function:
where is Lagrangian, is differential of coordinate time, is a certain coefficient, is the scalar curvature, is the cosmological constant, which is a function of the system, is the speed of light as a measure of the propagation speed of electromagnetic and gravitational interactions, is the electromagnetic 4-potential, where is the electric scalar potential, and is the electromagnetic vector potential, is the electromagnetic 4-current, is the electric constant, is the electromagnetic tensor, is the 4-potential of acceleration field, and are the constants of acceleration field and pressure field, respectively, is the acceleration tensor, is the 4-potential of pressure field, is the pressure field tensor, is the invariant 4-volume, is the square root of the determinant of metric tensor, taken with a negative sign, is the product of differentials of the spatial coordinates.
The variation of the action function by 4-coordinates leads to the equation of motion of the matter unit in gravitational and electromagnetic fields and pressure field:
where the first term on the right is the gravitational force density, expressed with the help of the gravitational field tensor, second term is the Lorentz electromagnetic force density for the charge density measured in the comoving reference frame, and the last term sets the pressure force density.
The covariant derivative of the gravitational stress-energy tensor determines the 4-vector of gravitational force density:
Generalized momentum and Hamiltonian mechanicsedit
By definition, the generalized momentum characterizes the total momentum of the matter unit taking into account the momenta from the gravitational and electromagnetic fields. In the covariant theory of gravitation the generalized force, as the rate of change of the generalized momentum by the coordinate time, depends also on the gradient of the energy of gravitational field associated with the matter unit and determined by the gravitational field tensor.
In the weak-field approximation Hamiltonian as the relativistic energy of a body with the mass and the charge with equals:
If we use the covariant 4-vector of generalized velocity
then in the general case the Hamiltonian has the form:
where and are timelike components of 4-vectors and .
If we move to the reference frame that is fixed relative to the center of mass of system, Hamiltonian will determine the invariant energy of the system.


Get ready for a spectacular sight in our skies this week.
For the first time since 2005, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn will all be visible at the same time.
According to EarthSky.org, the 5 planets will be visible just before dawn starting Wednesday, January 20, 2016.
Sunrise in Denver on Wednesday is at 7:17 a.m. Twilight begins 30 minutes earlier.
If you don’t get to see the planets this week, these five planets will be visible each day before dawn through February 20, 2016.
All five planets will be visible to the naked eye so you don’t need a telescope, but EarthSky.org recommends binoculars to help you spot Mercury.
Jupiter will be the first planet to rise each evening followed by Mars, Saturn, Venus and Mercury which rise overnight and early morning.
Venus will likely be the easiest to spot as it is the brightest object in the sky behind the moon and the sun. You can spot Venus by looking toward the southeast.


Publication list from ADSThe Copernicus publication list through December, 1997
is the result of a query to the ADS service using the keywords COPERNICUS and OAO-3. Note : the following link is not section 508 compliant.
HEASARC Home | Observatories | Archive | Calibration | Software | Tools | Students/Teachers/Public
Last modified: Tuesday, 07-Oct-2003 11:28:12 EDT


A strawberry moon — the first full moon in June — and the summer solstice will meet on the same day Monday, the first time that has happened since 1948.
The solstice means we’ll get about 15 hours and 37 minutes of daylight in these latitudes. That’s almost seven more hours of light than we got on the winter solstice, Dec. 22 (you may also remember that it was quite a bit colder, too).
The strawberry moon will appear at 6:02 Monday morning, while the solstice officially occurs at 5:34 p.m., when the sun shines most directly over the Tropic of Cancer, says meteorologist Todd Nelson.
The poetic name of this moon comes from the Algonquin tribes, who named it for the fruits ripening at this phase, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, while Europeans called it the rose moon.
With strawberries in season, a full moon overhead and Minnesota’s short summer in its full glory, Monday looks like a good day to bask.


This event occurs daily, every 1 day(s).
Throughout the ages, the poets and composers have been inspired by love and its relationship to the cosmos.
Valentine couples (ages 21 and up) can enjoy an evening of "Love Under the Stars" from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15, at the Earth and Space Science Center at Tyler Junior College. This year's all new dome show in the newly updated Hudnall Planetarium will include a discussion on love stories about the constellations and the mythology behind them. The dome program will also include a look at the constellations visible in the night sky and a virtual tour through the solar system and beyond to visit places in the universe that have inspired or were inspired by love. Admission includes: heavy hors d'oeuvres and beverages; brand new full-dome planetarium show; an outdoor, telescopic viewing (weather permitting); a couples' gift basket; and a commemorative photo. **ONLY ONE TICKET PER COUPLE IS REQUIRED**
$85 per couple
We make every effort to ensure the accuracy of this information. However, you should always call ahead to confirm dates, times, location, and other information.


Mon, Apr 08|
The Well-Worn Soul Wellness Center
Solar Eclipse Sound Bath
Dive into the transformative waves of the Solar Eclipse! Join a community of kindred spirits as the celestial vibrations of crystal singing bowls guide you towards deep relaxation and rejuvenation.
Time & Location
Apr 08, 2024, 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM
The Well-Worn Soul Wellness Center, 1117 Old County Rd, Severna Park, MD 21146, USA
About the event
Experience the cosmic energies of the Solar Eclipse with us at The Well-Worn Soul. As the resonant vibrations cascade through the room, you'll find yourself enveloped in waves of rejuvenating energy. This Solar Ecipse is a unique opportunity to release the remnants of the past and manifest your brightest future. The infusion of Cosmic Reiki amplifies the healing power of each note, washing away stress and tension, and restoring a harmonious balance to your mind, body, and soul.
Join our community of like-minded individuals on this collective journey toward Energetic Renewal. Bring your own yoga mat to ensure maximum comfort, and consider bringing a pillow to enhance your relaxation experience. This event is a sacred invitation to align with the vibrational frequencies of releasing and manifestation. Don't miss the opportunity to be part of this transformative and uplifting experience!
May the vibrations of the sound bath resonate with your inner essence and pave the way for a harmonious future. Be sure to bring your own yoga mat to ensure maximum comfort. We also recommend bringing a pillow for added relaxation. This is an event you won't want to miss!
- Ticket type
The Well-Worn TicketPricePay what you wantSale ended


The Lunar X-Prize site is featuring a design idea by the Selene team which really pushes on traditional thoughts about what landers might look like and how they work:
We are now pursuing a new lunar rover concept which involves deploying a rover that hovers above the lunar surface once the lander is secure on the lunar surface.
This new lunar rover uses a tether on a spool attached to a counterbalance. As the spool rotates, the cable unwinds in a measured and tightly controlled fashion ensuring a gradually increasing, spiral orbit for the rover around the lander as the rover attempts to travel the required 500m distance. Because centripetal force will vary based on the radius of the path travelled by the rover, the rotation speed of the spool must be constantly adjusted to hold the altitude of the rover steady.
This kind of thing really gets you thinking. Most excellent idea Selene team!


On Thursday, February 18, when NASA received the message that persistence had entered the atmosphere of Mars, the rover’s destiny was already closed. of courseIt takes exactly 11 minutes and 22 seconds for the radio signal to travel at 205 million kilometers per hour, which separates the Earth from Mars. So NASA engineers fully automated the advent of the mobile robot. A follow-up visit to Franceinfo.fr, NASA website Or, in French Cnes site.
Seven minutes before docking
Since its launch on July 30, 2020, the steady state has traveled 471 million kilometers, at a speed of 85,000 kilometers per hour. By the time Mars enters its atmosphere, it has only fifty kilometers to reach its exploration site.
But this seven-minute flight was the most dangerous of his long journey. At this moment, the speed of the capsule carrying the steady state is still 20,000 kilometers per hour. The lower the capsule drops into the Martian atmosphere, the higher its cabin temperature than 1,300. This collision with the atmosphere of the Red Planet, which is protected by its heat shield, greatly slows the capsule.
Four minutes before docking
The speed of the capsule is reduced to 1,200 kilometers per hour, approximately the speed of sound. This is when the capsule activates its supersonic parachute from the rear. This parachute was designed based on what was allowed Curiosity, The forerunner of the perseverance to successfully land on the Red Planet in 2012.
The canvas of this parachute is 21.5 meters wide, equivalent to a large house, and deploys within half a second. Return to the steady-state capsule: the on-board device receives information about speed and altitude. So he can activate the supersonic parachute at the right time. The speed of the braking capsule, which is linked to the parachute, is reduced to 300 km / h.
Two minutes before docking
The most dangerous stage is yet to come. At an altitude of 4 km above the surface of Mars, the rover and the sky crane (named after its space crane) are removed from the capsule, which has been in orbit for seven months. Soon, eight retrorockets of the Sky Crane began to gradually reduce its speed to 30 kilometers per hour, stabilizing the machine and placing it 20 meters above the landing site, located in the Jessero crater.
Within 30 seconds the perseverance will touch the soil of Mars. Then, thanks to three nylon cables, the Sky Crane of Perseverance is investing a whopping $ 2.5 billion on Mars. Disconnect the cables from the rover as soon as possible. The risk is that his flying crane will be towed. It’s going to crash tens of thousands of meters away.
After 11 minutes, NASA scientists will be able to determine if the rosary can begin its mission: for evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet.
Problem solver. Incurable bacon specialist. Falls down a lot. Coffee maven. Communicator.


NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Department of Physics and Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
University of Maryland Baltimore County/CRESST, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA
Croatian MAGIC Consortium, Rudjer Boskovic Institute, University of Rijeka, 51000, Rijeka, Croatia
University of Zagreb, Croatia
University of Split, Croatia
Inst. de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. Astrofísica, E-38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
ICRR, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, D-80805 München, Germany
Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku and Astronomy Division, Finland
Universidad Complutense, E-28040 Madrid, Spain
INAF National Institute for Astrophysics, I-00136 Rome, Italy
: Received: 12 July 2016 / Approved: 13 July 2016 / Online: 13 July 2016 (05:36:15 CEST)
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
How to cite:
Sitarek, J.; Becerra González, J.; Buson, S.; Dominis Prester, D.; Manganaro, M.; Mazin, D.; Nilsson, K.; Nievas, M.; Stamerra, A.; Tavecchio, F.; Vovk, I. Broad Band Observations Of Gravitationally Lensed Blazar QSO B0218+357 During A Gamma-Ray Outburst. Preprints2016, 2016070025 (doi: 10.20944/preprints201607.0025.v1).
Sitarek, J.; Becerra González, J.; Buson, S.; Dominis Prester, D.; Manganaro, M.; Mazin, D.; Nilsson, K.; Nievas, M.; Stamerra, A.; Tavecchio, F.; Vovk, I. Broad Band Observations Of Gravitationally Lensed Blazar QSO B0218+357 During A Gamma-Ray Outburst. Preprints 2016, 2016070025 (doi: 10.20944/preprints201607.0025.v1).
QSO B0218+357 is a blazar located at a cosmological redshift of 0.944. The source is gravitationally lensed by a spiral galaxy located at the redshift of 0.68. Strong gravitational lensing splits the signals emitted by the source into two components separated by 10-12 days, as observed in radio and gamma-ray bands. In July 2014 a GeV flare was observed by Fermi-LAT, triggering follow-up observations with the MAGIC telescopes at energies above 100 GeV. The expected time delay between the components allowed us to plan broad band MWL observations before, during and after the trailing component of the emission. The MAGIC observations at the expected time of arrival of the trailing component resulted in the first detection of QSO B0218+357 in Very-High-Energy (VHE, >100 GeV) gamma rays. It is both the farthest known VHE object and one of only a few Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars detected in this energy range. We report here the observed multiwavelength spectral and temporal properties of the emission during the 2014 flare.


Difference between revisions of "Winter"
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A time in the year
where the earth is furthest from the sun in it's revolution around the sun But alas! This is a common misconception. Winter is caused by the rays of the sun no longer being perpendicular to the surface of the earth in the area you live, which causes them to bounce off more or something - it's about sun ray angle, not distance from the sun. This causes colder temperatures and make me want to ride when I can't which sucks.


“…It is said that Augustine of Hippo, the Bishop in Roman Carthage (A.D. 354 – 430), the greatest thinker of the Christian Church in its early centuries, who fused the religion of the New Testament with the Platonistic tradition of Greek philosophy, was asked, “What is time?” His answer was, “If no one asks me, I know what it is; if I wish to explain what it is to him who asks me, I do not know.”
“…Time is essential to Earth, and all that is upon it, and to each one of us as individuals; for, as we know from our own experience and observations, what separates us from the moment we are born and the moment when we cease to live is TIME.
“…Though we know not what Time is, we have found ways to measure it. We count our lifetime in years – which come to think of it – is another way of saying “orbits,” for that is what a “year” on Earth is…
“…We do not know what time is, but the way we measure it makes us wonder: would we live longer, would our life cycle be different, were we to live on another planet whose “year” is longer? Would we be “immortal” if we were to live upon a “Planet of millions of years” – as, in fact, the Egyptian pharaohs believed that they would be, in an eternal Afterlife, once they joined the gods on that “Planet of millions of years?”
“…Indeed, are there other planets “out there,” and, even more so, planets on which life as we know it could have evolved – or is our planetary system unique, and life on Earth unique, and we, humankind, are all alone – or did the pharaohs know what they were speaking of in their Pyramid Texts?
“…Man has looked skyward from time immemorial, and has been wondering whether there are others like him out there, upon other earths. Logic, and mathematical probability, dictate a Yes answer, but it was only in 1991 that astronomers, for the first time, it was stressed, actually found other planets orbiting other suns elsewhere in the universe.
“…The first discovery, in July 1991, turned out to be not entirely correct… they concluded that a rapidly spinning star identified as Pulsar 1829-10 has a “planet-sized companion” about ten times the size of the Earth. Pulsars are assumed to be the extraordinarily dense core of stars that have collapsed for one reason or another. Spinning madly, they emit pulses of radio energy in regular bursts, many times per second. Such pulses can be monitored by radio telescopes; by detecting a cyclic fluctuation the astronomers surmised that a planet that orbits Pulsar 1829-10 once every six months can cause and explain the fluctuation… Their calculations (British astronomers) were imprecise and, therefore, they could not stand by their conclusion that the pulsar, some 30,000 light-years away, had a planetary satellite.
“…An American team had made a similar discovery pertaining to a much closer pulsar, identified as PSR 1257 + 12 – a collapsed sun only 1,300 light-years away from us. It exploded, astronomers estimated, a mere million years ago; and it definitely has two, and perhaps three, orbiting planets. The two certain ones were orbiting their sun at about the same distance as Mercury does our Sun; the possible third planet orbits its sun at about the same distance as Earth does our Sun.
“…The discovery stirred speculation that planetary systems not only were fairly common but also could occur under diverse circumstances,” wrote John Noble Wilford in The New York Times of January 9, 1992; “scientists said it was most unlikely that planets orbiting pulsars could be hospitable to life; but the findings encouraged astronomers, who this fall will begin a systematic survey of the heavens for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life.”
“…Were then the pharaohs right?
“…Long before the pharaohs and the Pyramid Texts, an ancient civilization – Man’s first known one – possessed an advanced cosmogony. Six thousand years ago, in ancient Sumer, what astronomers have discovered in the 1990s was already known…
“…One long text, written on seven tablets, has reached us primarily in its later Babylonian version. Called the Epic of Creation and known by its opening words Enuma Elish, it was publicly read during the New Year festival that started on the first day of the month Nissan, coinciding with the first day of spring.
“…Philosophers and scientists, contemplating the universe and offering modern cosmogonies, invariably end up discussing Time. Is Time a dimension in itself, or perhaps the only true dimension in the universe? Does time only flow forward, or can it flow backward? Is the present part of the past or of the future? And, not least of all, did Time have a beginning? For, if so, will it have an end? If the universe has existed forever, without a beginning and thus without an end, is Time too without a beginning and without an end – or did the universe indeed have a beginning, perhaps with the Big Bang assumed by many astrophysicists, in which case Time began when the universe began?
“…Those who conceived the amazingly accurate Sumerian cosmogony also believed in a Beginning ( and thus, inexorably, in an End), it is clear that they conceived Time as a measure, the pacesetter from, and the marker of, a beginning in a celestial saga; for the very first word of the ancient Epic of Creation, Enuma, means When.
“…It must have taken great scientific minds to conceive of a primordial phase when “naught existed but primordial Apsu, their begetter; Mummu, and Tiamat” – when Earth had not yet come into being; and to realize that for Earth and all upon in the “big bang” was not when the universe or even the Solar System was created, but the event of the Celestial Battle (when the planet Nibiru’s satellites and the planet itself later collided with the planet Tiamat). It was then, at that moment, that Time began for Earth – the moment when, separated from the half of Tiamat that became the Asteroid Belt (“heaven”), Earth was shunted to its new orbit and could start counting the years, the months, the days, the nights – to measure Time.
“…This scientific view, central to ancient cosmogony, religion, and mathematics, was expressed in many other Sumerian texts besides the Epic of Creation. A text treated by scholars as the “myth” of “Enki and the World Order,” but which is literally the autobiographical tale by Enki, the Sumerian god of science, describe the moment when – When – Time began to tick for Earth.
“…Another text, in words often repeated on Sumerian clay tablets, conveyed the notion of Beginning by listing the many aspects of evolution and civilization that had not yet come into being before the crucial event. Before then, the text asserted, “the name of Man had not yet been called” and “needful things had not yet been brought into being.” All those developments started to take place only “after heaven had been moved away from Earth, after Earth had been separated from heaven.”
“…It is not surprising that the same notions of Time’s beginnings also ruled Egyptians beliefs, whose development was subsequent to those of the Sumerians. We read in The Pyramid Texts (para. 1466) the following description of the Beginning of Things:
When heaven had not yet come into existence,
When men had not yet come into existence,
When gods had not yet been born,
When death had not yet come into existence…
“…This knowledge, universal in antiquity and stemming from the Sumerian cosmogony, was echoed in the very first verse of Genesis, the first book of the Hebrew Bible:
In the beginning
Elohim created the heaven and the earth,
And the earth was without form and void
and darkness was upon the face of Tehom,
and the wind of the Lord swept over its waters.
“…It is now well established that this biblical tale of creation was based on Mesopotamian texts such as Enuma Elish, with Tehom meaning Tiamat, the “wind” meaning “satellites,” in Sumerian, and “heaven,” described as the “hammered out bracelet,” the Asteroid Belt, the Bible, however, is clearer regarding the moment of the Beginning as far as Earth was concerned; the biblical version picks up the Mesopotamian cosmogony only from the point of the separation of the Earth from the Shama’im the Hammered Bracelet, as a result of the breakup of Tiamat.
“…For Earth, Time began with the Celestial Battle.
Of the Planet Nibiru/Marduk it is said:
He established the station of Nibiru,
to determine their heavenly bands,
that none might transgress or fall short …
He established for the planets their
He keeps hold on their ways,
determines their courses.
“…Thus, states Enuma Elish (Tablet V, line 65), “He created the Heaven and the Earth” – the very same words used in the book of Genesis.
“…The Celestial Battle eliminated Tiamat as a member of the old Solar System, thrust half of it into a new orbit to become Planet Earth, retained the Moon as a vital component of the Solar System, detached Pluto into an independent orbit, and added Nibiru as the twelfth member of the New Order in our heavens. For Earth and its inhabitants, those were to become the elements that determined time.
“…To this day, the key role that the number twelve played in Sumerian science and daily life (in line with the twelve member Solar System) has accompanied us throughout the millennia. They divided the “day” (from sunset to sunset) into twelve “double-hours,” retained into modern times in the twelve-hour clock and the twenty-four hour day. The twelve months in the year are still with us, as are the twelve houses of the zodiac. This celestial number had many other expressions, as in the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve apostles of Jesus.
The Sumerian mathematical system is called sexagesimal, i.e. “based on sixty” rather than on 100 as in the metric system (in which one meter is equal to 100 centimeters). This system, the sexagesimal, has been explained in previous books by Mr. Sitchin.
“…The sar, 3,600 Earth-years, was the orbital period of Nibiru around the Sun; for any one in Nibiru, it was just one Nibiru-year. According to the Sumerians, there were indeed others, intelligent beings, on Nibiru, evolving there well ahead of hominids on Earth. The Sumerians called them Anunnaki, literally meaning “Those who from Heaven to Earth came.”
“…Texts known as the Sumerian King Lists which describe the first settlements of the Anunnaki on Earth, list the governorship of the first ten Anunnaki leaders before the Deluge in sars, the 3,600 Earth-year cycles. From the first landing to the Deluge, according to those first texts, 120 sars had passed: Nibiru orbited the Sun one hundred and twenty times, which equals 432,000 Earth-years. It was on the one hundred twentieth orbit that the gravitational pull of Nibiru was such that it caused the ice sheet that accumulated over Antarctica to slip off into the southern oceans, creating the immense tidal wave that engulfed the Earth – the great flood or Deluge, recorded in the Bible from much earlier and much more detailed Sumerian sources.
“…Legends and ancient lore gave this number, 432,000, cyclical significance beyond the land then called Sumer. In Hamlet’s Mill, Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, searching for “a point where myth and science join,” concluded that “432,000 was a number of significance from old.” Among the examples cited by them was the Teutonic and Norse tale of the Valhalla, the mythic abode of the slain warriors who, on the Day of Judgment, will march out of the Valhalla’s gates to fight at the side of the god Odin or Woden against the giants. They would exit through the Valhalla’s 540 doors, eight hundred warriors would march out of each. The total number of warrior-heroes, Santillana and von Dechend pointed out, was thus 432,000.
A representation of Gods and Giants in the Valhalla (In one of Richard Wagner’s Operas, San Francisco, U.S.A.)
A house stands on shores of Jokulsa, a Fjoltum river, where the myth of Odin’s horse Slaettur is remembered.
…”This number,” they continued, “must have had a very ancient meaning, for it is also the number of syllables in the Rigveda,” the “Sacred Book of Verses” in the Sanskrit language, in which have been recorded the Indo-European tales of gods and heroes. Four hundred thirty-two thousand, the two authors wrote, “goes back to the basic figure 10,800, the number of stanzas in the Rigveda, with 40 syllables to a stanza” (10,800 x 40 = 432,000).
“…Hindu traditions clearly associated the number 432,000 with the yugas or ages that Earth and Mankind had experienced. Each caturyuga (“great yuga”) was divided into four yugas or Ages whose diminishing lengths were expressions of 432,000:
- first the Fourfold Age (4 x 432,000 = 1,728,000 years) which was the Golden Age,
- then the Threefold Age of Knowledge (3 x 432,000 = 1,296,000 years), followed by
- the Double or Twofold Age of Sacrifice (2 x 432,000 = 864,000 years); and finally
- our present era, the Age of Discord which lasts a mere 432,000 years.
…All in all these Hindu traditions envision ten eons, paralleling the ten Sumerian rulers of the pre-Diluvial era but expanding the overall time span to 432,000 years.
“…Further expanded, such astronomical numbers based on 432,000 were applied in Hindu religion and traditions to the kalpa, the “Day” of the Lord Brahma. It was defined as a eon comprising twelve million devas (“Divine Years”). Each Divine Year in turn equals 360 Earth-years. Therefore, a “Day of the Lord Brahma” equaled 4,320,000,000 Earth-years – a time span very much like modern estimates of the age of our Solar System – arrived at by multiplications of 360 and 12.
Lord Brahma, always depicted with four Heads.
Lord Brahma, always depicted with four Heads.
Mr. Sitchin continues:
…4,320,000,000 is, however, a thousandfold great yugas – a fact brought out in the eleventh century by the Arab mathematician Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, who explained that the kalpa consisted of 1,000 cycles of caturyugas. One could thus paraphrase the mathematics of the Hindu celestial calendar by stating that in the eyes of the Lord Brahma, a thousand cycles were but a single day. This brings to mind the enigmatic statement in Psalms (90:4) regarding the Divine Day of the biblical Lord:
A thousand years, in thy eyes,
[are] as a day past, gone by.
“…The Hindu traditions were brought to the Indian subcontinent by “Aryan” migrants from the shores of the Caspian Sea, cousins of the Indo-Europeans who were the Hittites of Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) and the Hurrians of the upper Euphrates River, through whom Sumerian knowledge and beliefs were transmitted to the Indo-Europeans… The Vedas were held to be “not of human origin,” having been composed by the gods themselves in a previous age. In time the various components of the Vedas and the auxiliary literature that derived from them (the Mantras, Brahmanas, etc.) were augmented by the non-Vedic Puranas (“Ancient Writings”) and the great epic tales of the Mahabarata and Ramayana. In them ages deriving from multiples of 3,600 also predominate, thus, according to the Vishnu Purana, “the day that Krishna shall depart from Earth will be the first day of the day of Kali; it will continue for 360,000 years of mortals.” This is a reference to the concept that the Kaliyuga, the present age, is divided to a dawn or “morning twilight” of 100 divine years that equal 36,000 Earth or “mortal” years, the age itself (1,000 divine years equaling 360,000 Earth-years), and a dusk or “evening twilight” of a final 100 divine years (36,000 mortal-years) adding up to 1,200 divine or 432,000 Earth-years.
“…The depth of such widespread beliefs in a Divine Cycle of 432,000 years, equaling 120 orbits of 3,600 Earth-years each of Nibiru, makes one wonder whether they represent merely arithmetical sleights of hand – or, in some unknown way, a basic natural or astronomical phenomenon recognized in antiquity by the Anunnaki. We have shown in The 12th Planet, the first book of The Earth Chronicles series, that the Deluge was a global calamity anticipated by the Anunnaki, resulting by the gravitational pull of the nearing Nibiru on the unstable ice age to an abrupt end circa 13,000 years ago, and was thus recorded in Earth’s cycles as a major geological and climatic change.
“…The last geological epoch, called the Pleistocene, began about 2,500,000 years ago and ended at the time of the Deluge; it was the time span during which:
- hominids evolved
- the Anunnaki came to Earth
- Man, Homo sapiens, was brought into being
“…And it was during the Pleistocene that a cycle of approximately 430,000 years was identified in marine sediments…
…Such a cyclic periodicity conforms with the Astronomical Theory of climatic modulations that takes into account changes due to obliquity (the Earth’s tilt), precession (the slight orbital retardation), and eccentricity (the shape of the elliptical orbit)…
Mr. Sitchin includes a few more cyclic details, then he continues:
…The “myth” of Divine Ages thus appears to be based on scientific facts.
“…The element of Time features in the ancient records, both Sumerian and biblical, not only as a point of beginning – “When.” The process of creation is at once linked to the measurement of time, measurements that in turn are linked to determine celestial motions… In the biblical version, it took the Lord two divine “days” to complete the task (of creation); hopefully, even Fundamentalists, will by now agree that these were not day and night days as we now know them, for the two “days” occurred before Earth had yet come into existence (and besides, let them heed the Psalmist’s statement of the Lord’s Day being equal to a thousand years or so). The Mesopotamian version clearly measures Creation Time or Divine Time by the passages of Nibiru, in an orbit equaling 3,600 Earth-years…
“…Once the focus shifts to Earth and ultimately to Man upon it, the scale of Time also shifts – to an Earthly Time – to a scale appropriate not only to Man’s abode but also to one that Mankind could grasp and measure: Day, Month, Year.
“…Even as we consider these familiar elements of Earthly Time, it should be born in mind that all three of them are also expressions of celestial motions – cyclical motions – involving a complex correlation between Earth, Moon, and Sun.
“…But such basic truths regarding the causes of the Earthly Time cycles of day, month, year are not self-evident and required advanced scientific knowledge to be realized. For the better part of two thousand years it was believed, for example, that the day-night cycle resulted from the circling of Earth by the Sun; for from the time of Ptolemy of Alexandria (second century A.D.) until the “Copernican Revolution” in 1543 A.D., the unquestionable belief was that the Sun, the Moon, and the visible planets were circling the Earth, which was the center of the universe.
Above and below: Plates illustrating the Copernican system, in the Harmonia Macrocosmica Atlas.
“…The suggestion by Nicolaus Copernicus that the Sun was at the center and the Earth was just another celestial body orbiting it, like any other planet, was so revolutionary scientifically and heretical religiously that he delayed writing his great astronomical work (De revolutionibus coelestium; English translation, On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres) and his friends delayed printing it until his very last day, May 24, 1543. This motions (as described in The Enuma Elish text) were attributed to the “destinies” (orbits) that the Celestial Lord (Nibiru) gave Earth and its moon as a result of the Celestial Battle:
The Moon he caused to shine,
to it the night entrusting;
In the night the days to signal
he appointed it, [saying:]
Monthly, without cease, form designs with a crown.
At the month’s very start, rising over the Earth,
thou shall have luminous horns to signify six days,
reaching a crescent the seventh day.
At mid month stand still opposite the Sun;
it shall overtake thee at the horizon.
Then diminish thy crown and regress in light,
at that time approaching the Sun;
And on the 30th day thou shalt stand against the Sun.
I have appointed thee a destiny; follow the path.
…”Thus,” the ancient text concluded, did the Celestial Lord “appoint the days and established the precincts of night and day.”
“…By listing the two luminaries (Sun and Moon) as responsible for the months and the days and the years, the complex lunar-solar nature of that calendar’s antiquity (Mesopotamian-Hebrew calendar) is also presented. Over the millennia of Mankind’s efforts to measure time by devising a calendar, some (as the Moslems continue to this day) have followed only the Moon’s cycles; others (as the ancient Egyptians and the Common Era calendars in use in the Western world) have adopted the solar year, conveniently dividing it into “months.” But the calendar devised about fifty-eight hundred years ago in Nippur (Sumer’s religious center) and still adhered to by the Jews retained the biblically stated complexity of time-keeping based on the orbital relationship between the Earth and the two luminaries.
“…Scholars have been puzzled by the fact that the Zo’har (The Book of Splendor), an Aramaic-Hebrew composition which is a central work in the literature of Jewish mysticism known as Kabbalah, unmistakably explained – in the thirteenth century of the Christian era – that the cause of the day’s changing into night was the turning of the Earth around its own axis… The Zo’har’s source was the third century Rabbi Hamnuna!
“…Such advanced knowledge, seemingly ahead of its time, can be explained only by the retention of the earlier sophisticated knowledge that permeates the Bible and its earlier Sumerian sources. Indeed, Kabbalah literally means “that which was received,” earlier secret knowledge transmitted from generation to generation… The Talmud, recording such data and commentaries from about 300 B.C. to about A.D. 500, is replete with astronomical snippets…” among them the Comet Halley is mentioned as “a star which appears once in seventy years and confounds the mariners.”
Mr. Sitchin continues “Rabbi Gamliel of Jabneh possessed a tubular optical instrument with which he observed the stars and planets – fifteen centuries before the “official” invention of the telescope.
“…The need to know the heavenly secrets stemmed from the lunar-solar nature of the Jewish (i.e. Nippurian) calendar, which required a complex adjustment – “intercalation” – between the solar year and the lunar year, the latter falling short of the former by 10 days, 21 hours, 6 minutes and about 45.5 seconds. That shortfall equals 7/19 of a synodic month, and, therefore, a lunar year can be realigned with the solar year by adding seven lunar months to every nineteen solar years. Astronomy books credit the Athenian astronomer Meton (circa 430 B.C.) with the discovery of this nineteen-year cycle; but the knowledge in fact goes back millennia, to ancient Mesopotamia.
Old Jewish Talmud
“…In the purely lunar calendars, as is still the case in the Moslem calendar, the holidays keep slipping back by about a month every three years. The Nippurian calendar, having been devised to maintain a cycle of holidays connected with the seasons, could not allow such an ongoing slippage: the New Year, for example had to begin on the first day of spring. This required, from the very beginning of Sumerian civilization, a precise knowledge of the motions of the Earth and the Moon, and their correlation with the Sun and thus the secrets of intercalation. It also required understanding how the seasons come about.
“…The discovery of the solstices has also been attributed to Meton and his colleague, the Athenian Euctemon. But in fact such knowledge goes back to much earlier times. The rich astronomical vocabulary of the Talmud had already applied the term Neti’yah (from the verb Natoh, “to tilt, inclined turn sideways”) to the modern equivalent term “obliquity” a millennium earlier the Bible recognized the notion of the Earth’s axis by attributing the day-night cycle to a “line” drawn through the Earth (Psalms 19:5); and the Book of Job, speaking of the formation of the Earth and its mysteries, attributed to the Celestial Lord the creation of an inclined line, a tilted axis, for the Earth (Job 38:5). Using the term Natoh, the book of Job refers to the Earth’s tilted axis and the North Pole when it states:
He tilted north over the void
and hangeth the Earth upon nothing at all.
“…If a line is drawn between the sunrise and sunset points for each solstice, the result is such that the two lines cross above the viewer’s head, forming a giant x that divides the Earth, and the skies above it, into four parts. This division has been recognized in antiquity and is referred to in the Bible when it speaks of the “four corners of the Earth” and the “four corners of the skies.” The resulting division of the circle of the Earth and the skies in four parts that look like triangles rounded at their bases created for the ancient peoples the image of “wings.” The Bible thus spoke of the “four wings of the Earth” as well as of the “four wings of the skies.”
“…A Babylonian map of the Earth, for the first millennium B.C., illustrated this concept of “four corners of the Earth” by literally depicting four “wings” attached to the circular Earth.
“…The fourfold division of the solar year (two solstices, two equinoxes) was combined in antiquity with the lunar motions to create the first known formal calendar, the lunar-solar calendar of Nippur. It was used by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and other nations after them, and remains in use to this very day as the Jewish calendar.
“…For Mankind, Earthly Time began in 3760 B.C.; we know the exact date because in the year 1992 of the common Era, the Jewish calendar counts the year 5752.
“…Between Earthly Time and Divine Time there is Celestial Time.
“…From the moment Noah stepped out of the ark, needing reassurance that the watery end of all flesh would not soon recur, Mankind has lived with a lingering notion – or is it a recollection? – of cycles or eons or Ages of Earth’s destruction and resurrection, and has looked to the heavens for celestial signs, omens of good or bad to come.
“…From its Mesopotamian roots the Hebrew language retains the term Mazal as meaning “luck, fortune” which would be either good or bad. Little is it realized that the term is a celestial one, meaning zodiac house, and harkens back to the time when astronomy and astrology were one and the same, and priests atop temple-towers followed the movements of the Celestial Gods to see in which house of the zodiac – in which Manzalu, in Akkadian – they stood that night.
“…But it was not Man who had first grouped the myriads of stars into recognizable constellations, defined and named those that spanned the ecliptic, and divided them into twelve to create the twelve houses of the zodiac. It was the Anunnaki who had conceived of that for their own needs; Man adopted that as his link, his means to ascent, to the heavens from the mortality of life on Earth.
“…It is evident from the Sumerian King Lists and other texts dealing with the affairs of the Anunnaki that for a long time – certainly until the Deluge – they retained the sar, the 3,600 Earth-years of Nibiru, as the divine unit of time. But what could they do somehow to create a reasonable relationship, other than 1:3600, between that Divine Time and the Earthly Time.
“…The solution was provided by the phenomenon called precession.”
At this point Mr. Sitchin gives more details of measurements of Time, followed by a quote from the mythologist Joseph Campbell:
“…By a miracle that I have found no one to interpret, the arithmetic that was developed in Sumer as early as c. 3200 B.C., whether by coincidence or by intuitive induction so matched the celestial order as to amount in itself to a revelation.” The “miracle” as we have since shown, was provided by advance knowledge of the Anunnaki.
“…Modern astronomy, as well as modern exact sciences owes much to the Sumerian “firsts.”
After more interesting calculations quoted from various mathematicians, Mr. Sitchin reaches to the change of zodiacal house:
“…we have been in the “Age” (or zodiac) of Pisces since about 60 B.C., and slowly but surely we will soon enter the Age of Aquarius. It is such a shift – the change from a fading zodiacal age – to the start of another zodiacal age – that is the coming of a New Age.
“…As Mankind on Earth awaits the change with anticipation, many are those who wonder what the change will bring with it – of what Mazal with it be a harbinger? Bliss or upheavals, an end – or a new beginning? The end of the Old Order or the start of a New Order on Earth, perhaps the prophesied return of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth?
“…Does Time only flow forward or can it flow backward, philosophers have wondered. In fact, Time does shift backward, for that is the essence of the phenomenon of precession: the retardation of Earth’s orbit around the Sun that causes, once in about 2,160 years, the observance of sunrise on the spring equinox not in the next zodiacal house but in the preceding one… Celestial Time, as we have designated it, does not progress in the direction of Earthly (and all Planetary) Time, counterclockwise; rather, it moves in the opposite direction, matching the orbital (clockwise) direction of Nibiru.
“…Celestial Time does flow backward, as far as we on Earth are concerned; and therefore, in zodiacal terms, the Past is the Future.
“…Let us examine the Past.


Why would a designer leave debris floating in space?
Are cratered planetary landscapes and moonscapes, and colliding galaxies, evidence against an Intelligent Designer?
What’s a billion years between friends?
How easy it seems to simply adjust an age that does not fit the evolutionary long-age narrative. Sometimes, there are no qualms about changing a ‘date’ by a billion years!
Planet found outside our galaxy?
Has a planet really been discovered outside our galaxy? How could they find it? Could it support life?
The volcanism and age of Io
Does recent modelling solve the long-age problems with Io?
Did God use a big bang?
Is the big bang compatible with God’s creation described in Genesis?
The antikythera mechanism
The Antikythera Mechanism has proven to be an astonishingly complex mechanical computer capable of predicting the planets positions contradicting evolutionary ideas of primitive ancient man
Faster than Light?
A star appears to explode faster than the cosmic speed limit.
The origin of meteorite chondrules
A naturalistic origin for these is not even in sight.
Michael J. Oard
Should we make a treaty with aliens that might have advanced weapons and could destroy us before we know it? Who would sign it; for the people, for the aliens?
A lesson from Pluto
Going, going, gone! Lessons from a disappearing planet.
Missing Matter found?
A new study claims to have found the same amount of matter as the Big Bang predicted
The UK’s National Secular Society does not want religious creationism taught in schools, but they are OK with religious humanism being taught.
The Bible declares: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
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It was a great experience. I had attended two FIP seminars But Frankly speaking , this was the best .
I had never attended any seminar like this before. This was my first experience to be a part of this. I learnt so much things related to astronomy and physics and inspired by the work done by the Astro Club of Fergusson College of managing such program. I really thanks to Astro Vlub who gave me chance to interact with eminent personalities and thanks to my teacher Dr. Lakhotiya sir which is the alumni of FC who guide me for attend this program.


“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.” (Psalm 19:1-4)
I am very thankful to have captured this photo of the Aurora Australis (the Southern Lights), the southern counterpart of the Aurora Borealis in the northern hemisphere.
If you look carefully, you can also see the famous Southern Cross constellation, which adorns our Australian flag. However, it was diagonally upside down at the time of year when this was shot.
I had been wanting to capture the Aurora Australis for a long time, but trying to get the solar forecast to line up with the weather forecast, the work forecast and the babysitting forecast was actually more of an improbability than the Southern Lights appearing here at 42 degrees south latitude. Thankfully one day they ALL came together, and the Lord blessed me with this wonderful shot.
Because this photo of the Aurora Australis was taken a couple days out from the summer solstice I needed to wait until nearly 11 pm for it to be dark enough to start capturing the aurora. And as usual, on those clear, still days, the fire service was doing a burn-off, so the horizon was blanketed with a deep orange haze. This was still visible to the camera, and it showed up in this shot. I really like it, though, because it looks like a “night rainbow” to me.
Whenever I look at the night sky and realize that many of the “stars” I see are actually entire galaxies with countless more stars, it blows my mind. I cannot begin to comprehend the vastness of the Universe, nor the vastness of the wisdom of my God to create and maintain the natural world. God, you are AWESOME!!
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse [of being ignorant of the existence of God]” (Romans 1:20).
Have you ever sat under the night sky and wondered about all of the magnificent laws of physics, which God spoke into being and caused to govern the Universe, that makes life on earth not only possible but abundant? We need just the right gravity, electromagnetism, temperatures, chemicals, water, atmosphere and location in the galaxy among many other things. What are the odds all of these factors coming together in the proper quantities in order to support life on earth (or any other planet, for that matter)?
Mathematicians say nil.
(If you would like to investigate more about God, please see “Is God Real?”, which answers 14 common questions people have about God. There are also many links to other articles, websites and videos for further study.)


THE ORIGIN OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM
In the beginning in a cold gas cloud near where the solar system lies today, there was a competition between a physical process, gravitational collapse, and a chemical process, the formation of dust and rocks. When stars formed the strong UV light emitted by the stars evaporated the gas and stopped the formation of the dust, rocks and ultimately the planets. Such a competition is taking place today in the Trifid nebula (left) as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
"A cocoon nebula, perhaps the primordial solar nebula" by William K. Hartmann
Inside the early solar nebula, the sun shone dimly in visible light as the dust and protoplanets formed as illustrated in a painting by W. Hartmann (right). In the region now called the asteroid belt, this process stopped when Jupiter formed by a gravitational instability. Again physical and chemical processes were in competition. Jupiter orbited the sun at a different rate than the protoplanets, closer to the sun, and its periodic gravitational pull stirred up the bodies in the "asteroid belt" shutting off the planetary formation process leaving baby planets a fraction of the size of Earth but very much indicative of the protoplanets that led to the formation of the terrestrial planets.
The figure below shows Vesta. Ceres as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. These two bodies are much more massive than any body yet visited in this region of Space and are truly small planets. Also shown is the Near-Earth asteroid Eros that was recently explored by the NEAR mission.
Ceres, the largest asteroid and the first to be discovered, is named after the Roman goddess of agriculture. It was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi of the Palermo Observatory on Jan. 1, 1801. Additional observations by Piazzi were cut short due to illness. Carl Friedrich Gauss, at the age of 24, was able to solve a system of 17 linear equations to determine Ceres' orbit and to allow it to be rediscovered, a remarkable feat for this time. As a result within one year of its initial discovery, both Heinrich Olbers and Franz von Zach were able to relocate Ceres. It revolves around the Sun in 4.6 terrestrial years and has a diameter estimated at about 960 km (600 miles).
Giuseppe Piazzi pointing at Ceres
Vesta, the brightest asteroid, is named for the ancient Roman goddess of the hearth and is the only asteroid ever visible with the naked eye. Found on March 29, 1807, by Heinrich Olbers, it was the fourth minor planet to be discovered. It is the second most massive and the third largest asteroid. It revolves around the Sun in 3.6 terrestrial years and has an average diameter of about 520 km (320 miles). Its surface composition is basaltic.
WHY IS THERE SUCH A LARGE GAP BETWEEN THE ORBITS OF MARS AND JUPITER?
The large gap between Mars and Jupiter is associated with the large mass of Jupiter but there has been an evolution in our understanding of the nature of this effect. Isaac Newton, for example, regarded this gap as part of the divine plan for the stable and clockwork universe: the massive planets, Jupiter and Saturn, had been located by Providence at the outside of the planetary system, well clear of the smaller planets whose orbits their gravitational force would otherwise disrupt. Later, Johann Heinrich Lambert, who in general is as committed to an eternal, unchanging clockwork universe as was Newton, proposed that change had been brought about by the attractive power of Jupiter: "And who knows whether already planets are missing which have departed from the vast space between Mars and Jupiter? Does it then hold of celestial bodies as well as of the Earth, that the stronger chafe the weaker, and are Jupiter and Saturn destined to plunder forever?" This view is much closer to our modern view that the formation of Jupiter brought an end to the formation of planetary bodies in the gap between Mars and Jupiter and then caused the small bodies that had already formed in this region to collide with one another, leading to destruction of many of these bodies.
WHERE SHOULD THE PLANETS BE? THE LAW OF PROPORTIONALITIES
We know today that Jupiter, the most massive body in the solar system has acted to disrupt the region we know as the asteroid belt. What if Jupiter was small? We would expect a planet to form in this region. Beginning with the work of Copernicus in the 16th century, followed by Kepler who determined the laws that govern planetary motion, the precise locations of the planets came to be understood. Early in the 18th century David Gregory, in his widely-read The Elements of Astronomy
puts the planetary distances into proportional numbers: "...supposing the distance of the Earth from the Sun to be divided into ten equal Parts, of these the distance of Mercury will be about four, of Venus seven, of Mars fifteen, of Jupiter fifty two, and that of Saturn ninety five." The same numbers - indeed, a paraphrase of the same sentence - in a work published in 1724 by Christian Wolff. In 1764, the French natural philosopher Charles Bonnet published his Contemplation de la Nature, a successful work that was quickly translated into other European languages. The German translation was undertaken by Johann Daniel Titius of Wittenberg. Translators took a greater initiative than is now thought proper; Titius, probably because he was by nature self-effacing, not only left his additions unsigned but actually incorporated them in the text itself, with no hint that they were not the original work of the author. He chose to make such an addition to the paragraph where Bonnet remarks that ``We know seventeen planets that enter into the composition of our solar system [that is, major planets and their satellites]; but we are not sure that there are no more'', going on to anticipate more discoveries as telescopes improve. Titius then inserts what we now called Bode's Law:
Take notice of the distances of the planets from one another, and recognize that almost all are separated from one another in a proportion which matches their bodily magnitudes. Divide the distance from the Sun to Saturn into 100 parts; then Mercury is separated by four such parts from the Sun, Venus by 4+3=7 such parts, the Earth by 4+6=10, Mars by 4+12=16. But notice that from Mars to Jupiter there comes a deviation from this so exact progression. From Mars there follows a space of 4+24=28 such parts, but so far no planet was sighted there. But should the Lord Architect have left that space empty? Not at all. Let us therefore assume that this space without doubt belongs to the still undiscovered satellites of Mars, let us also add that perhaps Jupiter still has around itself some smaller ones which have not been sighted yet by any telescope. Next to this for us still unexplored space there rises Jupiter's sphere of influence at 4+48=52 parts; and that of Saturn at 4+96=100 parts. What a wonderful relation!
As it happened, Titius published a second edition of his translation - with the law now properly located in a footnote - just as the promising young astronomer Johann Elert Bode was putting the finishing touches to the second edition of his introduction to astronomy, Anleitung zur Kenntniss des gestirnten Himmels, which he had published in 1768 when he was only nineteen. Bode came across the relationship proposed by Titius, was convinced by it, and inserted it as a footnote in his text:
This latter point seems in particular to follow from the astonishing relation which the known six planets observe in their distances from the Sun. Let the distance from the Sun to Saturn be taken as 100, then Mercury is separated by 4 such parts from the Sun. Venus is 4+3=7. The Earth 4+6=10. Mars 4+12=16. Now comes a gap in this so orderly progression. After Mars there follows a space of 4+24=28 parts, in which no planet has yet been seen. Can one believe that the Founder of the universe had left this space empty? Certainly not. From here we come to the distance of Jupiter by 4+48=52 parts, and finally to that of Saturn by 4+96=100 parts.
It is clear from the wording that Bode is following Titius, although he of course realized that the suggestion that the missing planet was a moon of Mars was preposterous, a fact he emphasized in the third edition of his book. But he makes no acknowledgement to Titius; indeed, it is only in later editions that Bode identifies his source (possibly because Titius had pressed him to do so). In the hands of Bode the relationship assumed a new importance, for Bode was a professional astronomer soon to take on international stature, and he was well-placed to act as apostle of the new law.
THE SEARCH FOR A PLANET BETWEEN MARS AND JUPITER: THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The discovery of Uranus in 1781, close to the location predicted by the Titius-Bode law of proportionality, persuaded Baron Franz Xaver von Zach, the court astronomer at Gotha to search for the proposed missing planet between Mars and Jupiter. Not unreasonably, he limited his investigation to the Zodiac, and believing that only a methodical search offered hope of success, he produced for himself a catalogue of zodiacal stars arranged by right ascension; but without success. In the autumn of 1799 the idea of a cooperative attack on the problem emerged:
It was the opinion of these men of discernment, that to get onto the trail of this so-long-hidden planet, it cannot be a matter for one or two astronomers to scrutinise the entire Zodiac down to the telescopic stars.
It was on 21 September the following year that the cooperative attack - probably without precedent in the history of science - became a reality. On that day six astronomers met in Lilienthal: von Zach himself; J.H. Schröter, the chief magistrate of Lilienthal, whose world-famous collection of instruments included a Herschel reflector of 27ft focal length; H.W.M. Olbers, physician from nearby Bremen and longtime collaborator with Schröter; C.L. Harding, who was employed by Schröter and who was himself to discover the third asteroid in 1804; F.A. Freiherr von Ende; and Johann Gildemeister. They decided that even six observers were too few for the task ahead, and nominated instead a group of twenty-four practicing astronomers chosen from throughout Europe. Schröter was to be president and von Zach, secretary. The entire Zodiac was divided up into twenty-four zones each of 15 degrees in longitude, and extending some 7 or 8 degrees north and south of the ecliptic in latitude. The zones were allocated to the members by lot. Each member was to draw up a star chart for his zone, extending to the smallest telescopic stars. Accordingly von Zach sent out the invitations to join this society of celestial cops. Shortly thereafter on January 1, 1801 Guiseppe Piazzi of Palermo discovered the first asteroid, 1 Ceres, but, ironically, despite the methodical approach of von Zach and his colleagues, Piazzi was not an original member of the celestial cops. They had been scooped by a lone observer.
Note: Some of this information was excerpted from
Bode's Law and the Discovery of Ceres
by Michael Hoskin, Churchill College, Cambridge.
Vesta: A Brief Review of Current Knowledge by K. Tschann-Grimm
OTHER SITES OF INTEREST
Solar Views - Vesta
Asteroids 2001: From Piazzi to the 3rd Millennium
Meteorite: International Quarterly of Meteorites and Meteorite Science
The Minor Planet Observer


The massive radio telescope is moving into position now and it'll eventually point out trillions of miles into space towards a planet that we think may be able to support life. This Ukrainian space worker is a bit nervous about it all, but says the idea is eventually this planet would hopefully be able to receive these electronic messages. We've asked young people in the U.K. this summer to create airwave messages, says this mission commander. He says people often talked about their fears and hopes for the future, and it gives a good snapshot of this generation. Bebo took this seriously and invited celebrities to encourage people to leave their own message. I'm now standing in the dish of this huge radio telescope, which is 70 meters in diameter and is usually used to spot near-earth objects which could fall down to earth. Now it's looking much deeper in space and the question is, if this message is received, what will they think of us?


This past weekend, late Saturday night, on a long dark road back to our hotel I saw the most vivid shooting star ever. The other day I researched whether or not we were in the midst of a meteor shower. It turned out that we are. The Eta Aquarids comes around May each year and last weekend it was at its peak. The Eta Aquarids is the first round of two sets of meteor showers that arrive every year when we pass through the dust trail of Halley's Comet. The other set is the Orionids in October. The last time the comet was visible to Earth was in 1986. I figured there is a lesson in there somewhere about not being able to avoid the past.
If the Universe keeps us running through the dust trail of a comet that last passed by over almost 24 years ago then how can we expect to forget the things in our past, good and bad, that brought us to where we are today?
At some point we will pass through the dust trail of our past possibly multiple times. What we do is what is important. Do we run towards where that piece of meteorite may land hoping to be hit by it or do we run the opposite direction in fear of being hit by it or do we just admire the flash in the sky, tell our family and friends about it, and move on?
For what it is worth, good and bad, guilty or blameless, I was glad to have seen that shooting star and I know that if I had turned that corner any earlier or later I would have missed it.
This may have been a sign that I am where I need to be now or it could simply be a chunk of minerals burning up in our atmosphere. The choice is mine.


28 Croatian students will communicate with astronauts for just over 10 minutes at the International Space Station on Wednesday by asking them one question each. The project is organised by the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, the International Amateur Radio Union and the space agencies of the EU, the U.S., Canada, Russia and Japan, to coincide with Croatia’s EU entry.
Below are the 28 questions the students from Croatia’s Technical School Ruder Boskovic will ask the astronauts on the International Space Station whilst it is flying over Zagreb at a speed of 27,000 kilometers per hour at an altitude of 450 kilometers.
1. How did you get to the space station? How long did the trip there take?
2. How long is the training program for astronauts? Is the training hard?
3. How long are the preparations before going into space?
4. How long will the International Space Station (ISS) mission last?
5. Is it difficult to manage the ISS?
6. How to you get enough water and power at the ISS?
7. How do you sleep at the ISS? Do you have your own bed?
8. What do you eat and what does your food look like? Do you have an eating plan
9. How do you maintain personal hygiene?
10. How does the body handle the long stay at the ISS?
11. How long does it take to go around the earth?
12. How do you maneuver the ISS if something from space comes close?
13. How often do you contact your family and in what way?
14. How do you treat yourself if you get sick?
15. What is the procedure in the case of solar storms?
16. How do you make exterior repairs to the space station?
17. What is your favourite pastime there?
18. What do you miss the most in space?
19. What are the most beautiful or the most inspiring view of the universe?
20. Would you like to be part of the first human mission on Mars?
21. What do you do in dangerous situations, such as when large meteors are approaching Space Station?
22. How do you get back to earth after the mission is complete?
23. Do you ever feel like you want to come home?
24. What was the hardest thing to get use to when you arrived on the ISS?
25. How long can a person stay in space for?
26. What is the temperature on the ISS? and what is it outside of it?
27. Is it difficult to manage such a valuable equipment?
28. Is it difficult to be an astronaut?
To hear the answers to the questions you can tune in here for the live feed from 19:30 (CET) on 26 June 2013.


Why People are Going Nuts, Solar Minimum, Age of Aquarius w/ Clif High
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf3lzat41Q0lif High rejoins the program to discuss possible reasons why people are acting very strange and irrational. We iscuss the solar minimum and the mass amounts of radiation that are bombarding us from every direction. We also discuss the Age of Aquarius and how Chinese history provides us amazing insights into this incredible stage of human development.
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Out of This World Space Bedding Set for Kids
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Fly them to the moon with these 100% organic cotton sheets available with matching pillow shams, quilt and decorative pillow. Makes for the best trip to outer space! You can purchase the full set, or individual items. Please make your item selection from the menu below. Click on image for greater detail.


Aurora Borealis is a mesmerising phenomena. Although solar activity is at a minimum this year the Northern Lights can still be spectacular, as was the case last night. After midnight I caught these pictures and the Northern Lights were captivating despite the temperature being minus 14° C.
Solar activity is at a minimum this year and will probably be in the next two years as well. Although solar activity is an indicator for spectacular Northern Lights, it is not always the case. In the last few days the Earth has been inside a stream of solar winds which cause geomagnetic storms around the Arctic Circle. Thus these magnificent shows of Aurora Borealis.


NASA’s Kepler mission recently announced that they have come one step closer to finding an Earth-like world by identifying their first exoplanet which both orbits a star similar to our own Sun, and does so within the so-called “habitable zone”. This is pretty amazing, considering what it takes to see something as small as a planet from so far away. The Kepler space telescope keeps an unblinking eye on a region of our galaxy packed with hundreds of thousands of stars, and monitors every single one of them for the slightest dip in brightness. When these dips follow a certain pattern, it indicates that the star has a planet which has passed between it and us, and the timing of the dips can reveal the planet’s orbital distance and it’s diameter. But there is a limit to what this technique has been able to achieve so far, which is why only the largest, fastest moving planets have been seen so far. Even with these limitations, Kepler has upped the official count of possible explanets to over a thousand, and the number keeps climbing.
The fanfair around this most recent discovery is a little misleading though. The implication is that we have found another Earth, complete with liquid water and that is is buzzing with life. This is unfortunate, since I think that what they’ve actually achieved is pretty astonishing as it stands, without the need to exaggerate. The facts are as follows: A yellow G-class star, similar to our own Sun, has been found to have an “earth-like” planet, orbiting in the habitable zone. This means that the star has the same basic properties as our Sun – colour, temperature, size. The habitable zone is a range of possible orbits in which a planet could conceivably have liquid water, which is essential to all life on Earth. Anything outside this zone would either be cold enough that ice could never melt, or that steam could never condense. And by ‘Earth-like’, they mean that the only thing anybody knows about the planet is that it is some 2.4 times larger in diameter than the Earth. It might be made of rock, like Earth, or it could be composed of Gas (like the four largest planets in our own Solar System), or it could even be made from water and ice. The occultation technique used by Kepler cannot reveal these details.
That said, it is astonoshing that we’re able to detect planets at all. Less than 20 years ago, exoplanets were pure speculation, but in a short time we’ve gone from wondering “Do planets even exist outside the Solar System?” to assuming that most Stars have them. And that is a huge leap forward, even without having to invoke ET in every single press release.


I know this blog is predominately about food. But I feel so strongly this morning I have to put this into words. Or at least try.
I just walked in from seeing one of the final space shuttle launches. Every launch I have ever seen has moved me emotionally. There are critics who say that the shuttle is old and out of date. And this is true. But really, what a beautiful machine. What incredible accomplishments it has had during its lifetime. Both scientifically, but also in bringing together a nation. Is it time for change in our space program? Yes, absolutely. But it is also time to remember the great things the space shuttle has done.
My memories of the shuttle range from lying on our backs in music class with our feet up on the wall pretending to be astronauts lifting off, to standing at the space center watching the shuttle take off. I have been humbled by the beauty of the launches and proud that for a short time, I was able to contribute to the program. I feel completely lucky that I have been able to live so close to the space center. That I have seen so many launches. That I got to work with the incredible team at KSC. I have been able to climb the launch pad, meet astronauts, and be within arm’s reach of a shuttle.
The launch this morning was beautiful. The skies were clear and the shuttle lit up the sky. A few minutes later, the rumble from the lift off made it to us and I was reminded of the shuttle’s power.
I apologize for the ramble this morning. Like I said, every launch moves me, but the closer we get to the end of the space shuttle program, it hits me even more. I am sad that we are losing something that has been so important to the United States, to science, to space exploration, and more. I am sad that we are stopping with no alternative, with no clear future for the program. I said above, it may be time for change, but I don’t believe it is time to stop with no clear path forward.
I just hope that a new plan, a new direction for NASA can be laid out soon. That we find some new path in space. I hope for all of you, that if you have not seen a space shuttle launch, that you take the opportunity to see one in the next couple of months. It truly is breathtaking.


Jupiter's moons are putting on an amazing show this month. The orbital path of the moons is tilting edge-on to Earth and the sun. This lineup makes it possible to watch the moons pass in front of each other and even eclipse each other with their shadows. Get all the details, including where to find Jupiter in the sky this month, in this edition of What's Up.
Tagged under: NASA JPL Jupiter moons month orbital path tilting edge-ion Earth sun lineup pass front
Clip makes it super easy to turn any public video into a formative assessment activity in your classroom.
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pinta is a data reduction pipeline for pulsar data taken using the upgraded Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). It takes the uGMRT raw pulsar data as input, does RFI mitigation and folding, and gives partially folded profile archives as output. It is now an observatory pipeline at GMRT. This pipeline was described in this paper.
ugmrt2fil is a program to convert uGMRT raw pulsar data to sigproc-filterbank format. It is a part of the
GWecc.jl is a Julia library used to compute Pulsar Timing Array (PTA) signals due to gravitational waves emitted by black hole binaries. It is designed to be called from PTA data analysis packages like
ENTERPRISE and provides a Python binding for this purpose. It can also be used to simulate pulsar time of arrivals using packages like
PINT. This code is based on this paper and this paper. It is a rewrite of the GWecc code written in C++.
This is an implementation of Mikkola’s method for solving the classical Kepler equation.


Spacecraft running out of fuel after many years of successful service seems to be the theme the last week or so. First it was the Dawn spacecraft out in the asteroid belt and, now, it is the Kepler spacecraft built to search for alien worlds around distant stars. I captured the launch of Kepler aboard a Delta 2 rocket from a lonely cow pasture late at night way back in March 2009 as seen below: Read more about the mission’s […]
From the 1 November 2018 NASA press release: NASA’s Dawn spacecraft has gone silent, ending a historic mission that studied time capsules from the solar system’s earliest chapter. Dawn missed scheduled communications sessions with NASA’s Deep Space Network on Wednesday, Oct. 31, and Thursday, Nov. 1. After the flight team eliminated other possible causes for the missed communications, mission managers concluded that the spacecraft finally ran out of hydrazine, the fuel that enables the spacecraft to control its pointing. Dawn […]
A female Pileated Woodpecker seen hard at work foraging for insects by tearing the bark off the old oak trees in front of Audubon House. Her raucous pounding and all the debris falling to the ground were hard to miss, which made her easy to find. Dryocopus pileatus about to fly away.
A quick afternoon walk on the first truly cool day of Florida’s short, but desperately appreciated, Fall-WInter season found a lot of insect activity along Oslo Road where it cuts through the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area. The insects were out and about appreciating the cool weather just as much as everyone else. White Peacock Butterfly Green Orchid Bee Green Orchid Bee Honey Bee Honey Bee Honey Bee Dragonfly Bumble Bee
Categories: Nature • Tags: Anartia jatrophae, Apis mellifera, Bombus impatiens, Bumble Bee, butterfly, Dragonfly, Euglossa dilemma, green orchid bee, Honey Bee, ORCA, Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, White Peacock
After much effort and dashing about, this Tricolored Heron splashes away gripping a little fish for a tiny meal at Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. From the OspreyWatch project.


Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.
signals transmitted by radio and television at certain times of the day and used to determine the time on atomic and astronomical scales. In the USSR, time signals transmitted by broadcast radio stations and used to set clocks consist of six short signals. The beginning of the last signal coincides with the beginning of the hour. Time signals for scientific and technical purposes are transmitted by special radio stations and by television in accordance with officially approved schedules and programs; in the USSR they are approved by the Interdepartmental Commission of the Unified Time Service of the Gosstandart (State Standard Administration) of the USSR. Since 1972, the time signals of the USSR have been transmitted on an internationally coordinated scale of atomic time. The coordination of this scale with the scale of Greenwich time is achieved by having all transmitting stations simultaneously shift the minute signal by 1 sec, usually at the end of the year.
Coded approximate values for differences between Greenwich time and coordinated time are transmitted together with the time signals.
REFERENCEBelotserkovskii, D. Iu., and G. N. Palii. “Novaia sistema peredachi radiosignalov tochnogo vremeni i obraztsovykh chastot.” Izmeritel’naia tekhnika, 1971, no. 11.
D. IU. BELOTSERKOVSKII


Lunar and Solar Eclipses
It is claimed by the Ahmadiyya that the Prophet (saw) prophecied that the Mahdi would appear when the moon would be eclipsed on the first day of the lunar month of Ramadan and the sun would be eclipsed in the middle of the same month.
Since this is astronomically impossible, Ahmadiyya say that first means first of 3 possible eclipse days and middle means the middle of 3 possible eclipse days. This is refuted below by David McNaughton.
Context of the Fake Ahadith
This is a summary of the Dar Qutni chapter that contains this account, not a 'hadith'
1762: Aisha(ra) said - Once Rasulullah (saw) commanded . . . . not direct quote
1763: no narration back to Rasulullah (saw)
1764: Aisha (ra) narrates how Rasulullah (saw) conducted eclipse prayer - no direct quote
1765: Ahadith comparison according to various narrators
1766: Description of Eid prayer - no direct quote
1767: ibn Abbas narrating the instruction of Rasulullah (saw) - note he is ahl-e-bait and quotes the Nabi (saw). Ahmadis say it is not necessary for ahl-e-bait to attribute to Nabi (saw)
1768: Aisha (ra) describing eclipse prayer of Rasulullah (saw) . . . not direct quote
1769: Direct quote from Prophet (saw) in inverted commas
1770: Direct quote from Prophet (saw) in inverted commas
1771: NO MENTION of Rasulullah: and 'our Mahdi' means the mahdi of Muhammad bin Ali - whose words are quoted.
1772: Direct quote from Prophet (saw).
1771 is the 'hadith' of the eclipses. Can anyone imagine Rasulullah (saw) saying 'our Mahdi'. And this chapter is about eclipses under the context of Eids. That it will be an astronomical anomaly - against the laws of astronomy - and no such event has happened in the billions of years since the creation of the heavens and the earth. This was just the opinion of Imam Baqir - Muhammad bin Ali.
Now let us look at the words:
inna - surely
li-mahdiyyina - for our Mahdi
aayatain - two signs
lam takoona - not occured
munz - since
khalaqa samawati wal ard - creation of the Heavens and the Earth
yankasiful qamaru - the moon will be eclipsed
li-awwali laila - on the first night
min ramadan - from Ramadan
wa tankasifu shams - and it will eclipse the sun
fee nisf minh - in the middle of it
wa lam takoona - and these two have not happened
munz - since
khalaqa samawati wal ard - creation of the Heavens and the Earth
Analysis by David McNaughton
by Dr David McNaughton, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org
Extracted from the more detailed version at http://dlmcn.com/qadfl.html#beg
The Holy Month of Ramadan 1311 (March/April 1894) contained both a lunar and a solar eclipse. The Ahmadiyya community attaches great importance to them, believing that they conferred unusual and special status on their leader, Mirza Ghulam Ahmed. This is based on a claim that the lunar eclipse occurred on the earliest possible date in an Islamic month - which they argue is the 13th. For them, it was also significant that (according to their reckoning) the subsequent solar eclipse took place on 28th Ramadan, supposedly occupying the 'middle' of the permissible range of dates.
Question-marks against eclipses on the 27th
The Ahmadiyyas maintain that a solar eclipse may be witnessed either during the 27th, or on the 28th, or on the 29th of a lunar month. At first glance the 27th does seem questionable, because a crescent-sighting on the following date would terminate the month incorrectly after just 28 days. Remembering that a New Moon is 'born' during a solar eclipse, its age just after sunset next day would exceed 24 hours - almost certainly making it visible somewhere in the world.
Admittedly, if people are following an Islamic calendar based on observations made just at one point, then even a 30-hour crescent will sometimes be missed, particularly if the moon lies quite a long way to the right or left of the setting sun. (Under these circumstances, incidentally, successful sightings will usually be achieved in Earth's other hemisphere).
However, by looking very carefully at the beginning of a lunar month with a solar eclipse on its 27th day, we learn about a much bigger problem. A detailed analysis of the associated time-intervals (see the "Appendix" below) - shows that this can happen only when the crescent still remains invisible 1½ days after the 'birth' of the New Moon. This is certainly possible at a time and place where the moon sets a long way to the right or left of the sun, but only if the low-level atmospheric visibility is very poor at the same time.
The delay in starting Ramadan 1311
The new crescent was not visible from Qadian (near Lahore) on 8th March 1894, so the commencement of Ramadan was postponed to the evening of March 9th. This meant that the date of the subsequent Full Moon and lunar eclipse (21st March) became 13th Ramadan rather than the 14th, thus agreeing with the Islamic date required by the Ahmadis.
At Qadian at dusk on 8th March 1894, the moon was situated 10 degrees above the sun. In hazy weather, it would admittedly have then been impossible to spot the New Moon. However, the crescent would probably have been observed from high-altitude stations to the north or east of Qadian - where the air is always thinner, less dusty, and drier.
The associated problem of 28-day months
At Qadian, it would have been sounder to commence Ramadan 1311 at dusk on 8th March. Whenever haze prevents identification of a New Moon, as a general rule it is advisable to inquire whether it was detected elsewhere, and if so, to begin the new month immediately. This is because the sky could become quite clean at the end of the same month, revealing the crescent perhaps only 16 to 20 hours after it was 'born'. And if the first day of that month had been 'lost', it might then have to finish incorrectly after just 28 days. Two (or even three) successive 29-day months can occur naturally: in those circumstances an (obviously mistaken) 28-day Islamic month is possible with the later one - if its start is postponed due to local bad weather.
Dhu al-Hijjah 1411 (13th June to 12th July 1991) at 25º South, 65º East - provides a specific example of that problem, as discussed in URL http://dlmcn.com/questions9q.html#q16
Lunar eclipses on the 12th of a month
Rules for determining Islamic calendars vary according to community and nationality; one cannot be dogmatic as to whether any particular system is "right" or "wrong". However, it is essential to be consistent - always retaining exactly the same criteria through the entire year (otherwise 28-day and 31-day months will occasionally be experienced).
If the Ahmadiyyas wish to base their decisions on observations made just at a specified point (like Qadian, where haze may hide a young moon), then lunar eclipses will sometimes be witnessed on the 12th of an Islamic month. This is because:
- (i) the start of a month can occasionally be delayed till 2½ days after the 'birth' of the New Moon (if crescent identification is impossible after 1½ days, as discussed earlier), and
- (ii) because it is possible for the interval between New and Full Moon to be less than 14 days.
Here are two examples of a late start to an Islamic month resulting in an eclipse falling on its 12th day:
At 42º South, 50º East on 8th February 2008 at dusk, the crescent would not have been visible in the presence of thick low-level haze. A locally determined new month at this particular place (at sea level) could quite easily not have commenced until the evening of 9th February. In that case, the subsequent lunar eclipse on 21st February 2008 would have been observed there (before dawn) on the 12th of the Islamic month.
Poor atmospheric visibility would also have obscured the Ahmadi Ramadan crescent on 8th March 1894 at 40º South, 120º West. If based on observations made just at this point, the new month would then have had to wait till the evening of the 9th - as at Qadian. In the southeast Pacific, however, the subsequent lunar eclipse on 21st March would have been witnessed in the early hours of the morning - which in that region was still 12th Ramadan. (Less haze would be necessary for a postponement to March 9th if we moved slightly further away from the equator, say to 45º South, 120º West).
There are instances in the past, when the lunar crescent remained hidden in haze with a sun-moon separation and configuration similar to those above. (Indeed, cases like that are cited in articles written by Bradley Schaefer in the USA, and by Mohammad Ilyas in Malaysia).
Weather conditions favouring lunar eclipses on the 12th are not too different from those necessary to obtain solar eclipses on the 27th of an Islamic month, namely haze which is dense enough to disguise a 1½-day crescent.
Thus, the Ahmadiyyas must either accept that eclipses may occur on the 12th of a lunar month as well as on the 27th - or else they must regard eclipses as impossible on both those Islamic dates. Whichever choice is made, requires revision of their thesis.
To enable an eclipse to occur on the 27th of an Islamic month, that month would need to have its commencement delayed until the moon's age was 2½ days. It is easy to prove that.
Let us assume that (at the location being considered) the eclipse is observed near the end of the 27th date in the lunar month, say 26.95 days after that month commenced (which is always at dusk).
The average length of a lunar circuit is just over 29.5 days, so we will use this figure for our illustration. [In fact, it would really be better to assume a higher value. It certainly cannot be significantly less - see below**.] This 29.5-day period is then the interval between the 'birth' of the two New Moons marking - or associated with - the beginning and end of the month. Remember too that a New Moon is always 'born' during a solar eclipse.
Subtracting the first period from the second gives
29.5 - 26.95 = 2.55 days,
i.e. this particular Islamic month must have started 2.55 days after the birth of its New Moon. This means that the crescent could not have been sighted at dusk on the evening just before that month commenced; i.e. the moon still remained invisible 1.55 days after its 'birth'.
- - - -
** A study of the patterns of the moon's behaviour demonstrates that a faster than normal lunar circuit (which can be as short as 29.27 days) is not likely to be associated with this phenomenon of an eclipse on Day 27. That is because its comparatively high speed of migration makes it easier to spot the crescent after 1½ days.
An article in Urdu that explains the anomalies in the theory:


10th December 20
Year 13 A level Physics students have been looking at a neon tube through a diffraction grating, which splits up the red-orange neon colour into an emission spectrum.
Each line is caused by an electron dropping down one or more energy levels in the neon atom and emitting a photon. The colour of the photon depends on the size of the energy gap.
This process is used to observe the light from galaxies; red shift of the light is evidence for the expansion of the universe.
Dr Louise Affleck, Director of Studies and Physics Teacher


WASHINGTON — Astronomers who have spent the last year worried about the effect that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites will have on their observations say they are increasingly concerned about the impact from other proposed megaconstellations.
Astronomers became alarmed about the effect the Starlink satellites would have after the launch of the initial set of 60 spacecraft in May 2019. Since then, an American Astronomical Society (AAS) committee has been working with the company to discuss ways to mitigate the effect the satellites would have on astronomy.
SpaceX has responded to those concerns first with an experimental “DarkSat” launched in January, whose surfaces were darkened to reduce the amount of sunlight they reflected. SpaceX followed that up with a “VisorSat” on the most recent Starlink launch June 3, a satellite that has sunshades intended to block sunlight from reaching reflective surfaces on the satellite.
While the effectiveness of VisorSat will have to be measured in the weeks ahead once the spacecraft reaches its final orbit, astronomers say they’re pleased that SpaceX has been willing to work with them on the issue. “The bottom line is that significant resources at SpaceX are being devoted to these technical solutions,” said James Lowenthal of Smith College during a press conference at the 236th Meeting of the AAS June 3.
SpaceX, however, is not the only company with satellite megaconstellation plans. Lowenthal said that astronomers have had far fewer discussions with other satellite operators. “We had one telecon with OneWeb, but then they declared bankruptcy,” he said during a presentation at the conference June 2. “We’ve had no major conversations with other operators.”
That lack of discussions is magnified by new proposals by some companies, including OneWeb, to expand their constellations. Despite filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, OneWeb submitted plans with the Federal Communications Commission May 27 to increase its constellation by 48,000 satellites to give it “greater flexibility to meet soaring global connectivity demands,” according to a company statement about the proposal.
“The situation just got worse,” said Pat Seitzer of the University of Michigan, who has been studying the effect of Starlink and other satellite constellations on astronomy, at the AAS press conference. The filings by OneWeb and other companies would add as many as 50,000 satellites on top of plans for systems that proposed up to 60,000 satellites. “That’s a very serious problem.”
The OneWeb proposal would put its satellites into orbits about 1,200 kilometers high, far higher than the Starlink satellites at 550 kilometers. At that higher altitude, he said, the satellites would be visible for longer after sunset and before sunrise. In one scenario examining conditions at the Vera Rubin Observatory under construction in Chile, at least 500 satellites would be visible at any given time all night long in the summer.
At the higher altitude, the satellites will be too dim to be seen with the naked eye, assuming the new constellation uses a design similar to OneWeb’s existing satellites. However, Seitzer said that they would still be bright enough to saturate sensitive instruments at that observatory, interfering with observations.
Other observatories are worried about the new constellations as well. Lowenthal said at the briefing that the AAS surveyed 23 observatories around the world about the impacts of satellite megaconstellations, starting with the effects of an initial set of 1,584 Starlink satellites.
“The majority of the observatories responding expressed significant concerns, grave challenges to science and predicted significant financial costs,” he said. The affected research, he said, included wide-field surveys where it’s impossible to avoid satellites passing through the field of view as well as time-sensitive observations of transient phenomena.
Asked to assess the effects if there are 20,000 satellites in orbit from various megaconstellations, he said, a majority said that nearly all their observations would be affected. “About half said there would be a critical failure of that facility.”
AAS is holding an online workshop in late June to discuss the issue with astronomers and satellite companies. Besides SpaceX, Lowenthal said that Amazon, which is developing a satellite system called Project Kuiper, planned to participate.
“Will all these companies be good citizens? We don’t know,” he said of those proposing megaconstellations, warning that such systems threaten to “draw the blinds” on the night sky. “Astronomers are working hard with SpaceX and, we hope, other satellite operators to understand and to reduce the impacts to astronomy and the night sky.”