Night Sky
November 22, 2009
Poets, common people, children and adults alike, we all wonder at the beauty of the night sky once in a while. There is magic to the night’s majestic picture, and they way people have perceived it throughout the ages of history. Most ancient civilizations focused on the study of the sky map and organized all their major life events accordingly: testimonies about the importance of constellations, stars and celestial bodies are constantly brought by the calenders, the astronomic sites, the cults of the sun and even the myths and legends. And all these start from the premises that Earth is connected by invisible links with the rest of the bodies in the universe. Modern man is no longer paying that much attention to the night sky.
Presently we have other means to study the night sky and different purposes in mind: we are looking for scientific evidence to support the theory of UFO visitation, we watch major cosmic events with the help of huge telescopes that get an insight of the inner life of the galaxy or we sheerly want to admire the majesty of the universe. Depending on the time of the year when one watches the night sky, different constellations are visible as the Earth orbits around the sun. Many things have been discovered in time, and plenty are waiting hidden ever since the Greeks gave the first name to the constellations.
A major factor that prevents the proper observation of the night sky is pollution. You’d be disappointed about how little of the night sky you can see in a crowded city with all the smog blocking the view. Many people claim to have seen the most beautiful of night sky panoramas in the mountains, where the altitude increases panorama viewing because of the rarer atmosphere. The purer the air, the better the visibility of the night sky. For those who take a great pleasure in astronomy, the study of the constellations with the help of various softwares and private telescopes is definitely rewarding.
Last but not least, the study of the zodiac is directly related to the position of the stars on the night sky. Every sign of the zodiac corresponds to a constellation, and its location together with the movement of the planets in the solar system lead to the creation of the horoscope individually, monthly or for the entire zodiac sign. This is in fact the astrological explanation why people born under the same sign share a set of similarities. All in all, we have never stopped keeping the eyes focused on the universe, as the interdependence is sometimes more than obvious.
