Astrology: An Astronomical Perspective

Astronomy may well be man’s oldest scientific endeavour. When we weren’t busy eking out an existence, we were looking to the stars. The sky to our ancestors must have seemed enigmatic and mysterious. Removed from terrestrial affairs, the heavens seemed aloof.

The Vagabond Astronomer

This is a concept that I have been thinking about for some time. Basically, I love two things; astronomy and travel. The kind of travel that I really like to do is independent backpacking. Vagabonding.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke

  OK, Arthur C. Clarke merits two “great” entries.  One of my favorite authors since I was a teenager, he has the uncommon knack of making real science come alive. The scenario presented by Clarke in Rendezvous is a highly pausible one; I’d place a private bet that it would be the most likely situation [...]

Measuring the Circumference of the Earth: the Eratosthenes Method

  This is one I duplicated in High School that I first heard about on Carl Sagans’ Cosmos series.  Way back in the 3rd Century BC, the Greek philospher Eratosthenes of Cyrene devised a method of calculating the circumference of the Earth.