The year in the Roman calendar naturally starts on March 1. After all, the words September, October, November, and December literally mean Seventh Month, Eighth Month, Ninth Month, and Tenth Month, respectively. Keeping track of the passage of years was primarily the concern of those keeping historical records. Ordinary people were not particularly concerned with […]
New Moon. By the modern definition, New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many […]
The Quadrantids have the potential to be the strongest shower of the year but usually fall short due to the short length of maximum activity (6 hours) and the poor weather experienced during early January. The average hourly rate is 25 meteors per hour.
Epiphany also known as Theophany in the east, is a Christian feast day that celebrates the revelation (theophany) of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. Articles about the Feast of the Epiphany on the VO Faith and Science Archive.
Mercury will reach its greatest separation from the Sun in its Jun–Jul 2021 morning apparition. It will be shining brightly at mag 0.3.
Venus comes to inferior conjunction. Inferior conjunction – when it goes between us and the sun in space. Venus will pass just under 5 degrees from the sun. It will officially shift from the evening to the morning sky for all observers on Earth. - EarthSky.org
The Moon is at First quarter on this date -it will be visible high in the southern sky in early evening.
The Moon’s distance from Earth varies throughout its monthly orbit because the Moon’s orbit isn’t perfectly circular. Every month, the Moon’s eccentric orbit carries it to apogee – its most distant point from Earth – and then, some two weeks later, to perigee – the Moon’s closest point to Earth in its monthly orbit. - earthsky.org
The planet Mercury is a Perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) on July 23rd.
The Full Moon rises at sunset, is visible all night, and is high in the sky around midnight.
"Martin Luther King Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. Born in Atlanta, King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, tactics his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi helped inspire." - Wikipedia
The planet Venus is a Perihelion (its closest approach to the Sun) on this date.
Mercury passes very close to the Sun in the sky as its orbit carries it between the Sun and Earth. This happens once in 116 days (the synodic cycle of the planet), and over the course of a couple weeks, Mercury will change from appearing in the evening sky to appearing in the morning sky.
The Moon is at Last Quarter (or Third Quarter) – rising around midnight, and visible to the south after sunrise.
The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent future genocides. […]
A tapestry from Strasbourg depicting the Purification of the Virgin Mary and the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. Candlemas (also spelled Candlemass), also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ and the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a Christian Holy Day commemorating the presentation of Jesus at the Temple. It is based […]
Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti, an adjunct scholar with the Vatican Observatory, will give a webinar titled: God's Revelation through Nature: Scientific and Theological Perspectives - Saturday February 5, 2022 at 5:00 PM Italian time (11:00 AM EST time) - hosted by the Catholic Conscience Forum and the Society of Catholic Scientists. How do scientists understand theology and […]