Seema's blog

Before we go for another story I think that you should know about the stars & planets currently in the sky. You can do this by naked eye,no instrument needed only clear sky. Time-7 to 9 pm  Start from South. Here  you can spot Jupiter & Saturn pair Southwest . Bright planet is Jupiter & above that faint Saturn. Above that in right corner you can see a star -Altair(Shravan)-in Aquila(Garud).  Then see at West. You can see beautiful Swan or Sygnus.  Somewhat + sign. Bright star Deneb. Below that at horizon is Vega or Abhijit.Summer triangle Altair,Vega & Deneb Now North.You can spot M shaped Sharmistha or Cassiopeia. If a line is drawn through M ,Pole star can be seen though it is faint. Cepheus or Vrushaparva can be seen at left. Polaris Now see at East.Mars can be spotted easily.                                The great sqaure or Pegasus is over the head .It is Mahasva. You can see 4 stars of Andromeda starting from the great sqaure, actually they are in pairs. Lastly

Twinkle twinkle Little star....all of us have sang this nursery rhyme. But how many of us are really wondered about them?  I am going to tell some interesting stories  about them. I hope you will like them. So let's start... In above pics you can see Kritika Nakshatra. How to locate it?  You can see a large rectangle of Orion or Mrug Nakshatra in the sky. From the pic shown you can easily trace it.  On 16 th November there was Diwali Padava.The first day of the month.The Nakshatra of this month is Kritika. The name of Marathi month Kartik is due this. The Kritika Nakshatra rises in the evening & sets at dawn in this month. There were seven stars at the time of vedas in Kritika Nakshatra. 7 stars names-Amba,Dula,Nitali, Abhrayanti, Meghadanti, Vardhayanti & Chupunika. Chupunika vanished,so 6 remain. Amba (Alcyone) is the brightest star. It is a double star. Every star has  it's own nebula,so they appear like pearls are kept in cotton. Also every star has different  speed