Seema's blog

Why is it called Cancer ? It's Latin for “crab”, the shape of the constellation Cancer . In Sanskrit, it's Kark while Khekada in Marathi. This is also apparently why the disease is called “ cancer ” — a malignant tumour, cut in half with veins stretching out from it, apparently looked like a crab to someone. How to locate it in the sky? See the figure.You can easily find Mrug ,the Orion with 3 stars in straight line & 4 stars forming a rectangle. Draw a line through the front 2 stars of the rectangle downwards , you get 2 stars in inclined position.If you see leftwards, another pair of 2 stars is seen.This is called Punrvasu in Marathi. It's shape is like a parllalogram.We will see about this Nakshatra in detail in next blog. In the separated limbs of Y ,Ashlesha Nakshatra is seen, with a shape like Marathi letter ए. Parallel to this there are stars situated in Y shape.That is the Cancer. In  Greek mythology, Cancer is identified with the crab that appeared while H...

  On 14th of January,on the day of Makarsankrant there was the first day of Pousya ,the 10 th month of Indian calendar. In this month you can see Pusya Nakshatra rising in the East, therefore the name. The  Beehive Cluster  (also known as  Praesepe  (Latin for "manger"),  M44 ,  NGC 2632 , or  Cr 189 ), is an open cluster  in the constellation Cancer .  One of the nearest open clusters to Earth , it contains a larger population of stars than any other nearby bright open clusters.  Under dark skies, the Beehive Cluster looks like a small nebulous object to the naked eye, and has been known since ancient times.  Classical astronomer Ptolemy described  it as a "nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer". It was among the first objects that   he studied with his telescope On a dark night, look for it as a smudge of light, with 3 times the moon’s diameter. It’s really a wondrous cluster of stars.  Binoculars magicall...

  Sirius    is the brightest star in the night sky.  It's name is derived from th e Greek  word  Seirios  means"glowing" or "scorching". The star is designated  α Canis Majoris. Sirius  is a binary star  consisting of Sirius A, and a faint white dwarf  companion Sirius B  Although white to blue-white in color, Sirius might be called a rainbow star, as it often flickers with many colors. Due to the brightness, twinkling and color changes  people sometimes report Sirius as a UFO! In fact, these changes happens when such a bright star as Sirius shines through the blanket of Earth’s atmosphere. The varying density and temperature of Earth’s air affect starlight, especially when we’re seeing the star low in the sky. Sirius is gradually moving closer to the Solar System, so it will slightly increase in brightness over the next 60,000 years.  Sirius system is one of Earth's  n earest neighbours. Sirius A is about twice ...

In Greek mythology, Orion was a giant, supernaturally strong hunter, w ho  said he will kill  every animal on Earth. The angry goddess Gaia (Earth) sent Scorpion  to deal with Orion . There's an interesting tale involving several  constitutions with Ophichus as a key player. It is like this.Orion was out,hunting one day with his faithful dogs, Canis Major & Canis Minor ,when they started chasing a hare- Lepus. But Orion was stung at his heel by a Scorpion & he died.Then entered Ophichus ,the doctor holding a serpent in his hand,which gave life back to Orion with an antidote - serpent's poison . Serpent is important because in old days there was false conception  that  it's poison cures all illnesses. The god of dead ,Pluto complained King of God Jupiter about Ophichus.He threw his thunderbolt & killed all. Then all of them awarded place in the sky.Ophicus with serpent above Scorpion,Orion to the apposite side of Scorpion,so that they never encou...