Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAllister
Word of the Day: Astronomy
Astronomy is the study of stars and planets, not to be confused with astrology, which attempts to study how their positions and motions affect people and events. Astronomers also examine the positions, motions, and properties of celestial objects but unlike astrologers, don’t believe these positions predict or influence events.
Many people continue to check their daily horoscopes. Shakespeare wrote of Romeo and Juliet being “star crossed” and someone who has bad luck may be spoken of as “born under a bad sign.” Even the word disaster means ill-starred, referring to a calamity caused by the star’s bad alignment.
“Astra” and “astro” are from Greek words meaning star. Other words using this prefix are astronaut, Greek for “star sailor,” asteroid meaning “star-like” and asterisk for “small star” that little symbol used in writing to note a reference or something special (*). Artificial grass is called Astroturf because of its early use in the Houston Astrodome, home to the Houston Astros baseball team, named for Houston’s connection to the space program.
Constellations were first noted by the Greeks, who recorded names of the constellations we recognize today. The Big Dipper is instantly identified in the Northern Hemisphere as a group of seven bright stars easily visible in the northern part of the sky. Two of the stars point to Polaris, the North Star, which is
more or less directly over the north pole. As a result, sailors have long used it for navigating. In England the Big Dipper is known as the Plough and other parts of the world see it as a Chariot or Wagon. In the Southern Hemisphere it’s the Southern Cross constellation that is used for navigation. Known as the Crux, it indicates the southern Earth’s pole.
The sun is Earth’s closest star at about 93 million miles. It’s just one of the billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The moon is the next brightest object visible to earth but only because it reflects the sun. The moon is neither star nor planet but is known as a “satellitic astronomical body.” Which is another way of saying it’s a big rock that orbits the Earth.
