stellar events in 2013

Two commets, dance of planets,ring of fire and so much more........Ohhh...... 2013 is an awesome year :)

Asteroid 2013

An asteroid is comming close to Earth on 15th Feb 2013........ it is 150 ft long ....... for more info go to -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_DA14

Virgo and Libra in Greek mythology

According to the Greek mythology Zeus gave the task of creating Earth and the various forms of life on it to the two Titan brothers Prometheus and Epimethius. Epimethius gave all the qualities to different animals for instance he gave venom to the poisonous animals like snakes and scorpions, claws to bear,wings to all the birds, etc. When he wanted to create man he realized that there is no unique quality left. So he went to Prometheus. He in turn went to heaven and brought down fire. With the help of fire man was able to cook, forge weapons and tools and basically progress. This in turn made Zeus furious and as an eternal punishment he tied Prometheus to rock where an eagle would keep biting into his liver, Zeus used to believe that fire should only be used by the Gods. Zeus in order to take revenge created woman.(I am certainly not an anti-feminist,but this is how the myth goes) He told Hepahestus to create a woman in his forges out of water and earth. Every God gave her a gift for instance Athena clothed her, Aphrodite gave her beauty. Hermes gave her speech. Zeus presented her with a beautiful box but gave her strict instruction that she should not open it. Out of curiosity Pandora did open that box and all the evil that was contained in that container such as illness, sadness, revenge, anger, envy, etc escaped on the Earth. At the bottom of the container laid the one thing that did not escape 'hope'. the Gods deserted the Earth one by one. Astraea goddess of innocence, purity and justice was the last one to leave. After leaving Astraea was placed among the stars in the form of the Virgo constellation and her balance became the Libra constellation.

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Pisces in Greek mythology

Typhon was one of the most powerful monster in Greek mythology. He was also a Titan the son of Oranos and Gaya. The Tiatans were defeated by the Olympians (In short they hated each other). One day Typhon suddenly appeared startling all the Olympians who took different forms to flee. Zeus took the form of a ram, Dionysus took the form of a goat, Apollo took the the form of a crow, Diana took the form of a cat,Hermes took the form of an ibis, Venus and her son Cupid were bathing on the banks of the Euphrates river and took the shape of a pair of fish. Minerva in order to immortalize the event placed the figures of the two fish in the skies in the form of the Pisces constellation. Now that we our on the subject of Pisces i'd like to say that it is not particularly a bright constellation and very difficult to spot. It has got no Messier objects in it and it lies on the ecliptic.

Hydra and Cancer in Greek mythology

According to the Greek mythology Eurystheus had given 12 task to Hercules. Out of these 12 his 2nd task was to defeat Hydra. A venomous serpent like monster that was raised by the Goddess Juno. The weird thing about Hydra was that it had many heads and if one of the heads were cut off than in it's place two more heads would grow. Hercules went to the den where Hydra lived and started chopping it's head and his nephew Lolaus started burning off the stumps to prevent the heads from growing. Juno in order to stop Hercules from slaying Hydra sent a crab. But Hercules crushed it under his foot. Eventually both the Hydra as well as the crab were killed and Juno in order to immortalize them sent them into the heavens in the form of Hydra and Cancer.

Eridanus in Greek mythology

Lets now move to the mythology of the constellation of Eridanus. It is located to the right hand side of the Orion and it starts a little above Rigel. The star right above Rigel is known as Cursa whereas the brightest star in the constellation is known as Achernar. According to the Greek mythology Phoeton was the son of Apollo(the Sun God). He was a demigod, once he asked his mother that where could he find Apollo. His mother told him to go all the way to India the land where the Greeks used to believe the Sun rises first and was also said to be the place where Apollo lived. When Apollo saw him for the first time in his palace he granted a wish to Phoeton. Phoeton wished to ride Apollo's chariot in spite of his repeated warnings. Apollo gave him the chariot and told him that the four horses are extremely aggressive and they are difficult to control. Then Phoeton left with the chariot. The horses became so violent and aggressive that the chariot was diverted from its usual path. At times it came to close to the Earth making the temperatures unbearable and sometimes it went to close to the heaven. On seeing this Zeus the king of Gods and the God of Skies and thunder took a lightning bolt and shot Phoeton. Phoeton immediately fell of his chariot and died. It is said that he fell into the river Eridanus. The constellation actually shows the way in which Phoeton fell. The star Achernar is the point where he fell into the river. 

Orion in greek mythology

Constellations and stars have always been associated with mythology. For instance Orion was an extremely good hunter. It is said that he was so good that the goddess Artemis also known as Diana (the moon goddess and the goddess of hunting) fell in love with him. Orion was always accompanied by his two dogs Sirius and Procyon. Once Orion wanted to cross a river, the river was so deep that he was submerged upto his neck. Apollo the Sun God who was also Artemis's brother in order to play a prank challenged Artemis to shoot at the floating target. Artemis shot the "target" and later realized that it was Orion. She became extremely sad. Zeus the king of Gods on seeing this took Orion along with his two dogs and gave him a place in the heaven. The two dogs Sirius and Procyon form the constellation of Cannis major and Cannis minor. Where the names of the dogs are given to the brightest stars of those constellation. Lepus is just an ordinary rabbit sent into heaven so that Orion would have some animal whom he can chase. It is also said that Orion is actually trying to either kill or save himself from Taurus.

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Few easy to spot Messier objects

Apart from Pleiades there are many more Messier objects that one can spot in the night sky for instance there is the Andromeda galaxy just a little above the star mu andromeda also know as the M31, it has an apparent magnitude of 3.4. Which means that it is visible to the naked eye. There is the M41 open cluster present in the Cannis major constellation right below the star Sirius,with an apparent magnitude of 4.5. There is the M42 Orion nebula obviously in the Orion constellation, with an A.P. of 4.0. The M44 Bee hive cluster in the Cancer constellation,with an A.P. of 3.7. The Bode's Galaxy also known as the M81,with an A.P. of 6.5. So its not visible to the naked eye but you can spot it if you use a telescope.The M92 which is a globular cluster in the Hercules constellation with an A.P. of 7.5. The M101 also known as the pin wheel galaxy in the Ursa major constellation with an A.P. of 7.9. M104 also known as the Sombrero galaxy in the virgo constellation with an A.P. 0f 9.5. There are many more objects worth spotting but these are few of my favourites.