The scourge of industry pollution and its effect on global warming, the raping of our natural resources, and the threat of urbanisation and poaching on our dwindling species diversity are hugely topical in today’s age.
On Christmas Day 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope launched from Earth and now resides some 1,5 million kilometres away! It’s 6 metre mirror has been scanning the cosmos ever since its arrival, and sent its first images back in July last year. Unlike its predecessor, Hubble, the Webb sees in the infrared (IR) spectrum, allowing astronomers to see deeper into the Universe than ever before.
The brightest star in Aquarius is known as Sadalsuud, meaning the ‘luck of lucks’. Many of the stars within Aquarius share similar etymologies, since the helical rising of the constellation coincided with the coming of spring and the good fortune associated with it.
Ophiuchus is considered the forgotten sign of the zodiac, however more recently, many astrologers now include it in their profiles. This may be due to Earth’s wobble over the past 5000 years which means that the Sun’s path across the sky today, does not match that which was observed by early astronomers.
Pavo, the Peacock, was first introduced by Plancius after it was documented by Dutch explorers, de Houtman and Keyzer during their exploration of the southern hemisphere.
