Crescent moon, Saturn and Spica to shine
FROM TODAY'S PRINT EDITIONS:
Clear skies are hard to come by in Baltimore, in August. But if we get lucky, we’ll have a nice opportunity tonight to see a waxing crescent moon alongside the bright star Spica and the planet Saturn. Look low in the southwest between 8 and 9 p.m. EDT. The moon should be easy enough to find. The bright star just above it is Spica, 260 light years from Earth, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo. Yellowish Saturn, 930 million miles out, stands just to the right of the pair.
Posted by Frank Roylance at 12:00 AM | Permalink
| Comments (1)
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Sky Notes
Categories: From the Sun's print edition, Sky Notes
Comments
moon crescent and spica are together on all muslim flags, on top of masjids and also in Hindu emblem" OM" which has a moon and star in it. This tells me that in ancient days before the proffet removed the daughters of Allah from Makka shrine Arabs were worshiping mother goddess and saw the crescent moon near spika on which day they stated their holy month of Ramadan and celebrated Eid. On this day Hindus have their celebration of mother goddess also starting..Please tell me if my reading is right or not.
FR REPLIES: The star and crescent moon symbol goes back far beyond the Muslim and Christian eras, in Persia and Mesopotamia. Its origins and symbolism seem to be a matter of debate among historians. I've seen nothing that interprets the star as symbolic of Spica. The crescent moon can appear alongside several bright stars, and planets. In more modern times, the star and crescent appeared on the Ottoman Empire's flag in 1793, and after the empire fell it was adopted for use on the Turkish flag. In the 20th century it was chosen for use on flags of a number of countries that had been part of the old Ottoman empire, including Tunisia and Algeria. In the 1950s and '60s it became associated with Islam, Arab nationalism and even the Nation of Islam in the U.S.
Posted by: vijay | August 7, 2011 9:52 AM