Our Sun and eight planets with their moons make up what astronomers call the “Solar System”. Although our Solar System is not the only one in the galaxy, scientists have not yet found the one like it. Each planet in the Solar System is as unique as the system in which it orbits. As a matter of fact, eight planets have very few attributes in common. They similarly orbit around the Sun, and they have largely the same chemical compositions. Beyond those two properties, the planets contrast far more sharply than they neatly compare.

The Sun’s gravity and magnetic field, called the “heliosphere”, envelop the major planets and all the dwarf planets in the Solar System. Although we frequently represent the planets’ orbits as circular, the major planets actually trace cosmic ellipses as they rotate around the Sun.

The planets take their names from Roman gods and goddesses. Of course, “Jupiter”, by far the largest of the eight planets, is named for the King of the Roman gods. Saturn, frigid and ice-bound almost beyond measure and imagination, paradoxically carries the name of the Roman god of agriculture. Mars, relatively small and desolate, carries the name of the Romans’ war god.

Until 1977 scientists thought only Saturn had “rings” – vast planes of ice and rocks suspended in orbit around them. Further investigation has shown that Uranus and Neptune also have ring systems. Naturally, their ring systems are not so pronounced as Saturn’s, because they are proportional to the two much smaller planets.

Astronomers refer to the bodies we generally call “moons” as “satellites”, and our moon has generally the same characteristics and properties as the other 139 satellites in the Solar System: it orbits the Earth as the Earth orbits the Sun, held in its elliptical pattern around the third planet by gravity and magnetism much like the Sun holds the planets.

In the last several years debate has raged over Pluto’s status: does it qualify as a planet, or does it fall into some other category of celestial objects?

In the course of the debate over Pluto the International Astronomical Society (IAS) the governing body that sets standards for measurements, observations, and discoveries changed the definition of and criteria for a planet. In order to meet official planet standards, a celestial body must orbit the Sun, have sufficient gravity to maintain a uniformly spherical shape, and clear its own orbit. After the IAS established its current standards, Pluto no longer met the requirements. Astronomers, after changing their assessments several times, finally classified Pluto as a “dwarf planet”.

Pluto travels in a little cluster of celestial objects very much like it, and astronomers developed an official classification for the whole group, calling these objects “plutoids”. They have gravity and hold their shape as they orbit the Sun, but they have not cleared their orbits. Many astronomers have become fascinated with the plutoids, arguing that insight into their development and evolution will contribute to proving “The Big Bang Theory”.

However there is a lunar secret that is very important to take into consideration when your horoscope is being analyzed. When you look at the Moon to determine the mood of a person you have to look for the cycle the Moon were in at the time of the persons birth.

Was the Moon, New, Crescent, First Quarter, Gibbous, Full, Disseminating, Last Quarter, or Balsamic Moon. These are called “the Lunar Cycle” and they can help you understand the moods of a person. These lunar cycles represent subtle feminine energy and power in your chart.

By finding the placement of the Moon in your chart you will be able to clarify why a person may have certain moods and often get into similar situations without realizing why. For instance if your Moon were in the New Moon phase which last about three and a half days then your mood would generally be one of emergency.

The New Moon is for planting and creating. So the kind of mood for this person would be one of hopefulness for the future and generally perceive the world as a place of possibilities and a life of joy.

The next lunar cycle is The Crescent Moon and the person with the Moon in this position has a strong urge to overcome pressure and inertia of the karmic past and by working through these issues they often discover personal limits and their special purpose. This position is from three and a half to seven days after New Moon.

The Gibbous Moon phase is ten and a half to fourteen days after New Moon and with this position you have an intense energy of overcoming past and present issues. You believe that whatever decision have been made must now be lived with. This is a time of testing and adjustment, flexibility and perseverance are qualities that need to be nurtured.

Third Quarter or Full Moon is when it is opposite the Sun. This position has to do with your relationships of the heart, marriage and is a constant feeling of insecurity in which you may wonder if your partner is really happy with you. Learn to be happy within yourself and do not let your partner control your moods.

Next is the Disseminating phase which is three and a half to seven days after the Full Moon. This is a time where you begin to understand your inner struggle and are able to let go of them because you now understand what is underneath them.

The Last Quarter is seven to ten and a half days after full Moon. This position represents the harvest and meaning of understanding and whatever does not harmonize with the growing consciousness and understanding can not be accepted.

The last phase is the Balsamic which occurs during the final eight of the entire cycle ten and a half to fourteen days after the Full Moon. The general mood of this cycle is release and a period when emptying is necessary before a new cycle can begin. The Balsamic Moon people are old souls who have lived before and are here to complete and put into use those gifts they have already attained hence fulfilling a past vision.

For centuries man has rediscovered himself and the world around him by gazing at the stars. It is almost as if man had an intuitive feel about the vastness of knowledge that is stored within these stars. Gradually as more and more familiarity evolved and mankind started on a path of discovery of the hidden knowledge of these shiny sparkles of light through the science of Astronomy.

Through the science of Astronomy we can know more about the process of the creation of the stars as well as the history of the universe. Through the various sophisticated processes that are involved in the science of astronomy, we can also measure the distance of separation of one star from the other as well as forecast the time when they will be destroyed.

As mankind learned more about the stars through Astronomy and its allied sciences, the use of imagination was merged with this newly gained knowledge through which we could also visualize shapes and characters in the various groups of stars. We named them in accordance with these characteristics and termed them to be scientifically as constellations. This was the perfect blend of the science and the arts and allowed us to become even more involved in this process of getting to know more about our celestial neighbors.

The science of Astronomy also allows us to gain enough knowledge about the stars through which we can differentiate between stars and celestial bodies which are not starts. Through this knowledge we can also identify other stars, even though visually they may look different. An example of this can be the Sun. though visually very different from a normal star, yet the Sun has been proved to be, beyond a doubt, a star… through the study of Astronomy.

One of the most interesting subjects imaginable, knowledge of the science of Astronomy is something that all of us should possess. The basics of the science of astronomy can be easily understood and once you have grasped this knowledge you can carry out a lot of self reading on the subject to gain a deeper knowledge about the various facets of the science. In this article we are going to talk about the various basics of Astronomy.

Astronomy can be defined to be the science which deals with the matter of the earth, its neighboring planets, the environment and the mass which surrounds these as well as other studies that can be said to be a part of their periphery. However, if we really were to define the scope of the subject of Astronomy, it would encompass the entirety of the study of just about everything around us and our planet.

Whether is the study of the history of the creation of the universe, its neighbors, the substance by which it is formed, the mass of materials and gases which make up the planets and their satellites as well as the distances between them are all within the scope of the study of Astronomy and these are the basics which form the starting point of the study of many students of Astronomy. The science also deals with the various process that govern these celestial bodies, basic again which can be understood through various illustration, flow charts and miniature models by the students of the science.

Although astronomy is the oldest science, it continues to be at the forefront of not only scientific thought, but that of the public at large too. Who has not looked up at the galaxy while walking home late at night and wondered? Having said that though, the ancient people of certainly the northern hemisphere, but probably both, knew the movements of the stars and planets better than most of us do nowadays.

They understood then, thousands of years ago, that the majority of stars appear to rise in the Eastern skies at night and travel on circular paths. They also noticed that some ‘stars’ were ‘wanderers’ (we call them planets) and that sometimes they went ‘against the flow’.

They also named groups of stars that we now call constellations or even galaxies and knew that those visible in the winter were different from those visible in the summer.and that others were visible all year round. The average common man of 5,000 – 10,000 years ago almost certainly knew more about the movement of the celestial bodies than the average common man of today does. (I mean men and women here, of course).

They learned how to calculate or at least locate the extremities of the sunrise and went to extraordinary lengths to mark those positions with huge stone structures, such as Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, probably to facilitate the location of certain positions of the sun or other planets or stars, which may have been important to their religious beliefs or crop cycles.

In 1609, Galileo invented the first artificial device for studying the stars and planets. It was the first astronomical telescope and through it he was able to observe things millions of miles away that no one had ever seen before. Because of the deductions he drew from his observations, he clashed with the Roman Catholic Church and was often in serious danger for his life, so radical were his discoveries.

But mankind was not intimidated, and since then we have gone on to build ever bigger and ever better telescopes with which we can even detect radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, infrared waves and gamma waves from outer space. Forty years ago, we even travelled to our Moon. and we have sent probes to eight of the nine planets in our Solar System, as well as to several comets and asteroids.

Where are we going next? That decision was always up to the government of the United States and the old Soviet Union, but now there are other players in the field. What will China or India want to explore with their possibly slightly different outlook on life? Or will it be just a question of financial benefit?

The world may be in a state of flux and power may be shifting from its traditional seats, but it has not diminished interest in questions that scientists think can only be answered in space. These are exciting times in the science of astronomy, but then man has always found astronomy exciting.