Astronomy For Beginners
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 knew even then, thousands of years ago, that most stars seem to appear 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 not the same as 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 our times. (I mean men and women here, naturally).
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 to be put off, and since then we have gone on to build ever bigger and ever better astronomical telescopes through 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 will we go 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 change and power may be shifting from its traditional seats in the West, but it has not lessened interest in questions that scientists think can only be answered in space. These are exciting times for the science of astronomy, but then man has always found astronomy exciting.
Family Adventure In Livingston Guatemala
This time my family and I visited Livingston, a colorful town in the Caribbean side of Guatemala, Department of Izabal. Livingston is a town away from the rest of the world with a unique population. It is a mixture of Garifuna, Mayan and Latino People. So you will see a very different culture from the rest of the country. These guys are famous for their dancing and food.
For our adventure to this side of the country after a lot of research we decided to stay in a beautiful hotel called Hotel Gil Resort. Now, this isn’t a big luxurious hotel, instead it is a cute, tiny, kid friendly, family owned hotel overlooking the Caribbean Sea. But I loved it, The service was great and the rooms were nice.
The first thing that I loved about it was getting there because after a couple of hours of roads you have to take a small boat in the Puerto Barrios town to get there. That is the only way! The boat ride isn’t too long but it is along the Caribbean Coast so you get some beautiful sights.
I was impressed when I heard that this 14 room hotel is 62 years old. We were lucky enough to stay in one of their ocean view rooms and I loved it.
Some other things this hotel offers area restaurant where they offer trypical Guatemalan dishes, seafood and the most traditional dish of the region “Tapado” which is a different kinf od seafood soup. There is also a bar, a private dock, a jacuzzi and a semiprivate beach.
We really enjoyed our stay there and we even took one of the tours they offer to a place called Seven Alters which is a place with a bunch of beautiful waterfalls where you can take a swim. But that’s not the only attraction of the area. There is also Playa planca, one of the only white sanded beaches of Guatemala, San Felipe Castle and Rio Dulce.
I would highly recommend this region of Guatemala to anyone that is planning on visiting this side of Guatemala.
