Mon Mar 15, 2021 CAESAR AND THE IDES OF MARCH
Today is the Ides of March, and it looks like this time around no Roman dictators will be killed. On March 15th in 44 BC Julius Caesar was assassinated, and many of us remember Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, in which he was warned to beware the Ides of March. What are the Ides? The Romans divided their calendar month into three parts, with three specific days serving as benchmarks, based on the phases of the moon. The first day of the month was marked by the new moon and was called the Kalends (from which we get the word calendar;) A week later came the Nones, marked by the first quarter moon – and you can tell we don’t use a lunar calendar anymore because the moon is a waning gibbous today; and the middle of the month, the 13th day or in some cases the 15th, when the moon was full - that was the Ides. These terms are not familiar to us today, but they were well-known to the Romans, and also to Europeans in Shakespeare’s time.
Tue Mar 16, 2021 WILLIAM CHALONER – EXECUTED BY NEWTON
On March 16th in the year 1699 William Chaloner was executed at Tyburn Tree in London. Before his gruesome death, he wrote a letter to Sir Isaac Newton, begging for his life. “O dear sir, no body can save me but you,” he wrote, “I shall be murdered unless you save me.” Newton, England’s greatest scientist, had recently become the warden of the mint, and was responsible for the coining of English currency. This included catching anyone who committed the high treason of counterfeiting. Chaloner had sent a pamphlet to Parliament, accusing Newton of incompetence and corruption. This did not please Newton, and he set out to catch the great counterfeiter. Like a 17th century Sherlock Holmes, Sir Isaac used informers and even went about in disguise to find out what Chaloner was up to. In this way, the man who gave us the laws of gravity and motion was able to gather enough evidence to send Chaloner to the gallows. “O dear sir no body can save me but you O God my God I shall be murderd unless you save me O I hope God will move yor heart with mercy and pitty to do this thing for me…”
Wed Mar 17, 2021 SAINT PATRICK ASTRONOMY
Now that it’s Saint Patrick’s Day, let’s talk about Irish astronomy as it was practiced in the time of the Saint. In the fifth century the Irish made accurate observations, using stone circles that, like the famous Stonehenge of England, could predict sunrise and sunset positions and the beginnings of seasons. The Julian calendar of Rome was used in Ireland, and the Church relied on Irish astronomy to help establish the dates of Easter and other religious feasts, as witnessed by the Sixth century abbot, Mo-Sinu maccu Min of County Down. In the Seventh Century the monk Aibhistin suggested a connection between the tides and the phases of the moon. And then there are the Celtic constellations: Leo the lion which appears in the east after sunset, was An Corran, a sickle or reaping hook. The Irish saw Orion the Hunter as the hero Caomai, the Armed King. And the Milky Way was called Bealach na Bo Finne - the way of the white cow.
Thu Mar 18, 2021 MOON IN ORION
When the waxing moon of March appears high in the southern sky after sunset, it can be found above the head of the constellation of Orion the Hunter. In Greek mythology, Orion was the son of the sea god Poseidon. Orion loved Artemis, the goddess of the moon and also of the hunt. Now Artemis had a brother, Apollo, the sun god, and he didn’t like Orion – not good enough for his sister, he decided. One day while Orion was swimming in the ocean, Apollo found his sister and pointed to Orion, who appeared as just a little dark speck way out at sea. He bet Artemis she couldn’t hit such a small target. And so she shot the far-off target with an arrow, not realizing it was Orion’s head. But Orion was a hero, so he was given immortality as a constellation of the night. Once a month the moon travels through this part of the sky, and to the storytellers this was a time when Artemis could visit with her old hunting companion.
Fri Mar 19, 2021 SPRING BEGINS
The vernal equinox is tomorrow – that’s the fancy term for the beginning of spring. On Saturday, March 20th, at 5:37 a.m., Eastern Daylight Saving Time, the sun will appear at the top of the sky as seen from the earth’s equator. You'd think seasons would start first thing in the morning, but it seldom works out that way. Astronomers plot the sun's position in the sky as it drifts past the background of distant stars due to earth’s revolution. When it reaches a certain spot where the sun's direct rays touch upon the earth's equator, they know that spring has begun. Today the sun is in the constellation Pisces, and it rises due east and sets due west; this is also one of the two times in the year when people pretty much all around the world have roughly equal amounts of daylight and darkness – about twelve hours each. The term equinox, from the Latin meaning "equal night", reflects this phenomenon.