Astronomy of the Earth-Moon System and the Eschatological Expectations of the Christian Historians of the 5th Century CE

Alimited amount of information is available on one of the first remarkable scientists born in South America: Buenaventura Suárez. Born in the 1670s in Santa Fe, the first port city of Argentina (then part of the viceroyalty of Peru), he studied under the Jesuits at the College of the Immaculate Conception, which was very near his home and is still in operation today. After graduation, he entered the Jesuit seminary and attended the University of Córdoba (in Argentina), also founded by the Jesuits earlier in the 17th century. As a young priest, he was sent to the San Cosme and San Damián mission on the site of the present-day city of Posadas.Along with a strong drive to help and guide the Guarani Indians, Suárez also had a passion for astronomy. With Guarani assistants, he constructed basic astronomical instruments, including an elementary telescope. From 1706 through 1739, he observed, among other things, eclipses of the Sun and Moon and some of the satellites of Venus and Jupiter. The Jesuits had his astronomical predictions for the period 1740–1841 printed in Spain, in a book titled Lunario de un Siglo (Solar Calendar for a Century). In it, Suárez predicted solar and lunar eclipses and phases of the Moon. The last chapter gives guidelines for continuing the solar calendar up to 1903.Around 1740, the old mission was abandoned, and the new San Cosme mission was founded across the Paraná River. The ruins of that second mission are very near the town of San Cosme and the city of Encarnación in present-day Paraguay. Suárez continued his astronomical observations there with more sophisticated instruments sent from Europe by the Jesuits. During his career, he exchanged information with scientists from Uppsala, Sweden; Peking, China; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Madrid.Suárez died on 24 August 1750. Some years later, in 1763, King Charles III of Spain banished the Jesuits from all Spanish domains, and the missions were abandoned. Several decades later, the Spanish historian Félix de Azara found remnants of astronomical instruments while he was performing archaeological studies in the mission ruins. Important studies of Suárez’s life and accomplishments have been done separately by Guillermo Furlong, a Jesuit, and L. Hillar Puxeddú, a lawyer and historian.© 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Simple SummarySolar eclipses offer a unique opportunity to evaluate the relative influence of unexpected darkness on behavior of some species of animals due to their sudden interference with local light levels and meteorology. The Great American Solar Eclipse of 21 August 2017 rekindled curiosity in animal behavior during an eclipse. What made this most recent eclipse especially unique was the fact that it occurred over a relatively populous region of the globe, with approximately 12 million people living in the path of totality, garnering a lot of publicity. This immense viewership created a unique opportunity to gather a large amount of observations simultaneously across the eclipse. A comparison of informal observations of animal behavior during solar eclipse from social media (i.e., March for Science Facebook discussion) to those conducted scientifically (published literature) can elucidate how well this topic is being covered. Describing which species and behaviors are covered in each source can reveal gaps in the literature which can emphasize areas for future research. Our understanding of animal behavior can benefit beyond the narrow scope of such studies by characterizing the complex variations in behavioral response which result from a solar eclipse.A wide variety of environmental stimuli can influence the behavior of animals including temperature, weather, light, lunar and seasonal cycles, seismic activity, as well as other perturbations to their circadian rhythm. Solar eclipses offer a unique opportunity to evaluate the relative influence of unexpected darkness on behavior of animals due to their sudden interference with local light levels and meteorology. Though occasionally bizarre, modern studies have lent support to the idea that at least some individuals of certain species display altered behavior during these events. A comparison of informal observations of animal behavior during solar eclipse from social media (i.e., March for Science Facebook discussion) to those conducted scientifically (published literature) can elucidate how well this topic is being covered. Describing which species and behaviors are covered in each source can reveal gaps in the literature which can emphasize areas for future research. We enumerated a total of 685 observations of approximately 48 different types of animals reacting to the 2017 Great American Solar Eclipse from over 800 posts on the discussion. The animals most frequently reported on social media as reacting to the eclipse were invertebrates (40% of social media observations) and birds (35% of social media observations). A total of 26 published studies recorded 169 behavior observations of approximately 131 different animal species. The group with the highest number of observations in the literature were birds with 62 records (37% of literature observations). Most observations reported decreases in activity (38.7% of bird observations) followed by increases in vocalization (24.2% of bird observations). There were approximately 30 different species of invertebrate observed (24% of literature observations), most frequently reported of which were zooplankton (14.6% of invertebrate observations).

There are partial or total solar eclipses every year on our planet. They are observed from relatively small areas. From 1950 to 2100, three total solar eclipses fell within the territory of Bulgaria. The two solar eclipses from the 20th century were observed on 15.02.1961 and 11.08.1999. The next total solar eclipse will happen on 3.09.2081. The partial solar eclipses in Bulgaria were on 3.10.2005, 29.03.2006, 1.09.2008, 4.01.2011, and 25.10.2022. The question of the influence of solar eclipses on the Earth’s atmosphere, water, and living organisms is an area of interest for many researchers. In this connection, studies have been conducted on atmospheric and water parameters during partial and total solar eclipses. Most investigations were performed with meteorological data – temperature and humidity. In the last 30 years, other methods have also been applied for the investigations of solar eclipses – spectral methods with infrared (IR) spectroscopy, studies of magnetic and electric fields, polarization, and measurements of the parameters of the fluids in plants. Our studies have used meteorological methods and analyses. For the effects on the water, spectral methods are applied to the non-equilibrium energy spectrum (NES) and differential non-equilibrium spectrum (DNES). A deionized water sample examined during the solar eclipse on 11.08.1999 was used, aiming to analyze the parameters of NES and DNES. The deionized water control sample was tested on 10.08.1999 at the same time as the solar eclipse of the next day. The results of our research show relatively rapid and significant changes in air parameters during a solar eclipse, which are most prominent immediately after its culmination. The conditions of non-equilibrium arising during the solar eclipse allow for studying the restructuring of the hydrogen bonds of water molecules. The results of the current studies prove that the solar eclipse’s significantly affect water which is the primary substance in the Nature and living organisms. These data are consistent with other ones which also prove that, during a solar eclipse, the structure of water undergoes significant changes. By influencing the water, this natural phenomenon affects the whole Nature and all living organisms on the planet.

The representation of reality is a fundamental concept in the perception of theworld. Its historical consideration leads to an understanding of historical andcontemporary culture. In this paper we specifically investigate theanthropometric stage of cultural development as a historical world view. Wedefine this stage on the basis of Rene Girard's hypotheses on the origin ofculture, and we isolate its principles. Next, we consider the function of art asthe representation of cultural values. We investigate the three major motivesof artistic representation in the anthropometric stage, i.e. beauty, dramatizationand mimesis. We show how and why these motives play an essential partin the obfuscation and explanation of the origin of culture. Finally, we showhow these developments are dealt with in the aesthetics of Plato and Aristotle.

The article examines the nature of P.A. Florensky’s historical worldview. The author analyzes the long-standing discussion regarding the specific features of the thinker’s historical perception and presents arguments challenging the traditional view of his “ahistoricity.” Florensky’s historical ideas are situated within the context of Russian religious-philosophical thought at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and related to concepts such as empirical vs. supratemporal history, immanent vs. transcendent history, “history-as-fact” vs. “history-as-project,” the catastrophic nature of history, the end of history, and “other history.” The article reveals the affinity of this intellectual tradition with F. Schelling's ideas concerning history as the unfolding of human freedom in unconscious unity with the revelation of infinite spirit. The specific characteristics of Florensky’s proposed methodology for historical cognition are demonstrated, highlighting their intrinsic connection to his doctrine concerning discreteness, antinomy, and entropy as universal principles of being. The “particle-universal” semantic model is examined as a crucial element of historical cognition. The link between Florensky’s historical views and his cultural-philosophical and political conceptions is traced, particularly concerning his doctrine of the immanent rhythms of culture and the two principles of state organization. The article argues that, for Florensky, history is not a process but a state or condition – a supratemporal expression of the national spirit; it is presented as an intuitively cognizable phenomenon, a holistic image existing within time. History, in this view, defies predetermination and rigid determinism, characterized instead by wholeness-in-diversity, ancestral memory, rootedness in the past, and a sense of entelechial future possibilities. While the scientific cognition of history is deemed possible and necessary, Florensky maintained that, detached from religious experience, it cannot yield truly positive results.

1. INTRODUCTIONAmong the numerous observations of celestial phenomena recorded in Chinese history are many allusions to occultations of planets by the Moon. In most cases the exact dates are reported. As is also true for eclipses, the accuracy and reliability of these observations can be readily tested using modern astronomical computations. Chinese records of eclipses have been extensively studied in recent years - notably for their importance in investigating Earth's past rotation.1 However, observations of the Moon's obscuring planets reported in these same sources have so far attracted relatively little attention.The earliest extant Chinese account of an occultation of a planet by the Moon dates from 69 b.c.: in the Former Han dynasty. On this occasion, the Moon was said to have eclipsed Mars. In later Chinese history, numerous similar events involving one or other of the five bright planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) are described. Until the end of the Yuan dynasty (a.D. 1367), the main sources of these observations are the astronomical treatises (usually termed tianwenshi) in the official dynastic histories (zhengshi). However, during the succeeding Ming and Qing dynasties the available sources are more varied. In addition to the dynastic histories, these later compilations include the extensive Ming shilu (Veritable records of the Ming Dynasty), and also many fangzhi or local gazettes.In the present paper we have investigated the reliability and accuracy of the reports of lunar occultations of planets as cited in the astronomical treatises of the various dynastic histories down to the end of the Yuan dynasty. We have concentrated specifically on those reports for which an exact date is given: year of the appropriate imperial reign period, lunar month and day of the sexagenary cycle. (N.B. On one occasion, in a.D. 220, the day of the lunar month is specified rather than the cyclical day.) The observations range in date from 69 b.c. to a.D. 1342.2. AIMS OF THIS STUDYIn translating and analysing the various Chinese texts relating to occultations of planets by the Moon, we have had several goals. Our primary aims have been twofold: to investigate (i) the reliability with which the dates of these events are recorded; and (ii) the precision with which the individual observations were made. This has entailed detailed comparison of the various records with the results of modern retrospective computation.Unlike solar eclipses, which almost invariably occur on the first or last day of the month on the Chinese luni-solar calendar, occultations of the outer planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn by the Moon can occur at any time in the month. Although the dates of similar events involving Venus are more restricted, they can take place within a period of about a week around the beginning and end a lunar month. (Mercury is never far from the Sun, and occultations of this planet are only rarely recorded.) Hence comparison of the reported dates of occultations with their computed equivalents should provide a useful - although indirect - indication of the likely reliability of the dates of certain other important celestial events noted in the astronomical chapters of the same histories. These latter events, which can also occur at any time of the lunar month, include comets, novae, meteors, aurorae, and sunspots. The dates of phenomena such as these can only rarely be verified by retrospective computation and in most cases they have to be simply taken on trust.In describing an occultation, three separate astronomical terms are almost exclusively used in Chinese texts. We have investigated whether these expressions prove to be consistently precise - implying that the Moon indeed passed in front of the specified planet - or whether they were more loosely applied. An item of further concern in the present paper is the approximate time of night when the calendar date was changed for astronomical purposes. …

To evaluate renal colic frequency in different seasons and around full moon. A total of 1481 patients with renal colic were studied retrospectively addressing days of a month both in solar and lunar calendar. The mean age of the patients was 57 ± 13 years. Total admissions in summer was 613; of which 288 (41%), 199 (39%), and 126 (43%) were in years 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively. The highest frequencies in solar calendar were on days 2 (56), 20 (63), and 27 (59) and the lowest were on days 6 (36), 22 (38), 26 (34), and 31 (31). We did not find any statistically significant association according to solar calendar (P = .3). In lunar calendar, most of the admissions were on day 15 (69) and the lowest rates were on days 1 (25) and 30 (26), which was statistically significant (P = .04). Renal colic frequency is not correlated with solar calendar, but its highest frequency in lunar calendar is in the middle of the month period. Although we found a correlation between full moon effect and renal tide, but this is a new window for further studies.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between ethnoastronomy with maritime activities. Ethnoastronomy here refers to phenomenon like solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and the lunar cycles, while maritime activity refers to the phenomenon of the tides, the waves, the wind, a bright and a dark moon, and so on. The question is, is it true that astronomical phenomenon causes changes to maritime activities? Does it also affect ocean life which should be taken into account by fishermen? To answer both of these questions, this study will only highlight studies and previous works related to the connection between astronomical phenomenon with maritime activity. Finally, this paper will conclude that astronomical phenomenon like solar eclipses, lunar eclipses and lunar cycles do cause changes to maritime activities such as tides, wave conditions, the wind, the light and dark moon and so on. Indirectly, all these factors affect ocean life and should be considered by fishermen, especially in order to firstly, determine their revenue and secondly, to ensure their own safety.

Following my presentation of the last ProMath conference I like to present this year another problem field connected with astronomy namely calendars. With a calendar we all are confronted permanent and think of our calendar as a matter of course. But in our global connected world we also hear from other calendars or rhythms, especially in the context of religion. So it is good for children at school to get to know about the background of calendars as well as to fight with problems within the field of calendars. First of all we have to collect astronomical facts and the origin of different calendars. With this we also can see how the problem of time units which are not whole numbers can be brought into special rhythms of whole numbers and how this was managed in history. Moreover we can find out that any rational number can be presented in a rhythm of whole numbers. Secondly we can compute with the Islamic calendar which is a pure moon-calendar and find out why and in which way the Islamic celebrations move in our solar calendar. Furthermore we will discuss the Christian festivities and its differences in catholic/protestant churches and the Russian-orthodox church. Especially we have to work on the problem of determining the date of Easter (the “computus ecclesius” as it was named in the middle ages). Finally we can have a look at the division of the whole world into time zones as well as different phases of the moon and the angular velocity of moon and stars in the night.

The purpose of this research is to develop a set of refutation texts as supplement texts to overcome misconceptions and to improve conceptual understandings on the Lunar phases. The method used is research and development in education. Overall, the research consists of three stages, namely preliminary study, product development, and evaluation. The refutation text was developed based on Posner et al. (1982) conceptual change model. The results for the preliminary study stage obtained nine prototype of refutation texts, namely for the concepts of the Earth’s natural satellite, the source of moonlight, the rotation and revolution of the earth, the rotation and revolution of the Moon, the direction of the daily motion of the Moon, Lunar phases, solar eclipses, Lunar eclipses, and causes of the tides. A set of refutation texts can be used in teaching the Lunar phase material in high school. Further research is needed to see the effectiveness of the Lunar phase refutation text in remediating students’ misconceptions and increasing their concept understanding and the longevity of the substitute concepts.

Central Vigilance Commission is the apex integrity institution of the nation. It was formed by the government on the recommendations of the Santhanam Committee by way of a Resolution on 11 February 1964. Over the period, unparalleled services have been rendered by the Commission to the nation in the field of anti-corruption. However, a far more important role played by the Commission is that it has grown from strength to strength, while many other institutions of national importance kept falling apart during this time. Its functioning has instilled a great degree of trust amongst the common public, and needless to say that this trust is the life blood of a democracy. The Commission is however, faced with an uphill task of fighting corruption raising its head in view of a fast-developing economy in a society which is becoming complex day by day. The Commission is an institution which will be looked up to in the decade to come. Its functioning will be closely scrutinised and criticised. Though much has been written and recorded on the Commission, a perspective about the Commission from the angle of historical Indian world view and statecraft is not available. This is a curious gap in the body of knowledge as the Commission’s formation draws a lot from ancient Indian world view and statecraft. The article attempts to bridge this profound gap in the literature relating to the Central Vigilance Commission.

In this paper, we report about the development and validation of a learning progression about the Celestial Motion big idea. Existing curricula, research studies on alternative conceptions about these phenomena, and students’ answers to an open questionnaire were the starting point to develop initial learning progressions about change of seasons, solar and lunar eclipses, and Moon phases; then, a two-tier multiple choice questionnaire was designed to validate and improve them. The questionnaire was submitted to about 300 secondary students of different school levels (14 to 18 years old). Item response analysis and curve integral method were used to revise the hypothesized learning progressions. Findings support that spatial reasoning is a key cognitive factor for building an explanatory framework for the Celestial Motion big idea, but also suggest that causal reasoning based on physics mechanisms underlying the phenomena, as light flux laws or energy transfers, may significantly impact a students’ understanding. As an implication of the study, we propose that the teaching of the three discussed astronomy phenomena should follow a single teaching-learning path along the following sequence: (i) emphasize from the beginning the geometrical aspects of the Sun-Moon-Earth system motion; (ii) clarify consequences of the motion of the Sun-Moon-Earth system, as the changing solar radiation flow on the surface of Earth during the revolution around the Sun; (iii) help students moving between different reference systems (Earth and space observer’s perspective) to understand how Earth’s rotation and revolution can change the appearance of the Sun and Moon. Instructional and methodological implications are also briefly discussed.9 MoreReceived 27 September 2014DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.11.020102This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.Published by the American Physical Society

This paper describes spawning events of the white bream Blicca bjoerkna (Linnaeus, 1758 )in astronomical and biological time depending on seasonal patterns of climatic conditions. The research was conducted in the Dnipro-Orilskiy Nature Reserve (Ukraine) during the years 1997–2015 in four habitat types. The timing of the spawning event (start, end) was evaluated using astronomical time (number of days from January 1 each year), with correction for the lunar and the semilunar cycle, and using biological time (number of days from the end of spawning in the previous year to the beginning and end of spawning in the current year). The spawning phenology of the white bream was found to be dependent on the dynamics of weather conditions over time. Patterns of varying climatic regimes which are expressed by means of multivariate principal component are the most informative predictors of the spawning events. Evaluation of occurrence of spawning events in astronomic or biological time gives somewhat different models of the impact of climate regimes. The impact of the principal components indicating variability of rainfall during the year in which spawning occurs is statistically significant for almost all regression models. Models using the solar calendar are also more sensitive to the course of air temperatures within the year when spawning occurred. Correction of time based on the lunar cycle allows us to assess events which are sensitive also to the temperature and rainfall variation during the second half of the previous year. Biological time was shown to be sensitive to environmental influences over time from the end of spawning in the previous year to spawning in any given year.

The time from the conception to the birth of Jesus is most often given as nine or ten months. Sometimes one and the same author gives both numbers without any explanation, for example Tertullian, Zeno of Verona, Ambrose of Milan or Jerome. However there is no contradiction between the two. „Ten months” refers to lunar months (28 days), and corresponds to nine months in the solar calendar. The ecclesiastical authors used the formula „ten (lunar) months” not only be-cause they wanted to follow Virgil, as Adkin suggests. It appears also in the writings of pagan authors of late antiquity, and survived as a set phrase in everyday language into times when the lunar calendar was no longer used (with the exception of the Christian reckoning of Easter, which continued to be based on lunar cycles). Another matter are the opinions reported by Epiphanius in the Panarion, that Jesus was born seven (according to the Alogi) or nine and a half months after conception. These opinions arose no doubt from numerological speculation, but the length of pregnancy is also reckoned in lunar months. This shows that in late antiąuity the expression „ten months” was not merely a formula. Lunar months were still used and understood, particularly if it was to give the length of time spent by a child in its mother’s womb.

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks the Sun from view. This is strictly correct, however other interesting conditions must be analysed for a better understanding of the phenomenon. The distances and diameters involved in the problem are listed in Table 4.1. Solar eclipses can only happen at a new moon phase when the Sun and the Moon are apparently very close in the sky observed from a place on the Earth’s surface. A typical popular graphical explanation of the solar eclipse phenomenon appears in Figure 4.1. However, eclipses do not occur every month (every new moon) because the lunar orbit is tilted. Thus, the apparent diameters of the Sun and the Moon and the position of the Moon in its orbit play fundamental roles in the production of solar eclipses.KeywordsSunspot NumberSolar CoronaSolar EclipseMaunder MinimumTotal Solar EclipseThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.