Port Dickson - Ilham Resort 17/4/2010

these are the photos taken during last holiday at Ilham Resort, Port Dickson


Dear Blogger

Ni gambaq

Planet

Mid Term Assesment for Term 3, 2010

Dear Friends

My Mid Term Assessment for Term 3, 2010 shall commence today and last till Friday. I hope to do well this term and be a best student for Primary 3 for this year and to collect present end of the term during Prize Giving Day.

The Crescent Moon and the “Evening Star”

A lot of people received a “front-row seat” last Sunday evening, May 16, 2010 to a common and yet always awesome sight – the “evening star” visibly sitting on top of a crescent moon. People were abuzz both offline and online as people took photos of this astrological occurrence and posted it on social media sites.

The “evening star” is, as many may know already, the planet Venus. As community member Wiser explains in a question, Venus is the brightest object in the night sky after Moon so people thought in the early days (before we has astronomy) it was a star.

Actually, when Venus is seen in the easter sky before the sunrise it is referred to as a “morning star” and when it is seen in the evening in the west after sunset (similar to what just happened last night) it’s called an “evening star.”

How does this happen, that Venus appears as a star? Nuscorpi223 explained that it’s because Venus’ orbit lies inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun. When the orbit of Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it also reflects the light of the Sun to earth so that when it moves from the evening to the morning sky, it becomes very visible to us and appears as a “star”.

To people who have just seen this, one question that may be on your mind is if there’s any significance to the crescent moon and Venus being so close together. Don’t worry, this natural phenomenon has no effect on Earth. Community member podi shared that planetary alignments have been happening for the longest time and there’s never been a documented effect to our planet.

In case you’re wondering why the crescent moon and star has come to symbolize Islam, this was asked before by community member bettycatmouse and Schneb gave the best answer. He said the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. Most sources say that these ancient celestial symbols were in use by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of the sun, moon and sky gods. In this Wikipedia article, it says that possibly the symbol became associated with the Muslim faith when the Ottoman Empire became affiliated with the Muslim world.

If you missed seeing the crescent moon and “evening star” last night, don’t worry. Just click here and check out the different photos submitted in Flickr.

The Crescent Moon and the “Evening Star”