Astronomy Columnist

Around July 4, in the year 1054 CE, Chinese (and Arab) astronomers recorded a bright new star next to the star we now call Zeta Tauri in the constellation of the Taurus the Bull.

Although there are several hypotheses on how life began on Earth, there are possibilities that life’s beginnings may not have begun here.

When looking through an astronomy magazine, or on the internet, there are many magnificent color photographs of what astronomers refer to as “Deep Sky Objects”.

Before the application of the telescope to astronomy in 1608, the human eye was the only observing instrument available.

Although we visibly see the very brightest, high mass stars in the evening sky, they live the shortest lives, some being only a few million years.

So what does this subject have to do with astronomy?

The Constellations we are familiar with are the “official” Greco-Roman ones accepted by the International Astronomical Union.

Mercury is only 0.38 the size of Earth and one of only two planets nearer to the Sun than us, the other being Venus, and therefore is never seen in the evening sky.

In the common vernacular the term theory is often used to mean a hunch, supposition, guess or speculation.

WILLIAMS, Ariz. — Since ancient times, people have observed the skies, but only in the visible spectrum (red-orange-yellow-green-blue-violet) and with only their unaided eyes.