Space is the final frontier and something that is beyond most of our imaginations. We are absolutely fascinated by what is out there and not a little bit afraid as well. It is common to fear what you do not understand and the vast majority of us do not understand space and its limitless and endless planets, solar systems and galaxies. We will mostly know some very generic basic facts about what space is and how is came to be. We may even know a few names or star constellations and other planets beyond that of our own solar system but all of this is only a mere grain of sand on the beach when it comes to what space has to offer. Space research is something that is constantly being done is order to answer some of the pressing questions that we have and extend our grip on technology, but or the most part this is a slow process.
Our interest in space has always been around, ever since we started to look up into the night sky and wonder what all of those magnificent sparks were. Over the last century the space race between the Russian’s and the American’s has sparked off much greater interest in what is out there are the first manned visits into space and then the moon gripped the entire world.
Well, not a great deal to be honest. Whilst technological advances on earth are rocketing forward at quite a pace, space advances have seen little tangible progress over the decades. We are constantly in a state of gathering information about what lies beyond us but this really is the extent of what we are able to achieve right now.
We have managed to get a craft onto the surface of Mars, but an actually visit to the planet is what we are all waiting for. The Ares program is currently being created by NASA in order to allow us to extend our reach into space but this is still going to have its serious limitations.
In order to truly extend our arm we need to be creating forms of travel that let us traverse space at incredible and unheard of speeds. We all know about science fiction films where space travel is constantly done at light speeds and many people consider this to be the next step. But is this realistic? can we really build crafts that are capable of travelling at the same speed as light through the confines of space?
In any such event where we were able to develop a craft capable of going at light speeds, this would only be able to take us so far and the vast majority of the universe would still be out of reach. There are untold numbers of planets and stars in the universe and the majority of them are hundreds, thousands, if not millions or light years away from us.
Yet right now, there is no chance of going beyond what is more or less directly in front of us. And even if light speed capabilities were developed, most planets and constellations are many light years away.
The experts say this will not happen until sometime after 2030 so we will certainly be holding our breath for a fair bit longer!
People have been dreaming about the stars and engaging in space research for centuries now, along with animal research for learning more about the biology of creatures on this planet.
The Ancient Chinese Lunar Calendar
Before their adoption of the Western solar calendar system, the Chinese almost wholly followed their own lunar calendar for working out the times of planting and harvesting and festival holidays. Although people in China today use the Western calendar for almost all business, governmental and practical matters of daily life, the old arrangement still serves as the basis for working out numerous recurring holidays. This coexistence of two calendar schemes has long been accepted by the people of China.
However, this does not only happen in China, it also occurs in most other Eastern countries, like Thailand, and most Arabic countries.
A lunar month is determined by measuring the period of time required for the moon to complete its full cycle of 29 and a half days, a standard that makes the lunar year a full 11 days shorter than its solar counterpart. This difference is corrected every 19 years by the addition of seven lunar months.
The 12 lunar months are further divided into 24 solar divisions characterized by the four seasons and periods of heat and cold, all of which bear a close relationship to the annual cycle of agricultural work.
The Chinese calendar – very much like the Hebrew calendar- is a combination of the solar and lunar calendars in that it attempts to have its years coincide with the tropical year and its months coincide with the synodic months. It is not surprising that a few similarities exist between the Chinese and the Hebrew calendar.
For instance, an ordinary year has 12 months, a leap year has 13 months. An ordinary year has 353, 354, or 355 days, a leap year has 383, 384, or 385 days. When determining what a Chinese year will be like, one needs to make a couple of astronomical calculations.
First of all, you have to determine the dates for the new moons. In these cases, a new Moon is the completely black Moon (that is to say, when the Moon is in conjunction with the Sun), not the first visible crescent, as is used by the Islamic and Hebrew calendars. The date of a new moon is then the first day of a new month.
The reason why the majority of countries which had their own calendars had to drop them in favour of the Western, Julian calendar that we use today, is business. First the British and then the Americans ran international business and they used the Gregorian calendar. Anyone who sought to work with them had to follow suit. This is why national policy often differs from local custom in Third World countries.
The government desires to deal on the International markets, but the ordinary family in the country can not. So, the government took up the Gregorian calendar but the people only pay lip service to it. I live in Thailand and people here do not even use the 24 hour day divided into two halves. Their day has four sections of six hours each and the first part starts at 6AM, not midnight. Therefore, they have four 4 o’clocks a day, for instance but no 7 o’clocks. They are also 543 years ahead of us, although this is more common, for instance in Muslim countries.
Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our web site now at Promotional Desk Calendars
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