The Morien Institute - skywatching through the ages

an image of a meteor flashing through the sky

Image of a revolving globe showing current sea levels since the last ice age, before which many ancient societies like Atlantis flourished all over planet Earth on what are now sunken lands.

Skywatching Calendar 2006

text translation service for many worldwide languages

Morien Institute Skywatching Calendars for:

2007 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
past Morien Institute Skywatching Expeditions

The Morien Institute Skywatching Expeditions have developed out of a series of familiarity sessions that have happened over many years. Identifying the stars and star patterns which form the constellations in either hemisphere is a process which is essentially one of re-orientation. After three or four successive clear nights the observer begins to appreciate the vastness of the universe, often for the first time, and the sporadic meteors that can be seen every night bring home the reality that it is a perpetually changing, living cosmos.

Once the basics of constellation-recognition has been achieved, time spent noticing the movements of the planets across the background of fixed stars seems to last longer, as the greater time frames of our solar system are experienced. The pre-occupation with the cosmos that governed the lives of ancient peoples becomes less of a mystery as new skywatchers ponder with awe the vastness before them. Observing a meteor storm gives skywatchers a 3-D appreciation of our solar system, and drives home the discomforting reality that 'space' is far from 'empty' ...

The rapid increase in interest in solar system history over the past decade has come about as part of a broader awakening - a realisation concerning the near-earth environment and it's intrinsic impact on life on Earth. After all, the solar system is the 'environment' in which our planet exists, and any disruption to the harmony of the solar system will inevitably have it's effects on Earth.

As we begin to look again at the worldwide ancient traditions that are all but lost at the beginning of the 21st century, it is becoming clearer that what were once referred to simply as 'myths', in a very derogatory sense, are nothing of the sort. It is not so much a case that there is astronomical data 'encoded' in the oral traditions of prehistory, as the very real fact that we are only now just beginning to understand that ancient peoples were equally as scientifically capable as ourselves. They simply described their 'natural science' in terminology that is as alien to the average 21st century academic as the average academic's scientific terminology is to the rest of humanity.

The main difference is that 21st century science relies on advanced technology to help scientists understand the universe. Ancient peoples worldwide simply used their powers of observation, and their astronomical knowledge was gained over many millennia of 'naked-eye skywatching'. The records of this accumulated archaic science were passed down orally from generation to generation as an integral part of the 'living histories' of the various peoples of antiquity ...

Lunar Phases

For Your Safety When Daytime Skywatching Please Visit These Websites:

Safe SunWatching | Observing Eclipses Safely | Safely Viewing Sunspots | Safety In Sight

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory

Listed below are some of the near-earth environment events due to happen in 2006
Many of them will be naked-eye visible, but some may require strong binoculars
or even a small backyard telescope to fully appreciate the celestial event

These will be supplemented with news and new discoveries as they arise

Definition of "Local Time" used in many SkyMaps

Definition of UT - "Universal Time" used by Astronomers

As of December 03 2006
there are 831 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids