How To Buy A Good Telescope

May 21, 2010 by Gary Nugent  
Filed under Astronomy

Although it is possible to have many hours of pleasure observing the night sky using the naked eye or binoculars, at some point in every amateur astronomer’s career the decision is made to buy a telescope.

With the huge number of telescopes (and types of telescope) available, deciding which is the right one to buy can be a tough decision. So it pays to do a little research to find a telescope that suits your individual needs.

Some things to think about when you’re buying a telescope:

Portability

Smaller telescopes are easier to carry and move around and are better suited to being set up quickly, taken to sites away from home or better suited to people who have back problems (the last thing you want to do is put your back out, lugging heavy equipment in the dark!)

Aperture

How well a telescope performs is determined by its aperture – the diameter of the telescope’s main mirror or lens. The more light a telescope can gather, the fainter the objects you can see with it. A bigger telescope will also have greater resolution, which allows you to see finer details on planets and deep-sky objects and enables you to split double stars better.

Your Local Conditions

Neon-glow skies are part of the modern world, drowning out all but the brightest stars and planets. Telescopes see deeper into the night sky than the naked eye but they, too, are subject to the effects of light pollution. Filters are one of the most frequently purchased telescope accessories and when used with a telescope can cut the effects of light pollution, but to get the best views of the night sky, you need to travel to a dark sky site. Large telescopes can be difficult to move in such cases, so a portable telescope is the best option when traveling. Big telescopes are more suited to a backyard observatory and a permanent or semi-permanent setup.

Telescope Prices

It’s fair to say that a decent telescope will cost of the order of a few hundred dollars, minimum, for something like a 6-inch Dobsonian reflector.

No telescope is perfect. Low-end refractors can suffer from chromatic abberation (color fringes around bright objects like the Moon). Reflectors may need to be collimated frequently (especially Newtonian telescopes) – collimation means getting the primary and secondary mirrors parallel so the entire field of view is in focus. But if you can live with such minor issues or they just don’t bother you, then you will get many years of enjoyment from your telescope.

Telescope Accessories

In previous years, Digital Setting Circles where sold as extras for telescopes. These allowed a telescope to be very accurately pointed at particular co-ordinates in the sky. These have now been surpassed by GoTo mounts. Such mounts include a computer which contains a database of all the objects in the sky and can point the telescope to any of those objects at the click of a couple of buttons. Getting your telescope aligned beforehand is crucial to how accurate a GoTo mount is in pointing. GoTo mounts also contain information on each object, will track the sky automatically (so the object of interest won’t drift out of the field of view) and most also contain tours that will take you on a journey to the more interesting objects in the sky.

Conclusion

Your lifestyle will dictate the best type of telescope for you. There’s no use buying an 8-inch reflector if you live in an apartment and have to haul it up to the roof to use it. A small refractor would be a better choice.

Buying from a dedicated telescope store is the best course of action. They’ll be able to advise you on your individual needs.

The more money you spend, the better the telescope you can buy so spend as much as you can without overspending. Check the resale value of the used telescope you’re interested in (on eBay for example) in case you want to sell it at a later date (and buy a better telescope).

Don’t buy a 60mm refractor or a 4 inch reflector – they’re too small and restrict what you can see in the night sky. Go for a 6-inch reflector (a Dobsonian) or an 80mm refractor instead.

Remember, above all, you’re buying a telescope to appreciate the wonders of the night sky, not to give you back trouble or frustration because it’s too awkward to move! Buy a telescope that you will actually use, not one you think would be great but that will never actually get used in practice.

Buy a meteorite at our used telescope store. They make great gifts!

Millennium Prophesies

April 5, 2010 by Owen Jones  
Filed under Astronomy

A lot of people prophesied that the start of the new Millennium, the year 2000 would be the date of the end of the world. However, as it worked out, they were very wide of the mark.

What is it that compels people to attempt to predict disasters? Is it because they are trying to warn people or because they want to frighten people? Scare people, I think and thereby gain advantage over the gullible.

These apocalyptic prophesies go back thousands of years and even happen in the Bible. Their only raison d’etre is to frighten people and so gain money, power and influence over them.

Even the millennium bug turned out not to be a problem with computers working perfectly well after midnight in spite of claims by ‘computer experts’ that there would be a worldwide crash of astounding significance. The computer industry made a fortune out of frightening businesses and individuals with their lies. That was the scam of the Nineties to end all swindles!

So why all the hype? Was it just the dawn of a new millennium, which caused so many to make prophesies on this date rather than stick to their normal common sense? Yes, I think. People saw the opportunity of a lifetime to rip others off and they jumped at it.

Needless to say there were thousands of prophesies made ranging from the arrival of aliens and the Second Coming of Christ to plane crashes. None of which came true. Here are a couple of those less than accurate prophesies:

May 5th was the day upon which all the planets lined up. The prediction was that the gravitational force of all these heavenly bodies in alignment would cause massive earthquakes, huge tides and volcanic eruptions.

A lot of people also predicted that the shifting of the poles would take place during 2000 and that this would cause catastrophic events such as high tides, widespread electrical failure and computer failures, which would mean economic disaster for the larger countries and insurance firms.

I do not know what you think, but perhaps instead of worrying about the demise of the world (most doom-mongers have settled on the year 2012 for the destruction of the world) we should work together to make the best of the time we have left on this planet, as well as ensuring that we pass the planet on to the next generation in the same condition as we received it.

If we act in this way, we may hold off the day of reckoning for a long while yet. We are far more likely to undergo apocalypse through nuclear war, global warming and events which are avoidable and within our control, than cosmic events which we have little control over such as asteroids or the Sun’s developing into a red dwarf and ultimately exploding.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with custom wall calendars If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

Astronomy – Important Pre-Christian Dates

April 3, 2010 by Owen Jones  
Filed under Astronomy

There is no uncertainty that astronomy is the oldest science and there is also no hesitation that astronomy was being studied by everyone, not only the wise men, thousands and thousands of years ago.

We do not understand exactly why they did it, but we can surmise that early man noticed a correlation between the weather and the stars, which were themselves not fully understood, of course.

Early man, almost certainly even as far back as Neanderthal man, noticed the connection between the weather and herd movements and crop growth, or at least fruit and nuts on local trees, if they did not have planted crops.

This means that people could see a connection between the stars and food availability. This relationship was probably ritualized into some sort of religion like early Wicca. Therefore, the stars became a very important part of the lives of every single person and it is likely that astrology and astronomy were widely intermixed by the average person.

However, there were also people who did not only use the stars as some enormous celestial clock and who tried to make sense of the whole shebang. I am going to narrate below, eight of the most important dates or years in the history of astronomy before Christ walked on the Earth. Never forget that they had nothing but an abacus to do there calculations and no telescopes, which came about two thousand years later.

585 BC: Thales of Miletus (c. 625- c. 547), a Greek, predicted a solar eclipse in Asia Minor purely on the basis of his observations and calculations. It was not a lucky guess!

c. 400 BC: the astronomer Oenopedes (5th. century). also a Greek, announces that the Earth is tilted on its axis with respect to the Sun.

352 BC: the Chinese report what they called a ‘guest star’, a supernova, which was the earliest reported sighting.

340 BC: The astronomer, Kidinnu (b. Babylon c. 379 BC) discovers the precession of the Equinoxes, ie the apparent change in the position of the stars caused by the Earth’s wobbling on its axis.

c. 300 BC: a ‘committee’ of Chinese astronomers compile star maps of the visible universe.

c. 240 BC: Chinese astronomers observe and make notes about Halley’s Comet. Also Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – c.194 BC), a Greek, correctly calculate the Earth’s dimensions.

165 BC: Chinese astronomers notice sunspots for the first time.

c. 130 BC: the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (b. 147 BC), a Greek, correctly calculates the distance to the Earth’s Moon and also rediscovers the precession of the Equinoxes.

You will see from the dates above that clearly not everyone let nature and the stars govern their lives, as the common farmer or hunter did. Some men actually put pen to paper, but before pen and paper even existed, and tried to work out ‘why these manifestations took place?’.

These individuals must have been remarkable men to have worked these measurements out by calculation, observation by the naked eye and rationalization alone.

Fascinated by astronomy, why not visit our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

Creating A Promotional Strategy

March 29, 2010 by Owen Jones  
Filed under Astronomy

Even if you were to invent something earth-shattering, you would not earn any money from of it if you left the invention on your desk. The only way you can profit from it is by selling it and in order to achieve this, you have to inform people that it exists, that it is for sale and where they may get it from. In other words, you have to advertise it.

The US Patents Office has issued thousands patents for items that never made it and many of those did not make it, not because they were not excellent ideas, but because their inventors did not know what to do with them. A business is more or less the same as a new invention. It has to be advertised, unless it is located in the middle of the only street in town.

Having already launched your business, it is to be expected that, you have already worked out your target market and evaluated the demand for your goods or services. Now you have to convert those potential customers into contented customers and this is where your promotional strategy comes in.

A promotional strategy is nothing more than a for reaching your intended market, which is of course the people most likely to need your services or products. At its simplest, your promotional strategy might consist of just hanging a sign over your door and relying on word of mouth from satisfied customers to circulate, thereby doing your advertising for you.

In some cases, this is indeed all the advertising a business needs, but the circumstances are not that common really. It works, if you are operating in a very small town or if your product or service is unique or very specialized or if you enjoy a long-standing good reputation. However, normally, customers require more details to go on before they will be drawn to your business.

Therefore, the objective of your promotional strategy should be to get in touch with the greatest quantity of potential customers by the most economical use of your means, which may include money, personnel and facilities. This means that you have to divine the channels of communication most used by your potential customers and try to get a message to them through those. This is normally constrained by a budget.

Advertising involves the purchasing of time or space in the media you have chosen in order to market your business to your intended market. You then have to decide which form of advertising you are going to use: institutional or product advertising. Institutional advertising markets the firm’s name as in: ‘Larry’s Boot Shop – The Best In Town’, whereas product advertising is more specific and might read: ‘Nike Walking Boots – 30% off at Larry’s. Offer Finishes Soon!’

Both forms of advertising can be successful and lend themselves better to some media than to others. Institutional advertising is better carried out on shop signs, sign-written vans or windows or promotional calendars, that is, static, long-term, business name advertising and product advertising is better done by newspaper, magazine, radio and TV, where one-off special offers can be promoted.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching promotional wall calendars. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

Gifts – 5 Top Tips

March 19, 2010 by Owen Jones  
Filed under Astronomy

It is a worldwide custom to give gifts for such celebrations as birthdays and wedding days, but after that is where the regions start to differ. Britons and people tracing their roots back there give presents on Christmas Day as well.

However, many other Europeans give gifts at Christmas on Saint Nicholas’ Day or December 6th. Non-Christian countries normally give presents at New Year.

Whatever you do in your country, giving a gift requires thought. The shops are frequently full of junk at these gift-giving times of the year, but there is also a lot of excellent stuff about, at a price. The alternatives are twofold on the whole.

You can either make something which will be one of a kind, I imagine that this includes personalizing a shop-bought gift or you can think outside of the box, which many people find quite difficult. Personally, I find it hard, but it does get easier the more often you try it and the better you know the person you are going to give the gift to.

Here then are a few ideas which you may resolve to take on board ‘as is’, or they may inspire you on to better ideas. As I write, Christmas is coming up and then it is Saint Valentine’s day before you know it. We definitely get plenty of opportunity to practice buying presents in the West!

A Plot Of Your Own: I come from Wales in the UK (is there any other?) and up the way from me a local strip of green-belt land was in trouble. Experts said that it ought to be planted with trees, but the authorities did not have the money, so they advertised six feet square plots of land for sale with a sapling of your choice on it.

You also got a title deed, directions and a photo. In addition, the tree would be maintained for five years until it was established. I am aware that this is not the only place that did this and it was probably not the first either, but it makes a good gift for a teenager who is wondering what he or she can do to help the environment.

The Key To Success: some children and their parents will be grateful for this one. Search the second-hand shops for an older or even an bizarre money box. Fill the money box up to a certain level with various coins that bring that level up to the value that you want to give, but leave plenty of space for the child to put money in too. Who do you give the key to? That depends on how well you know the child.

Starting A Collection: this is a brave, but good one. If you know the child well or are prepared to take on a commitment (such as a godparent should), you could choose a set of collectables, like plates, glasses or coins and buy two or three pieces to start the collection off. You can add to it every year. Others will be grateful to you too because they will jump on the band wagon.

In The Bag: if your friend is an invalid or just is temporarily in hospital, it is helpful to give a wicker basket or a nice bag full of handy items. Select the items to suit your friend, but everyone might like a writing pad, a pen, a comb or brush, wet wipes or tissues, a small book of verse, a miniature radio with ear plugs, a mirror, straws, a bottle opener, only you know, but you get the idea, I’m sure.

Stamp It: you can buy a large packet of literally thousands of foreign stamps for very little. Buy a stamp album and hinges and you could start a lifelong obsession. It also gives you gift ideas for years to come too.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching Fanklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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How Science Is Improving Our Understanding Of Nature

March 18, 2010 by Adriana Noton  
Filed under Astronomy

For centuries, scientists have engaged in research that has increased our understanding of nature and how natural forces work to create and sustain the world and universe we see today. The purpose of science is to follow a process of making careful and unbiased observations in order to generate knowledge about the world through tested theories based on the scientific observations. Although theories may not guarantee the absolute truth about a particular scientific theory, the idea is to get as close to an accurate approximation of the truth. The result will lead to a more accurate and credible understanding of how the natural world works.

Scientists seek to learn as much as possible about the nature of the world. By using intellect, the aid of scientific study devices, and formulated scientific hypothesis, scientists now have a better understanding of nature. For instance, the principles of motion and the law of gravity are applicable when studying other parts of the universe, even if we have yet to travel to these areas. The same principles can be applied to other forces such as seeking to understand ocean tides, bird migrations, earthquakes, and hurricanes. Scientists study patterns both in the natural world and in laboratories using technologically advanced research devices to gather data, take measurements, and make their observations and create their scientific theories. The result is an improved understanding of nature.

Science also helps us understand how we evolved. By studying such elements as fossils of species that once roamed the earth millions of years ago, various rocks and other matter located deep within the earth, skeletal remains of dinosaurs, and the remains of prehistoric man and early primates, scientists have made many significant discoveries about how we evolved. In fact, such famous scientists as Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Albert Einstein, and Charles Darwin, have all contributed important theories and data that have brought us even closer to understanding how the universe emerged and developed.

How science has reconstructed the events in the history of the planet and its life forms have led to remarkable improvements and insight into how nature works. For instance, by studying the contours of the ocean floors, the shape of continents, the effects of a volcano eruption and earthquake, and where different fossils have been found, we get a better understanding of why our continents reside where they are and how human populations and species migrated and evolved to what we see today. We also get a better understanding of the results of the ice age and the effect it had on the types of species we have today. Understanding how the world evolved and the changes that took place also helps us to better understand current world problems such as the effects of Global Warming which is essential to finding ways to slow it down. By understanding how nature and its natural forces work, we are better able to come up with ways to manage the planet and its inhabitants.

Because science relies heavily on accurate and unbiased data, there is a constant development of advanced techniques and instruments which has lead to many astounding discoveries in the world and universe. For instance, the Hubble Telescope has resulted in many astounding discoveries about the stars, planets, black holes, and even far away galaxies. With advanced computer systems and other technologically advanced instrument, the future for scientific discovery looks bright concerning our understanding of the history of the universe and the history of life on earth.

It will be interesting to follow the progression of nature and science in the years ahead. physics research will also be developed and integrated into even more systems that we use in everyday life.

Some Things About Geographic Information Systems

March 15, 2010 by Adriana Noton  
Filed under Astronomy

Lots of people are learning some things about geographic information systems these days. One of the first things they are learning, is just what one is. A GIS as they are referred to, helps us to question, interpret, understand, and visualize data that can show us patterns or trends, or relationships by way of report, globes, charts, and maps.

The main way that GIS is used is through maps. But this is only one way that it can be taken advantage of. A GIS can be used in various ways, and can put out other products as well for the use of geographic data. They assist in problem solving in mapping programs and contribute data to many online mapping tools.

When you have a database that is full of information in relation to geography, then you have what is known as a geodatabase. This is a database in the geographic information systems that will interpret the world for you by putting it into geographic terms. It can lay out streets and addresses from an aerial point of view, enabling you to accurately see how the geography of that area lays out.

A GIS can be used along with a GPS in order to answer questions specifically about a certain location. You can use the data that is available for making analysis and accurately understand about the location in question. The GIS basically takes the information and can geoprocess it so that it can be used along with existing database information.

You may wonder who would have need of a GIS. Well, businesses can make good use of a GIS system. They can be used to analyze and more accurately calculate an ROI, or return on investment. This function is used by quite a few in the business world, like governments, academic institutions, agencies, or corporations and companies. The GIS can provide these types of businesses with a lot of helpful benefits.

With GIS you can see where there are quantities of things for finding relationships between different places. It is an added bit of information that can be useful in making decisions about how your business or organization will treat those places in regard to a project you may have in that region or area. It can map specific activities in various locations and present the data for it in a map form, even though the data is about a census.

This technology can be used to look at earthquake activity or other types of weather. If you can map things out and see how they look over a period of time, then you can get some insight into their behavior. Like with hurricanes. This gives you an idea of where and when the next ones are most likely to occur. This allows you to prepare for and anticipate possible future events. That can be very powerful, and very beneficial information.

Learning some things about geographic information systems, will help you to understand how lots of businesses are able to project future happenings and trends. It is an easier way of looking at data and being able to see just what it means in relation to the question at hand. It basically is an information converter, that puts data into a form that is then easily interpreted in a visual way. It has tremendous benefit for many situations and in answering important questions.

Canada’s top science authority offers vast knowledge on a variety of Canadian research topics, including mathematics research, engineering Canada, and physics research.

The Chinese Lunar Calendar

March 1, 2010 by Owen Jones  
Filed under Astronomy

Previous to their implementation of the Western solar calendar scheme, the Chinese almost exclusively followed their own lunar calendar for determining the times of planting and harvesting and festival days. Although people in China today use the Western calendar for almost all business, governmental and practical matters of daily life, the old system still serves as the basis for working out numerous recurring holidays. This coexistence of two calendar schemes has long been acknowledged by the people of China.

However, this does not only apply to 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 needed for the moon to complete its full cycle of 29 and a half days, a standard that makes the lunar year a full eleven 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 times 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 strives 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 example, 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 number of astronomical calculations.

First of all, you have to work out the dates for the new moons. In these instances, 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 dump 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 Julian 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 trade on the International markets, but the normal family in the country can not. So, the government adopted the Julian 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 example and no 7 o’clocks. They are also 543 years ahead of us, although this is more common, for instance in Muslim countries.

Fascinated by astronomy, why not pop along to our website at: Astronomy Today

Astronomy A Guide To The Stars

February 21, 2010 by Brian Tubbs  
Filed under Astronomy

Many science experts agree that astronomy is all about a love for learning. Did you also know that astronomy is also one of the oldest subject’s of study for man kind? In fact, astronomy is one of the earliest sciences that humanity has ever pursued. No matter how long people have studied the universe you need to remember that astronomy and the study of the stars is a science. A science for the masses. The funny thing is that astronomy is something that everyone has heard of but what they know very little about.

While astronomy is a science, it has become more of a hobby than anything else. International boundaries blur when it comes to the study of astronomy.. Astronomy is more of an exact science than any other science that people study. When people study the stars it takes precise calculations in there observations, particularly when recording the positions of the constellations. The study of astronomy is defiantly bigger than all of us together.

Most of modern astronomical research involves a substantial amount of physics and can be considered astrophysics. So what are the differences between astrophysics and astronomy? How stars form is one of the central unknowns of astrophysics. Astronomy is more about the positioning of the planets in space.

The telescope is undoubtedly a very important investigative tool in astronomy. Did you know that Galileo was the first human to use a telescope for astronomy? If you decide to start the study of astronomy, buying a telescope will be the first thing you will need to do.

If you want to buy you a telescope, but it all looks confusing to you, be sure to do some analysis. Buying a telescope is almost the same as buying a car or clothing, no two people are looking for the same thing due to the fact that all people have different tastes. While you will want to get the best telescope you can find you must understand that they can cost anywhere from a hundred to a few thousand dollars so make an affordable choice for your needs.

After you purchase your telescope you will find that you can also purchase many accessories that will improve your star gazing experience. Now remember if you are just starting out, or if you just want to give astronomy a try you should purchase a telescope that is not to expensive, you can always upgrade later.

You might even ask friends if any of them have a telescope for sale. But the aim is to take advantage of the latest developments in telescope technology to make the next giant leap forward in observing. Once you get your new telescope you will find that you will use it often, as most people use there telescopes quite often for star parties or just for gazing at the stars.

Your friends and family will also be very curious. Astronomy is our tool for unlocking the knowledge of the heavens. As mentioned above, it may be a science, but it also is an outdoor nature hobby. And while it is a science, you don’t need to think about what other people think of you, because everyone thinks that it is really cool. And if you are looking for a way to spend more time with your family, astronomy could be exactly what you are looking for, due to everyone’s curious nature.

Do you read your horoscope? Did you know that your horoscope is created by the stars.

If you would like to get your free daily horoscope, even for scorpio, use one of these hyperlinks.

US Minor Holidays And Occasions

January 16, 2010 by Owen Jones  
Filed under Astronomy

Hereunder is a directory of minor holidays and occasions in the United States. Some of them are virtually unknown, and others are quite obscure.

April Fools’ Day – (April 1): the day for practical jokes (only before noon in the UK). Its origins are obscure, but it bears a resemblance to an ancient Roman f?te for the goddess of nature.

Arbor Day – (last Friday in April): devoted to trees and their conservation. It is held on December 22 everywhere else in the world.

Armed Forces Day – (third Sunday in May): a day to honour the US armed forces.

Citizenship Day – (September 17): replaced Constitution Day in 1952 by presidential proclamation.

Daylight-Saving Time: was first proposed by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but became the Uniform Time Act in 1966. It is not observed in Hawaii, the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana, most of Arizona (except on the Navajo Reservation), American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

Election Day – (Tuesday after the first Monday in November): presidential elections are held in years divisible by four and elections for all members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate in years evenly divisible by two.

Fathers’ Day – (third Sunday in June): was first observed in West Virginia in 1908, but this uniquely American holiday was not made official until 1972.

Flag Day – (June 14): was first observed in 1877, which was the centenary of the adoption of the modern design. Truman approved the Flag Day Bill in 1949.

Groundhog Day – (February 2): on this day the groundhog looks out of his burrow. If he sees his own shadow there will be six weeks of Winter to follow, otherwise Spring is just around the corner.

Halloween – (October 31): All Hallow’s Eve is the day before the feast of All Saints. It started as a pagan custom honouring the dead and a celebration of Autumn. ‘Trick or Treat’ is purely American with no historical basis.

Kwanzaa – is a secular observance by African-Americans to commemorate their African heritage. It begins on Dec.26th when a candle in a candelabrum is lit every day for seven days. It was first practiced by Maulana Karenga in 1966.

Mothers’ Day – (second Sunday in May): was conceived by Anne M. Jarvis of Philadelphia as a way for children to pay homage to their mothers. It received presidential proclamation in 1914.

National Maritime Day – (May 22): was proclaimed in 1935 to memorialize the SS Savannah’s first successful transatlantic crossing by a steamship in 1819. It is also a day of remembrance of merchant mariners who died in defense of their country.

National Teachers’ Day – (Tuesday of the first full week in May): is when students are meant to honour the teaching profession.

St. Patrick’s Day – (March 17): has been borrowed from Ireland where it is their national saint’s day.

St. Valentine’s Day – (February 14): was originally to honour two saints martyred by Emperor Claudius (214 – 270), but has been devoted to lovers since the Middle Ages.

Susan B. Anthony Day – (February 15): Anthony (1820 – 1906) worked for women’s rights and suffrage.

United Nations’ Day – (October 24): commemorates the endorsement of the UN Charter in 1945 by the then five permanent members of the Security Council.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, 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 website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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