There is nothing more frustrating in astronomy that than unsuccessfully trying to identifying an object in the night sky to a companion by waving your arms, pointing fingers, describing and gestulating. An elegant, simple and very effective solution to this problem is to use green lasers pointers to point out objects in the sky.

Green laser pointers are high technology gadgets that are becoming more and more popular in astronomy. Not only are green laser pointers ideal for pointing out celestial objects, they are also very useful for aligning telescopes and for atrophotography.

Why green laser pointers

Green laser pointers are the preferred laser pointer color for astronomy because green is the most visible laser pointer color. The reason why green is more visible is the human eye is most sensitive to green light. The other reason is the effect of light in the earth's atmosphere. Light is visible in the sky when the atmosphere scatters it and higher wavelengths are scattered more than higher wavelengths. Green is a medium wavelength so it scatters more and is more visible than longer wavelengths such as red.

Other applications

Using green laser pointers to point out celestial object to people next to you is not the only application for laser pointers in astronomy. A green laser pointer can also be mounted on a telescope using a bracket or by holding the laser by hand in the groove parallel to the telescopes optical axis. The green laser pointer beam clearly shows where the telescope is pointing and the object being viewed through the telescope.

A green laser pointer mounted on a telescope can also makes aligning the telescope to a celestial object much faster and easier.

How powerful should the laser pointer be?

Green laser pointers can range in power levels from 1mW all the way to 200mW so deciding which power level to use can be tricky. The points to consider when choosing the power level for an astronomy laser are

-The number of people star gazing with you. If it is just one person, a low power such as 5mW will be suitable. If you are stargazing with a large group of people who will not be standing next to you, the laser needs to be more visible so a high power level such as 100mW would be suitable.

-The level of ambient light. If you are stargazing at dawn/dusk, during a full moon or in built up areas where there is a lot of light pollution, a low powered beam such as 5mW would be harder to see. You would generally need at least 50mW or more in this kind of situation.

Higher powered laser pointers are not always better because any glare from them can easily ruin your night vision and can provide a distraction. Many stargazing nights have been ruined when people have been paying more attention to the new and exotic high power laser used to point out objects than the actual objects themselves.



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At my very young age I was fascinated by the brilliance, vastness, scope and charm of Astrology. I met with a gentleman in my late 20's who mastered astrology and took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew. I consider him my master and teacher of astrology.

The two topics I showed tremendous interest were Daily Planetary Horas (Hours) and Sarvashtaka Varga (Sanskrit word), a mathematical genius of Indian astrology. He taught me unremittingly ins and outs of these marvelous branches of Astrology. For over 40 years I have used both.

He taught me how to calculate the date and time of birth of any one from their Thumb. Every time he did this, it was precise to the minute and was verified. This was beyond me and could not do it. I confined my research to my two above referred favorites.

Simply put the 7 primary planets SUN, MOON, MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER, VENUS AND SATURN rule each hour of the day in a cyclical order, every day and for ever and influences our daily lives in a significance way.

This idea and this time management system have been in use for centuries. Chaldeans were the first to popularize this magnificent system. For a very long time only 7 planets have been recognized and in use. They are SUN, MOON, MARS, MERCURY, JUPITER, VENUS and SATURN. It has been established after research these 7 planets influence our daily lives.

This makes perfect sense. No wonder, from time immemorial humans have used 7 days in a week (SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY). These 7 planets and 7 days are interwoven. This perfectly explains why these 7 primary planets have tremendous influence in our daily lives and all our lives.

It is worth mentioning here the number 7 has spiritual, magical and mystical significance. 7 planets, 7 musical notes, 7 chakras in the practice of yoga, 7 week days, 7 continents, so on and so forth.

Daily planetary hours (horas) system is easy to understand, use and benefit from. Here is how it works:

All Mondays start with and ruled by Moon Hour (Hora) at sunrise. All 2nd hours on Mondays are ruled by Saturn, All 3rd Hours (Hora) are ruled by Jupiter. All 4th Hours (Horas) are ruled by Mars, All 5th Hours are ruled by Sun, All 6th Hours are ruled by Venus and all 7th hours are ruled by Mercury. After completing the 7th hour, the first cycle, Moon hours start the 2nd cycle and rule the 8th hours. The same cycle repeats forever. Moon again starts and rules the 15th hours on Modays. Moon again starts and rules the 22nd hours on Mondays. 23rd hour will be ruled by Saturn, 24th hour ends with Jupiter. The next hour in the cycle will be that of Mars at sunrise on all Tuesdays.

All Tuesdays start with and ruled by Mars at sunrise. You will follow the same cycle, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, Moon, Saturn and Jupiter, This cycle repeats over and over forever. For your information one hora is not exactly 60 minutes. This hora system is based on accurate sun rise and sunset times. These times vary daily and seasonally and therefore 24 horas are slightly different in duration with the 24 calendar hours with 60 minutes duration per hour,

Once we identify what are our beneficial planets and what are our inimical planets we can use those hours accordingly to enhance results in whatever we are doing. That is the central theme of daily planetary horas (hours). Once we learn this simple art, unlock the treasure, the system works like a magic.



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Saturn's moon Titan is an enticingly mysterious world. The Huygens probe landed on Titan in January 2005 and has since then sent images and other data about the moon. A research team at Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Maryland led by Ralph Lorenz has examined the images and drawn their conclusions about the data. Recently they published their findings in Geophysical Research Letters.

Titan's surface is covered with lakes made up not of water but of liquid methane and ethane. The surface temperature of this big moon is approximately -178 °C, keeping the methane liquid though some of it condenses and forms clouds as it cools in the atmosphere. Thus the rain on Titan is liquid methane.

The solid surface of Titan is covered by dynes of a substance resembling sand. The dynes are made up of tholin that is composed of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen.

Tholin has been named after the Greek word for 'muddy'. It is formed as sunlight splits the methane molecules apart and the atoms combine to form larger molecules. Laboratory tests have indicated that if this has continued for billions of years there should be much less tholin on Titan than there is. The researchers concluded that Titan's present methanological cycle cannot have continued so long but must have begun much later.

Lorenz believes that earth's hydrological cycle began early in the history of our planet but he suspects that Titan's methanological cycle must be relatively young.

Although not all astronomers are willing to discard the idea of a 4.6 billion year old solar system, Titan's tholin speaks for a much younger moon than was supposed. The new data suggests that the entire solar system cannot be billions of years old.

Joel Kontinen is a translator and novelist currently living in Finland. His background includes an MA in translation studies and a BA in Bible and Theology. He likes to keep up-to-date on science news and often comments on creation/evolution and origins issues.


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