A waxing crescent Moon will occult Mercury February 18th, seen from Arizona to Georgia: lunar-occultations.com It will be partly visible from the Southern Hemisphere. More to come.
The 2026 Global Days of Action to #CloseBases will be February 21st-23rd: daytoclosebases.org
On the US prison camp/military base at Gitmo, taken from Cuba: durhamspark.blogspot.com/2018/02/awtwns-ode-to-sea-art-from-guantanamo.html
The Guantanamo Survivors Fund: gsfund.org
PSL, The People's Forum, the Hatuey Project, etc. are collecting tax-deductible donations to send medicines, solar power equipment, etc. to Cuba as the Trump-Vance intensify the economic (and covert?) war against the country.
While NPR is pushing every day for near-future "regime change" and war in several countries, working with the Trump administration they portray as a great threat to US "democracy," maybe even admitting that the American people, or many of them, don't want yet more US wars, PBS NC, for whatever reason, happened to just rebroadcast Rick Steve's old pro-peace Iran travel program and The Volunteer (?), in which a Japanese-American veteran in California says that a black fellow soldier in Mississippi (?) saved his life during the Vietnam War, by keeping other soldiers from throwing him out of an aircraft during a medical evacuation (and so admitting that killing prisoners and doing so by tossing them out of aircraft was routine for US forces during the War). On the other hand, PBS NC has also been broadcasting a documentary on the US Bay of Pigs operation against Cuba (told by a few Cuban exiles only, and without mention of the CIA, etc.?) in 2026.
There will be a Week of Action in Defense of Cuba March 8th-15th.
www.solidaritycollective.org/2026speakertour
www.solidaritycollective.org/upcoming-delegations
Red Books Day 2026 is February 21st – www.instagram.com/p/DUMeJRejJlN/
Some links from the interesting HASTRO history of astronomy listserve to check, and some others; some of this has been edited slightly and most or all of the brackets were added by the original authors:
archaeologymag.com/2025/11/the-americas-earliest-known-observatory-in-peru/
jqjacobs.net/peru/chankillo.html
The Sechín Alto Complex in the Pre-Hispanic Central Andes –jqjacobs.net/andes/images/latitude_sechin.jpg
www.brepolsonline.net/doi/pdf/10.1484/J.JUA.5.133456 Casma-Sechin Archaeogeodesy
jqjacobs.net/andes/sechin.html
www.jqjacobs.net/andes/kml/sechin.kml
"Scientists Reveal How The Maya Predicted Eclipses For Centuries" –
www.sciencealert.com/scientists-reveal-how-the-maya-predicted-eclipses-for-centuries
"The design and reconstructible history of the Mayan eclipse table of the Dresden Codex" (Science Advances, 10/22/25)
Einstein and Darwin: literaryyard.com/2025/11/09/with-einstein-and-darwin/
Two Egyptian Kings, Shepseskaf and Userkaf, and a solar eclipse (2471 BC)
Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
Updike, John, ‘The Accelerating Expansion of the Universe,’’ Harper’s Magazine, October
2004, pages 71-76.
solar-center.stanford.edu/activities/jeff/Updike,Expanding%20Universe.pdf
michelangelobuonarrotietornato.com/2021/04/20/lorologio-del-duomo-di-firenze
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Czech-2013-Prague-Astronomical_clock_face.jpg
www.cattedraledicremona.it/torrazzo-esterno
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Brescia_Orologio_Piazza_Loggia.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Padova_Piazza_dei_Signori_Torre_dell%27Orologio_Zifferblatt_1.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Exeter_Cathedral_astronomical_clock.jpg
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Padova_Piazza_dei_Signori_Torre_dell%27Orologio_Zifferblatt_1.jpg
www.bbc.com/future/article/20251114-historys-epic-theories-of-what-causes-aurora
Michael Lewis & Simon Portegies Zwart: The significance of Halley's Comet in the Bayeux Tapestry
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adt9039
brill.com/display/title/73276 Luís Ribeiro und Charles Burnett (editors), Astrologers at Work: Essays on the Practices and Techniques of Astrology in Memory of Helena Avelar
academia.edu/130002289/Galileo_and_the_Astrological_Prophecy_of_Manuel_Rosales
brill.com/display/title/73276?rskey=fd47EK&result=1
academia.edu/57168632/Galileos_first_trial
academia.edu/57168620/Galileos_astrology
academia.edu/129930699/Galileo_vs_1618s_Great_Comet_Fly_like_an_Eagle_
academia.edu/57168623/Galileo_and_the_new_star Astronomy Now, Oct 1, 2004
"Galileo's Astrology" a paper at the 2001 Eurosymposium on Galileo.
The "Fly like and Eagle" Dio paper?
phys.org/news/2025-12-historical-geography-year-eclipse-mystery.html
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 12/2/25:
"Analyses of the Ancient Chinese Report on the Total Solar Eclipse in
709 BCE: Implications for the Contemporaneous Earth’s Rotation Speed
and Solar Cycles"
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae0461
"The Medieval Moon: A
History of Haunting and Blessing"
yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300278286/the-medieval-moon/
aeon.co/essays/what-the-moon-meant-to-medieval-christian-and-islamic-authors
And NYRB or LRB??
Liber de Motibus Planetarum Nothaft? – journals.uco.es/mediterranea/article/view/10774/9955
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2022AN....34320017P/abstract
A new, illustrated catalogue of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese historical star maps by Nha Il-Seong and Nha Sarah (in Korean) has been published:
화려하게 부활 한 東洋 天文圖 / Masterpieces of the oriental star maps / Hwaryŏhage puhwal han Tongyang ch'ŏnmundo An English edition is forthcoming?
stellarium, "Chinese Chenzhuo Sky (3rd Century)"
"Korean" – Cheonsang Yeolcha Bunyajido
www.vaticanobservatory.org/sacred-space-astronomy/busting-myths-in-a-universe-of-earths/
A Universe of Earths: Our Planet and Other Worlds, from Copernicus to NASA
Dennis Danielson, Christopher M Graney
Ancient World Magazine, 1/7/26:
"The Heavenly Antinous"
www.ancientworldmagazine.com/articles/heavenly-antinous-lost-constellation-almagest/
On the constellation: penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/ALLSTA/Antinous*.html
History of Astronomy from the Collection of Jay M. Pasachoff – to be auctioned by Christies – onlineonly.christies.com/s/fine-printed-books-manuscripts-including-americana/lots/3766?COSID=43886776&cid=ms:eml%7Cst:mkt%7Cmi:3b40e069-8b34-4ac0-bd75-94cfff6b7989&bid=
Seventh-Century Greek Wine Cup Revealed as Ancient Star Map – greekreporter.com/2026/02/10/7th-century-greek-wine-cup-ancient-star-map/ and www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.83.2.0257 ?
research-portal.uu.nl/en/publications/instrumental-practices-in-seventeenth-century-optics/
On sighting tubes – ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1954C%26T....70..175M/abstract
www.forbiddenhistories.com/2018/05/astronomy-and-astrology/
Astronomia Danica – archive.org/details/astronomiadanica00long/page/41/mode/1up
"Eclipse Calendar for the Year 1676 by the mathematics and physics professor Johann Christoph Sturm (1635–1703)"
"Greenbaum, Dorian Gieseler
(ed.), ‘Kepler’s
Astrology’,*Culture and Cosmos* Vol. 14 no 1 and 2, Spring/Summer and
Autumn/Winter 2010.
Free to download at https://www.cultureandcosmos.org/issues/vol14.php "
The Dark side of Isaac Newton by Nick Kollerstrom
Stephen A. Barney, W.J. Lewis, J.A. Beach and Oliver Berghof (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007), III.xxiv-xxvii"
"Norris, Ray and M. Norris, 'Why are there Seven Sisters?' (Advancing
Cultural Astronomy, 2021)
Abstract:
'There are two puzzles surrounding the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters.
First, why are the mythological stories surrounding them, typically
involving seven young girls being chased by a man associated with the
constellation Orion, so similar in vastly separated cultures, such as
the Australian Aboriginal cultures and Greek mythology? Second, why do
most cultures call them 'Seven Sisters' even though most people with
good eyesight see only six stars? Here we show that both these puzzles
may be explained by a combination of the great antiquity of the
stories combined with the proper motion of the stars, and that these
stories may predate the departure of most modern humans out of Africa
around 100,000 BC.'
Limited access:
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-64606-6_11 [ or link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-64606-6 , arxiv.org/abs/2101.09170 and gwern.net/doc/history/2021-norris-2.pdf ?
The full article can be read here:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0zgle7u0ynba2dl3jxxdl/sevensisters.pdf?rlkey=jbpxcdaj83ugsjxukkrm0gh57&e=2 "
www.brooklynmuseum.org/objects/236 and www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/OvidFastiBkFour.php#anchor_Toc69367846
www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NymphaiPleiades.html
By Lorenzo Verderame, regarding Mesopotamia: www.maajournal.com/index.php/maa/article/view/752
By Maria Teresa Renzi-Sepe: www.harrassowitz-verlag.de/The_Perception_of_the_Pleiades_in_Mesopotamian_Culture/title_7320.ahtml ?
Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets by E.C. Krupp, 1991 (New York: HarperCollins)
"Blue-Seven Phenomenon" – ?
From Phillip Helbig:
Maitrāyaṇīya Upaniṣad verse 1.7 – अथ किमेतैर्वान्यानां शोषणं महार्णवानां शिखरिणां प्रपतनं ध्रुवस्य प्रचलनं स्थानं वा तरूणां निमज्जनं पृथिव्याः स्थानादपसरणं सुराणं सोऽहमित्येतद्विधेऽस्मिन्संसारे किं कामोपभोगैर्यैरेवाश्रितस्यासकृदिहावर्तनं दृश्यत इत्युद्धर्तुमर्हसीत्यन्धोदपानस्थो भेक इवाहमस्मिन्संसारे भगवंस्त्वं नो गतिस्त्वं नो गतिः
"Translation:
Furthermore, what is the point of these or other things—the drying up of the great oceans, the crumbling of the mountain peaks, the shaking of the pole star, the uprooting of trees, the submerging of the earth, or the displacement of the gods from their positions? In such a world as this, I am as I am; what use are the enjoyments of desire, through which one is seen to return to this existence repeatedly? You should lift me up, for I am like a frog in a blind well within this cycle of rebirth. O Lord, you are our refuge, you are our final resort.
"There is a statement in Mahabharata 6.2.31 which talks about Vashishta (Mizar) and Arundhati (Alcor): या चैषा विश्रुता राजंस्त्रैलोके साधुसंमता
अरुन्धती तयाप्येष वसिष्ठः पृष्टः कृतः
Translation: And, O king, she who is praised in the three worlds and esteemed highly by the Sādhus, Arundhatī, she has even taken [her husband] Vasiṣṭha on her back.
[In this verse an unusual situation is being pointed out whereby normally Vasistha is ahead of Arundhati but here the opposite is happening]
Between 11088BC and 4509 BC the Right Ascension of Arundhati [Alcor] was greater than that of Vasiṣṭha [Mizar]."
Ammarell, G. and Tsing, A.L. (2015): "Cultural Production of Skylore in
Indonesia." – Handbook of Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy, edited by Clive Ruggles; Springer, pp. 2207-2214.
link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-1-4614-6141-8_236
Paul Kunitzsch and Manfred Ullmann, 1992, "on the role of the Pleiades in Arabic poetry" –
www.zobodat.at/publikation_volumes.php?id=56408
On the Pleiades and the Hyades – "OVID TRISTIΑ BOOK I THE TEXT REVISED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY S. G. OWEN, B.A. (1885). United Kingdom: Clarendon Press." – page 100
Smithsonian Magazine, 2/3/26:
"Medieval Monks Wrote Over a Copy of an Ancient Star Catalog. Now, a Particle Accelerator Is Revealing the Long-Lost Original Text" –
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00218286221128289
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00218286241256345
ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025JHA....56..287G/abstract
link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-18683-8 , page 187
The Burunh Program (at Australia's University of Melbourne): www.burunh.org
theconversation.com/for-40-you-can-name-a-star-for-your-valentine-but-it-wont-mean-much-274742
WGSN: exopla.net/star-names/best-practise-for-star-names/
exopla.net/star-names/wgsn-guidelines/
scilogs.spektrum.de/uhura-uraniae/astronomers-valentine-2/
The IAU Office for Astronomy Outreach (OAO): iauoutreach.org/rules-to-name-a-star
IAU-Catalog of Star Names (CSN): exopla.net/star-names/modern-iau-star-names/
Julio Samso Moya, a historian of Islamic and medieval astronomy, passed away February 13, 2026.
The Abrams Planetarium Sky Calendar (but there is a fee?) – www.abramsplanetarium.org/SkyCalendar/
Search for "Gaston Ripert meteorite Chinguetti Mauretania"
Ovid, Metamorphoses, 5:315-331, when Typhon came upon the Greek gods
A new issue of e-News, from the Society for the History of Astronomy (SHA) (in the UK): societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/SHA-eNews-2026-01.pdf
Past issues: societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com/the-e-news/
PhysOrg, 12/31/25:
"Wind-battered Lick Observatory rushes to shield historic telescope
after dome damage"
phys.org/news/2025-12-battered-observatory-shield-historic-telescope.html
www.lickobservatory.org/gifts/update-on-storm-damage-at-lick-observatory/
www.facebook.com/LickObservatory
The director of the University of California Observatories: bsky.app/profile/bmacastro.bsky.social
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-myths-and-lore-of-the-milky-way/
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/sky-gazing-on-mars/
troubledminds.substack.com/p/the-old-stories-remember-when-myth
See also – Elizabeth Wayland Barber ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Wayland_Barber ) and Paul T Barber's When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth (2004-2005)? – library.unc.edu/find/?q="When+they+severed+earth+from+sky+%3A+how+the+human+mind..."
troubledminds.substack.com/p/what-else-the-old-stories-remember
www.farmersalmanac.com/fond-farewell-from-farmers-almanac
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Radin
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ho-Chunk_mythology
hotcakencyclopedia.com/ho.Radin@APS.html
? – web.archive.org/web/20070103031700/http://www.tcinternet.net/users/cbailey/RedHorn.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Horn
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeastern_Ceremonial_Complex
www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=SP012
In far eastern Oklahoma – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Mounds
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddoan_Mississippian_culture
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawnee_people
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_people
A chiefdom in Georgia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocute
A chiefdom in South Carolina – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cofitachequi
In Mount Gilead, in Montgomery County, North Carolina – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_Creek_Indian_Mound
A chiefdom in Burke County, North Carolina – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joara
A chiefdom in Georgia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coosa_chiefdom
Near Natchez, Mississippi – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natchez_people
Near Macon, Georgia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocmulgee_Mounds_National_Historical_Park
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamar_mounds_and_village_site
Near Blakely, in southwestern Georgia, near the border with Alabama – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolomoki_Mounds
Etowah in northern Georgia – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etowah_Indian_Mounds
Near Tuscaloosa, Alabama – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moundville_Archaeological_Site
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moundville_phase
Cahokia in East Saint Louis, Illinois – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia
In northern Louisiana – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_Point
The Weeden Island site, near Tampa and Pinellas Park in Florida – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeden_Island_culture
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alachua_culture
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alachua_County,_Florida
? – web.archive.org/web/20180422202841/
www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/m_sites.html
www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/pre/htmls/m_beliefs.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_stone_statuary
From Wikipedia:
Dampier, Bennett Harrison. THE MOTH AND THE MOONFLOWER: DATURA AND HAWK MOTH ICONOGRAPHY ACROSS ANCIENT AMERICA, Texas State University, 2022.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datura_stramonium
2022 Romain, William F., and Edward W. Herrmann. An Archaeoastronomic Assessment of Angel Mounds, Indiana, with Commentary on Moundville, Alabama, and Cahokia, Illinois. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology (2022)
UNC professors Steponaitis Vincas P., and C. Margaret Scarry, eds. Rethinking Moundville and Its Hinterland ; etc.
In Moundsville, in northern West Virginia (an Adena site?) – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_Creek_Mound
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