Galileo's Camera

Today is the first day of the new year according to the traditions in Sri Lanka (or rather the traditions of Buddhists and Hindus in Sri Lanka). I personally find the traditional new year in SL interesting as unlike many traditions around the world where the new year begins with a new day, it begins at a particular time of the day marked by the movement of the Sun from Pisces to Aries. The traditional new year also carries along with a lot of "traditions", astrological and otherwise. There are specific times defined by astrologers ("nakath") which denote the beginning of the new year, the beginning of Sun's transition in to the new year and the times defined as "auspicious" for various tasks (starting your profession for the new year, first meal of the new year etc.). As mentioned in the earlier post, the objective of this attempt is not to find scientific proof of the astrology, but to analyse the mathematical basis of astrology. In this one...

Whenever I tell that I am interested in astronomy, there are some who come back with "Oh god! Don't tell me you don't believe in all that crap?". Sometimes I answer with a very serious "Well those are true!". The reality is that while there is a reasonable number of people who don't distinguish between astronomy and astrology, there is an even larger number of people who dismiss astrology as complete fallacy and non-scientific for the wrong reason. Given that the traditional new year of the Sri Lankan Buddhists and the Hindus which is  based completely on astrology, is around the corner, I thought it would be the right time to start off an article about the mathematical basis of astrology. Astrology consist of studying the movement of celestial bodies and predicting the future (or largely the future of individuals) based on that movement. The predictions made based on astrology have been challenged over and over and have failed to be proven on a ra...