DEFINITIONS and introduction of each of astronomy’s everyday items (chapters) is as important as limbs are to the human body. Go without any detail and you return with empty hands; and you are stranded in the mid-stream, with nowhere to go.

That is the reason why I took up the parlance, to introduce to you (and others) the basic elements, through the history of astronomy and how gingerly it advanced through the last four centuries. The gradual, step-wise advancement will reveal to you the history of thought and the sacrifices these scientists made so that today the world has been turned around while those remarkable men and women are no longer there.

For instance, those who dared say (and prove) that the world is round and orbiting the Sun, went through hell. They committed a double ‘sin’ and at once became a target of the church. Many were burnt alive, many excommunicated, many jeered at, many others were laughed at. But they never wavered. They left for us a legacy from where we would proceed further, until the burden of proof of what is known already, no longer bothers us anymore. But an in-depth understanding of the world of astronomy must not elude us.

For instance, we know today that the world is round. This was only proved quite recently. Before that the world was considered to be a flat disc at the edge of which people and ships would fall flat into the sea! Brave people ventured outward to find the truth. As time passed more and more of truth revealed itself and made the lives of scientists much easier. We shall see how.

Let us consider what is left of the alphabet C.

Charon: It is the only moon of the last planet Pluto, (since relegated to the status of a planetoid). Planet Pluto and its moon Charon revolve around each other. Funny, isn’t it?

Pluto is 2/3 the size of our moon and Charon is about 1/2 the size of Pluto, so you see that it is a tiny moon. Some believe that both Pluto and Charon are moons of planet Neptune. But nobody is sure one way or the other. They believe that at some epoch the two were whisked away from their master planet (Neptune) and have been living a life of their own.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): I apprehended that CFCs are going to occupy the attention of the next and more generations to come.

CFC are synthetic chemical compounds extensively used in refrigeration and air conditioning worldwide without let or hindrance. It is also used in foams and packaging of fast foods as rigid insulation.

It has been established that CFCs are the main threat to the planet’s volatile but protective Ozone layer, because the gaseous discharge is immune to destruction in the troposphere (the bottom-most layer of gases of the atmosphere which we breathe).

They float upwards. Their manufacture and release have led to large amounts in the stratosphere. CFCs are broken down by sunlight into chlorine, which has a destructive affect on ozone with the result that the layer is depleted and allows for the harmful ultraviolet rays to enter and cause extreme damage to life.

Any tempering with the solar supply of radiation will ruin us irretrievably, as I have stated elsewhere in the past. Stealthily, Armageddon will creep over the humans, animals and even the flora alike.

The discharge of CFCs into the atmosphere is one hell of an issue. It must occupy man’s attention from now on. Some way must be devised by scientists to somehow circumvent this essential inevitable.

In short, one can say that atoms are the most basic, the earliest forms of life. In fact, the earliest of all basic building blocks of life. Life takes its variety from the nature and shape of cells. Take cells out from the variety that they provide, and you are left with nothing but dull, dreary and insipid life forms.

Without the cells, we do not have the curling and lovely peacocks, neither those lovely and electric cheetahs, nor the incredible whales and the great kodiaks; nor the birds of a thousand varieties. Behind the beauty of the world lie those humble and unpretentious cells.

Climate: It is the long time meteorological conditions such as temperature, precipitation, wind and snow, that occur for a certain period of time. Besides many other aspects of weather. For the present, it would be sufficient to say so much. More about it on a later occasion.