A solar deity is a sky deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name Sol or by its Greek name Helios. The English word sun stems from Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ.
An aurora, also known as the polar lights, aurora borealis, or aurora polaris, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions. Auroras display dynamic patterns of brilliant lights that appear as curtains, rays, spirals, or dynamic flickers covering the entire sky.
Malina is a solar deity in Inuit religion. She is found most commonly in the legends of Greenland that link her closely with the lunar deity Anningan, her brother. Malina is constantly fleeing from Anningan as the result of strife between the two. Their constant chase is the traditional explanation for the movement of the Sun and Moon through the sky.
In Inuit mythology, Igaluk is one of the most powerful gods of the pantheon. He is a lunar deity. In Greenland, he is known as Aningaaq.
Pawnee mythology is the body of oral history, cosmology, and myths of the Pawnee people concerning their gods and heroes. The Pawnee are a federally recognized tribe of Native Americans, originally located on the Great Plains along tributaries of the Missouri and Platte Rivers in Nebraska and Kansas and now are currently in Oklahoma. They traditionally speak Pawnee, a Caddoan language. The Pawnees lived in villages of earth lodges. They grew corn and went on long bison hunts on the open plains twice a year. The tribe has four bands: the Skidi and "the South Bands" consisted of the Chawi, the Kitkahahki and the Pitahawirata Pawnee.
In the mythology of the Aboriginal people of south-eastern Australia, Gnowee is a solar goddess whose torch is the Sun. She was once a woman who lived upon the Earth at a time when it was eternally dark, and people could only move about with the aid of bark torches. One day she left her little son sleeping while she went out to dig for yams. Food was scarce, and Gnowee wandered so far that she reached the end of the Earth, passed under it and emerged on the other side. Not knowing where she was, she could not find her little son anywhere, so she climbed into the sky with her great bark torch to get a clearer view. She still wanders the sky to this day, lighting the whole world with her torch as she continues to search for her lost son.
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet, also spelled Sakhmet, Sekhet, Sakhet, or Scheme, among other spellings), is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing. She is depicted as a lioness. She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare. Upon death, Sekhmet continued to protect them, bearing them to the afterlife.
Zorya is a figure in Slavic folklore, a feminine personification of dawn, possibly goddess. Depending on tradition, she may appear as a singular entity, often called "The Red Maiden", or two or three sisters at once. Although Zorya is etymologically unrelated to the Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn *H₂éwsōs, she shares most of her characteristics. She is often depicted as the sister of the Sun, the Moon, and Zvezda, the Morning Star with which she is sometimes identified. She lives in the Palace of the Sun, opens the gate for him in the morning so that he can set off on a journey through the sky, guards his white horses, she is also described as a virgin. In the Eastern Slavic tradition of zagovory she represents the supreme power that a practitioner appeals to.
Ochre, or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced by this pigment, especially a light brownish-yellow. A variant of ochre containing a large amount of hematite, or dehydrated iron oxide, has a reddish tint known as "red ochre".
Saulė is a solar goddess, the common Baltic solar deity in the Lithuanian and Latvian mythologies. The noun Saulė/Saule in the Lithuanian and Latvian languages is also the conventional name for the Sun and originates from the Proto-Baltic name *Sauliā > *Saulē.
The term night sky, usually associated with astronomy from Earth, refers to the nighttime appearance of celestial objects like stars, planets, and the Moon, which are visible in a clear sky between sunset and sunrise, when the Sun is below the horizon.
Phosphorus is one of the Astra Planeta, specifically the god of the planet Venus in its appearance as the Morning Star. Another Greek name for the Morning Star is Heosphorus, meaning "the dawn-bringer". The form Eosphorus is sometimes met in English. As an adjective, the Greek word φωσφόρος is applied in the sense of "light-bringing" to, for instance, the dawn, the god Dionysus, pine torches, the day; and in the sense of "torch-bearing" as an epithet of several gods and goddesses, especially Hecate but also of Artemis/Diana and Hephaestus. Objectively, Venus is the "light bringer" as she appears most brightly in the sky in December ; the most regular appearance of the planet signalled a beginning of "rebirth" phase where the days would get longer and winter would end.
The Eye of Ra or Eye of Re is a being in ancient Egyptian mythology that functions as a feminine counterpart to the sun god Ra and a violent force that subdues his enemies. The eye is an extension of Ra's power, equated with the disk of the sun, but it often behaves as an independent goddess. This goddess can be equated with several particular deities, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Raet-Tawy, and Mut. The eye goddess acts as mother, sibling, consort, and daughter of the sun god. She is his partner in the creative cycle in which he begets the renewed form of himself that is born at dawn. The eye's violent aspect defends Ra against the agents of disorder that threaten his rule. This dangerous aspect of the eye goddess is often represented by a lioness or by the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. The Eye of Ra is similar to the Eye of Horus, which belongs to a different god, Horus, but represents many of the same concepts. The disastrous effects when the eye goddess rampages out of control and the efforts of the gods to return her to a benign state are a prominent motif in Egyptian mythology.
The Peramangk are an Aboriginal Australian people whose lands traditionally comprise the Adelaide Hills, as well as lands to the west of the Murray River in mid Murraylands and through to the northern part of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the Australian state of South Australia.
Justine Florence Saunders,, returned in 2000 was an Australian stage, television and film actress. She was a member of the Woppaburra, an Australian Aboriginal people, from the Kanomie clan of Great Keppel Island in Queensland. On the small screen she appeared in numerous series, mini-series and telemovies.
Australian Aboriginal astronomy is a name given to Aboriginal Australian culture relating to astronomical subjects – such as the Sun and Moon, the stars, planets, and the Milky Way, and their motions on the sky.
Bila is the personification of the Sun among the Adnyamathanha people. She is a solar goddess, as befitting the general trends among Australian aboriginal peoples, which largely perceive the Sun as female.
C/2021 A1 (Leonard) is an inbound long period comet discovered by G. J. Leonard at the Mount Lemmon Observatory on 3 January 2021 when the comet was 5 AU (750 million km) from the Sun. This was the first comet discovered in 2021 and it has a retrograde orbit. On 12 December 2021 the comet was 0.233 AU (34.9 million km) from Earth and on 18 December 2021 it was 0.028 AU (4.2 million km) from Venus. It made its closest approach to the Sun on 3 January 2022. On 10 October the comet showed a short but dense dust tail. In early December the comet had an apparent magnitude (coma+nucleus) of around 6. The first reports of naked eye observations by experienced observers started coming in on 5 December 2021. Much like observing Messier 33, the low surface brightness of the comet can make it difficult to observe near urban areas. As of 22 December 2021, the comet is around apparent magnitude 4, making it a good binocular comet for the Southern hemisphere.
