Happy Newtonmas

I would like to wish you a very happy Newtonmas today. As everyone knows, Isaac Newton was born prematurely on this day in the village of Woolsthorpe in England, a few months after his father’s death. His mother abandoned him in his infancy when she married again. His birth, 378 years ago, coincided with the year of the death of Galileo Galilei. There were heavenly portents of course, the solstice and perihelion bracketed the day of his birth.

I have celebrated the three days of the advent of Newtonmas by writing three posts, one about the great conjunction, one on the irregularities in the motion of the earth, and one about the surprising chaos in the Solar system. Today there is no esoteric knowledge to be shared, just a wish for happiness and a quiet time.