Even in our day-to-day life, we are repeatedly influenced by astronomical phenomena. For millennia people have been orienting themselves according to the sky. Important cycles can be based on the laws of our solar system.
Since antiquity people have set their lives according to the path of the Sun, because its apparent progress through the sky gives rise to day and night, and the annual orbiting of the Earth around the Sun forms the seasons. The Moon and the Sun have an effect on our oceans, because they are responsible for the tides, high tide and low tide.
The stars are a useful aid in navigation outside of coastal waters. In the past, humankind has created aids to simplify orientation in time and space. This includes, for example, not only the simple devices such as the sundial, which was used even in the Middle Ages, but also the sextant or compass, which have apparently existed in various designs since as far back as the 13th century.
For better understanding, the sky was divided into different sections, the signs of the zodiac. These fixed stellar constellations are also used for creating horoscopes in astrology.
Human characteristics are derived depending on the star that a person is born under. In astrology it is also believed that, with the help of the stars, it is possible to predict the future for certain persons and events. Other phenomena in our solar system are the vividly colorful events that give rise to special lighting effects such as the polar_lights and halos, which occur at certain specific times.
