Musings of an amateur astronomer

“If Your Cosmology Idea Fits on a T-Shirt, It’s Probably Wrong” — Living the Paul Sutter Way at JVP Pune There’s a quote in cosmology that always makes people smile: “If your idea of the universe fits on a T-shirt, it’s probably wrong.” It’s funny. It’s honest. And it’s very Paul Sutter . Somehow, this captures the beautiful balance we try to maintain every week at JVP Pune — solid science, friendly banter, chai, curiosity, and a little cosmic confusion. Because if Paul Sutter has taught us anything, it’s this: Sutter’s Law: “If it’s interesting, it’s probably wrong.” And that’s exactly why we talk about it anyway. We debate it anyway. We chase it anyway. Astronomy without confusion isn’t astronomy — it’s just a textbook.   Where the Sutter Spirit Lives: JVP Discussions The Paul Sutter style isn’t only about cosmology. It’s a mindset: Curious. Humble. Slightly sarcastic. Always questioning. That’s what happens in our JVP WhatsApp group almost every d...

“ The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." — Eden Phillpotts   The Ancient Meaning of Climate — A Story of Sunlight, Latitude, and Human Ingenuity I recently came across a book that mentioned something unusual: the etymology of the word “climate” goes back to the Greek word “klíma,” meaning inclination . At first, this felt almost poetic. How could something as everyday as “climate” come from an idea as geometric and astronomical as “inclination”? The curiosity stayed with me, and like most amateur astronomers do, I followed it—slowly, carefully, with questions. When I dug deeper, I discovered something beautiful. Even though the ancient Greeks did not think of the Earth as a sphere in exactly the modern mathematical sense, they absolutely knew it was round . In fact, thinkers such as Pythagoras , Plato , Aristotle , and Eratosthenes described and measured the Earth as a sphere long before the common era. What they di...