Dear Maharaj:

Namaste. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!

1.  Sorry that my last attempt at explaining what a naskshatra is was confusing. Let me try again.

HpS - Jaya!   AGTSP   paoho.   Sorry our Blog hasn't been working.   We read the last letter but didn't get a chance to post any answer.
       In Berkeley all the lower division classes were one or two digits. So beginning astronomy would be Astronomy 1A, B, C and third semester would have been 101!!!       I have a pretty good grasp of astronomy in some ways. We just came from Ecuador and the sun was rising over the column in the Centennial plaza across the street at a little different point each morning. So, as the earth revolves around the sun (in a helio centric model) it also revolves on its axis which matches the 24-hours of day changes, but the earths axis is tilted at xxx degrees from perpendicular to the plane of its rotation around the sun which as I understand is an eliptical orbit and not a circular orbit, so this is why the sun appears to change its position each day. also is terms of the star map this inclination is also rotating something like every 73-years. How much is it?
So this must also change the position of the star map from the view point of the earth.
Then,   from a geo-centric model, which is one of the three models presented in the 5th canto, the planets such as mars are traveling in epicycloidic motion, like a cockroach on the wheel of a bicyle.  Even this is of course eliptical and not circular motion.

Such a technical field. Then we have to change these to Sanskrit terms. Then we have to discuss the relationship between these bodies in motion.
So, wow. For some people it is their service.  For others it is cooking. I bet that most ISKCON astronomers don't know the recipe for gulabjamons.   However, it doesn't restrict them from offering them to Krsna and knowing that they are a sweet that needs to be served in a bowl to keep the juice and not a savory.
Ha!     Ha!!!!!!!    Know a little about everything and a lot about something(s)..

2.  What is a nakshatra? It is a group of stars close enough together to be called a constellation. There are 27 such groups and these are called "nakshatras", the vedic term for constellation. Nakshatra (singular) and nakshatras (plural). This word is Sanskrit in origin.

3.  These nakshatras (27) are all located along the same path of the sun and moon

    ASA - Using geo-centric model, no?

...which is called the "ecliptic". They make a single rotation around the Earth 24 hours as the sky rotates aroung the Earth, or in modern terms, as the Earth rotates on its axis. They were identified to keep track of the daily progress of the moon as it (the moon) goes through its various phases during a single month.

4.  Each day the night sky advances eastwards a little bit so that in one month's time, a different constellation (nakshatra) is in the background of the full moon. The full moon of each month gets its name from whatever constellation is in the background at that time. Out of 27 such constellations, only 12 of them are ever in a full moon's backround. All of them however are in the backround of various moon phases throughout the year, during different months, one day at a time.

   ASA -  Jaya!  That's nice.   It's interesting that the moon and the, and all the planets as far as I know, fall within the same "plane", ecliptic, by only a few degrees of inclination. The moon could go arounf the earth in a north pole, south pole orbit. Mars could go aroud the sun the same way.  Hmmm?  Designer? Also, the speed of rotation of moon on its axis EXACLTY equals the time it takes to rotate around the earth, so... we only see one side.  Even if these to rates of rotation were different by the tiniest degree after 2,000 years we would be peeping at a little othe backside of the moon. Yet the map of the moon from our ancestrial cave men was just the same as today.
However, there is progression of the Naksatras, no?    The rotation of the moon around the earth, fixing full moons, is not exactly in correspondence with the one year around the sun, star map, so the Naksatras are in a little different place each year, no??
 

5.  There is one exception to the 12 full moon rule. Once every 3 years the is an "extra" full moon in one year's time which shows up against a background constellation which typically only shows up in other moon phases. A moon phase is a visible or invisible (new moon) portion of the moon. They change everyday from new moon  to new moon. Each constellation has a Vedic name.

6.  Therefore, in one year's time, the moon moves through all of the 27 constellations (nakshatras),  one moon phase each day, one constellation a day. It does so 12/13 times a year. This can be easily seen with the aid of simulation software, such as at, www.astroviewer.com.

7.  Please let me know any portion of this explanation which is still unclear to you. You are my test case and explaining this effectively to an intelligent new-comer is very important to me and to my service as a Vedic cosmologist/astronomer.

8.  Sorry, I already quit my day-job and this is my full-time service!

Thanks for taking the time to stick with this with me.

Your servant, Saranga Thakura das

HpS -  Wow!   Long to study this.  Now we have 25-more letters.  I hope nobody wants to teach us how to make Gulabjamons today!  Ha!               Ha!           Ha Ha Ha(re)!!

We will look at www.astroviewer.com after we send this letter!!!  Thank you.