Tiny Clanger

I read that when the calendar changed from Julian to Gregorian the date jumped forward a few days, and there were riots , with people demanding the missing days of their lives back . Goodness knows what social media /mainstream media / idiots in general would do if something similar happened again !

You'd be a magus if you were alone ...

Soon as I'd typed my post, I went out into the garden to retrieve the 'scope (which was safely under it's repurposed waterproof cover nicked off one of my rucsacs ) and suddenly the heavens opened and a rainstorm hit. I've had a very lucky evening so far !

I noticed there might be a chance of seeing Saturn & Jupiter at around 4:15, as a bank of cloud was (painfully slowly) drifting across and leaving the relevant bit of sky ... Optimistically set the 127 mak up in the garden to cool, and even thought to stick an old (but lovely) manual everything 85mm Nikkor lens on the DSLR . Kept nipping in and out with the binoculars to anxiously scan the sky until ... bingo ! There the pair of planets were, just above another approaching finger of cloud . Found 'em in the RACI, then had a good couple of minutes view with the mak, this time both fitted within the view of my 12mm plossl ,(last time the 17mm was a squeeze) three Galilean moons were strung out between . Too fuzzy for any detail beyond a vague impression of coloured bands on Jupiter and I couldn't quite see both in the view of the 8mm BST. Took a bunch of (awful) photos, then as houses spoiled my view completely, got in the car to have another attempt to recce some nearby rural spots : confirmed the end-of-bridleway pull in will be good , but by the time I'd continued to the second location 10 minutes away, the finger of cloud had hidden the planets. Phew. The BBC online weather forecast agrees with C.O. that the sky should be clear tonight around here around midnight after some rain, so I'd better get the scope in for a bit . The forecasts for tomorrow look , meh, might be clear, might not. The prediction for Monday ? Uniformly terrible ...

I've e mailed RVO a few times when their page said 'low stock, contact us', and the reply has always come back fast but in the negative. I think they are a shop with online bolted on (I know they are a shop actually, I drove up there to collect my heritage 150 in early summer ) and do not have instant , real time stock level count on their site , unlike FLO . Worth a try though ... Heather (who is nervously watching the mostly clear sky, with some small clouds ... shall I put the 'scope out to cool ? Yes, I think I shall ... )

Already done for mysterious strangers who bring strange and wonderful messages to a few chosen people : no longer angels, now visiting aliens 👽

Hi, I've nothing useful to offer as far as astro photography goes, even thinking about it makes my bank balance quiver ... However, as a long time photographer I've sent many people to the excellent tutorial videos by Tony Northrup on you tube, he talks you through specific camera models really well. Also he speaks clearly, doesn't um and er , and knows what he is on about . Lucky you, he has a vid. on your 80D https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFigFMdi58&feature=youtu.be Hope it helps ! Heather

True, also good to keep in mind that the whole thing went through generations of laborious hand copying, and subsequent translations to different, modern languages will have introduced changes in meaning too. Plus the entire world view of old testament times people was different ... the Old T books are from a several thousand year span , most of which was in the Iron Age . Reading highly nuanced detail into meanings and implications of particular words is therefore dubious . The New Testament books not only have the nth generation hand copy thing, and the translation thing, they also are packed with detail which accord with the O.T. to support the belief that J.C. fulfilled various Old T. prophecies to support his followers view that he was the messiah. * My source of the above is a bunch of research I did because I had to teach R.E. to small people (as well as every other subject) it's not something I'm interested in at all , so (especially in a school with a good proportion of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh pupils, for whose religions I did similar due diligence ) I wanted to know what I was talking about. Heather * Can you read that without thinking of the Life of Brian ? I can't !

I've just dug out the link I bookmarked ages ago for a free star naming service (but the are happy to sell you a quality framed certificate if you want ... ) https://www.staracle.com/general/whyisitfree.php https://www.staracle.co.uk

Really ? I'll not be seeking that out though, the short story itself is perfect !

I know the 'Many coloured Land' counts as fantasy, 'cos it's got pastel coloured covers😀 (well my old paperbacks do anyway) but it has no magic, dragons wizards or dispossessed adolescent royalty as far as I recall, just time travel and aliens on a past Earth (and it's ages since I read it , firvulag was it ? Explained as the distant human memory that gave rise to the 'wild hunt' myths.) So a fantasy averse reader might be OK with it as sci fi.especially the later volumes .

Orangutans have great natural balance skills 🦧 ook

Corgi SF collector's library edition on my shelves ! The title story is only 7 pages long, but a bit like Asimov's 'Nightfall' or Bradbury's 'A Miracle of Rare Device' the short story resonates for years afterwards ...

There is an excellent , tatty little paperback on my shelves called 'Can you speak Venusian' by some bloke called Patrick Moore . 1979 vintage. He studies, with po faced seriousness but an underlying wit, the theories of several 'Independent Thinkers' on UFOs , astrology flat earth and so on. Particularly straight faced is his account of how one mouthpiece magazine of a particular group (Cosmic Voice) suddenly ( and, he says , entirely by coincidence) after Moore met with the leader of the group , they had a flood of learned contributions from foreign scientists with many qualifications to their slightly unusual names. For example, a report on the Congress of Vibrations in Vienna, attended by a host of eminent scientists including Egon Spunraas, Dr E. Ratic, and Dr. Hotere. Professor N. Ormuss featured too. Wonder what Moore would make of some of the 'theories' that occasionally crop up on 'Physics, Space Science and Theories' here ? 😀

I'm not sure, but I think it was The Good Doctor (Asimov) who in response to some vague handwaving astrology justification based on 'tidal forces' came up with the calculation that the gravitational pull of an astronomical body (other than Earth ...) on a child at the moment of birth was rather less than that of the attendant midwife , less massive, but so much closer ... I enjoy browsing in second hand bookshops, I've lost count of the number of times I've made an indignant trip to the counter with an astrology book that's been shelved in the science section . No thanks I'm not buying it, but it needs shelving in the right place !

Welcome, Walker 😀 Spend some time with your telescope actually using it before you spend some money on anything else ! You may be surprised by what it can show you (when the clouds part, obviously ... ) and read through some of the recent threads in the 'Beginners' section, lots of help for us newbies from people with the knowledge. There's a wealth of free information out there on the internet too. Heather

"Where's the reverse gear on this thing ? For goodness' sake Melchior, why didn't you hire an automatic camel ? Wise man, pah ! "

I'm a fan of the Moore Winter Marathon, and I've won converts to the cause ! https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/368237-the-moore-winter-marathon/ The first 25 objects (of 50) are visible in binoculars, the second 25 are best seen in a telescope. Doesn't mean you can't use a 'scope on the first 25 , altho' some may actually be harder to locate in the 'scope if they are big and don't have clear edges e.g M31 . There's directions of how to find them, as well as a brief explanation of what you are looking at. It's an old list, but apart from the info on planetsit all holds true still.

Far be it from me to suggest religious institutions may be fools, but if that was the reasoning , they'd not been paying attention : Around mid winter there was Saturnalia, Yule, Hanukkah, Diwali, Sol Invictus, Koliada, plus a whole slew of now forgotten pre-christian midwinter celebrations which went 'hooray the days will begin lengthening and the grain stores might last, through the hungry gap, so let's kill a pig to conserve fodder and throw a party !'

I was given a very interesting little book a number of Christmases ago , its first chapter is 'The Bethlehem Star' , it's a cracking read "Can Reindeer Fly ? The science of Christmas" by Roger Highfield Available at all good bookshops. And amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Can-Reindeer-Fly-Science-Christmas/dp/0753813661

But when you got there, did you wash your socks by night ?

You may be surprised by the sophistication of ancient astronomy . Remember these advances were made without telescopes and with simple visual instruments to measure angles and times . Also an abacus as a calculator ... Those people were just as intelligent as we were , and trying diligently to understand the night sky. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_astronomy

By the way, when asked 'What is your star sign?' , before bursting out laughing and moving briskly away from the questioner, I try to find a moment to say "Same as Jesus' , which alone instantly disproves the whole thing , eh ?" Yes,I know JC's 'birthday' was randomly selected, probably with the aim of incorporating and eventually succeeding older established midwinter Mithraist celebrations, or Saturnalia, or Yule, or Hanukkah, or just the solstice, but if they believe in astrology, they probably wont know that !

It's another depressing, dumbed down media rehash of partly understood facts, mostly by journos with pages to fill who have less understanding of science than my cat has ... I've commented to a few folk excited by the thing that if the 'wise men' were actually wise (number of them is unspecified in the bible BTW, the usual three is assumed from the number of gifts listed ...) they'd not have been fooled for a minute to 'follow' such a 'star' I'm just slightly relieved the astrology believers haven't had some widely publicized ridiculous contribution .... yet ....

Sorry, I wasn't clear there : should have made a new paragraph. I wasn't intending to suggest the cost of all ecologically sensitive issues be placed on CT bills (it's my age I know, it will always be called the poll tax to me ...) , but that any improvement in dark skies was going to come because it will be a part the general upsurge in concern for things eco. Two years ago my local council sent every home an extensive questionnaire in the quarterly newsletter (if I recall correctly the questionnaire ran to 6 sides A4 ish paper) . They made clear the shortfall between C. tax income, gov.t input and their expenditure in the coming year to keep all the services running as in previous years.They asked residents how we would want to prioritize spending, and what cuts could be made : libraries, parks, the refuse/recycling sites , verge grass cutting, street lighting, road improvements, litter bins, public toilets, elderly support services. dog wardens, household refuse and recycling collections, children's services, swimming pools, youth clubs, environmental health services, Christmas lights .... the list went on and on. Going through it and rating each service in tick boxes which gave the projected savings was a salutary lesson in the difficult decisions the council make, which I guess was as much the point of the exercise as canvassing for opinions was. We now have every other street light turn off in the early hours, which s a start ...