Just a lighthearted yarn here. Jo gave me Parallax for Christmas, a
biographically based book of the whole history of getting to measure
stellar distances, from Hipparchus and Aristarchus on. Well researched,
very well written. Paul LeFevre had raved about it here on TAC a while back.
Hirschberg, the author, is an astronomer at U Mass Dartmouth, got all kinds
of credentials as a bonafide pro. On pg 20 he's describing the motions of
the planets against the background stars, saying they move to the west and
retrograde to the east. Here I am reading this at bedtime Friday night.
Fell asleep going _"Huh?"_.
Once again we can take note of how all the king's experts and all the
king's editors can't substitute for actual observation. 3.5 years ago it
was a different universe for me. Now I know when I started taking note of
where Jupiter and Saturn were, they were in Aries; now Saturn's definitely
in Taurus and Jupiter's all the way to Gemini, certainly moving eastbound.
Last spring I watched Mars retrograde across Scorpius, heading east. Now
it's way over in Aquarius.
I fell asleep going over this as a comforting litany.
Thankful for the actual sky, wherever it is.
Yours truly,
DDK
Happy Clearskied New Year!
Jamie Dillon <mavericks@No-Spam> <*> http://www.winepress.com/jd1.htm
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the
children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in
the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or
nothing." - Helen Keller
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