Re: What Do You Bring to Star Parties
- From: "oriel36" <geraldkelleher@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Aug 2006 12:49:39 -0700
John Nichols wrote:
Let's go beyond the obvious and the general, which I'd think would be your
scope, a star chart, and a chair.
When you attend a star party, what do you bring? Does it depend on which
party you're attending, i.e. distance you have to travel?
Does what you bring vary? Why?
How is what you bring to a star party different from what you bring to a
dark sky site that isn't the location that night for a star party?
Allow the motions of the Earth to dicate astronomy to you as something
which you experience without the aid of a telescope.The heliocentric
arena which Ptolemy,Copernicus,Kepler and many others looked out on is
far more exquisite and intricate than just planet spotting and
magnification so drop the stellar background for a while a pick any
planet to look at.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0112/JuSa2000_tezel.gif
The time lapse footage above represents what the motions of Saturn and
Jupiter look like form an orbitally moving Earth,As the Earth moves
faster in our and their common orbits around the Sun we overtake those
slower moving planets.This is how Copernicus and all heliocentric
astronomers experience the great cyclical arena of planetary motion
directly.
As daylight turns to darkness at your star party,try to recognise your
motion into the Earth's orbital shadow where you can watch for the
components of the solar system.Do not give into the temptation to fix a
planet to the stellar background but leave it free and perhaps you will
feel an inkling of the exciting discipline that was once the Western
astronomical tradition,free of charts and chairs,telescopes and other
imaging devices,just the breathtaking affirmation of the great cycles
which make existence possible,even for the celestial sphere
astrophotographers who call themselves 'astronomers'.
Go ahead and live your life knowing that at least you tried to
appreciate what our ancestors really did.
.
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- What Do You Bring to Star Parties
- From: John Nichols
- What Do You Bring to Star Parties
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