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ANNOUNCEMENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS. HOMEWORK DUE THURSDAY AT CLASS. WED HOMEWORK CLUB TOMORROW 2—5pm IN DUANE D142 AS BEFORE OPTIONAL OBSERVING NIGHT ON THURSDAY NIGHT AT SBO AT 7:00-8:30pm

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

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  1. ANNOUNCEMENTS • HOMEWORK DUE THURSDAY AT CLASS. WED HOMEWORK CLUB TOMORROW 2—5pm IN DUANE D142 AS BEFORE • OPTIONAL OBSERVING NIGHT ON THURSDAY NIGHT AT SBO AT 7:00-8:30pm • I AM ANSWERING QUERIES ABOUT RESEARCH PAPERS AS QUICKLY AS I CAN. You can come consult on a topic tomorrow (wed) at my office hours at Pekoe’s Coffee shop in ATLAS 1:30—2:30pm.

  2. OBSERVING ODDITIES: the GREEN FLASH

  3. OBSERVING ODDITIES: YOUNG MOONS

  4. THE SAGA OF THE “BLUE MOON” • “ONCE IN A BLUE MOON” WAS ORIGINALLY A STATEMENT OF AN ACTUAL OBSERVATION. VERY RARELY ACTUAL SIGHTINGS OF MOONS THAT APPEARED BLUISH WERE RECORDED: • AFTER ENORMOUS VOLCANIC EXPLOSIONS FILLED THE SKY WITH DUST, SO THE WHITISH MOON LOOKED BLUE IN COMPARISON. Also can happen if there are intense forest fires spewing lots of ash into the sky. • The 1885 eruption of KRAKATOA in Java spewed so much dust into the stratosphere that the skies in Scandinavia were filled with reddish light at sunset, through which the Moon appeared bluish. We know this quite well due to Edvard Munch. • BUT by the 1890s in America, this was all but forgotten and the Maine Farmers’ Almanac decided to “redefine” a Blue Moon, to simply mean a rare Moon. Someone picked the Moons relating to Easter… if there are 4 Full Moons in the First Quarter of the Year, Easter comes very late  4 Full Moons in three calendar months are a rare occurrence  a BLUE MOON • In the 1940s Sky & Telescope misquoted the Maine Almanac and stated that a Blue Moon was when two Full Moons occur on any one calendar month. Later they published a retraction but no one noticed  this is the use of the term Blue Moon today !

  5. THE SCREAM OF NATURE “One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream”

  6. THE EVIL EYE STAR • THE STAR ALGOL IN PERSEUS IS THE ONLY STAR IN THE SKY WHICH CAN BE SEEN TO VARY REGULARLY (not get bright then fade away like a nova or supernova). • This star represents the Evil Eye of Medusa, a Gorgon…whose hair was filled with snakes and whose gaze could turn anyone who looked upon her to stone…and did in the Greek myth of Perseus & Andromeda when Perseus cut off her head and showed it to Cetus the sea monster to save Andromeda. • Wonderful example of Principle of Hermes since Medusa had head filled with snakes and so like octopus has tentacles which look like snakes. Octopus’ appearance cause fish nearby to “trun to stone” by freezing to avoid getting eaten  Medusa star does same thing and so is an “evil eye” • The evil eye is a malevolent look that many cultures believe able to cause injury or misfortune for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike.

  7. LOCATION OF THE EVIL EYE or DEMON STAR : ALGOL Homer wrote of Algol in the Iliad: "...the Gorgon's head, a ghastly sight, deformed and dreadful, and a sight of woe".

  8. ALGOL: IS AN “ECLIPSING BINARY STAR”..EVERY ~ 3 DAYS ONE STAR PASSES DIRECTLY BETWEEN US AND THE OTHER STAR, DIMMING THE SYSTEM FOR ABOUT 2 HOURS BY AN AMOUNT SIMILAR TO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POLARIS AND ADJACENT STARS IN THE LITTLE DIPPER’S HANDLE Brighter time 

  9. Note superficial similarities to an octopus… snakes (tentacles) in the hair, tongue extended (octopus “foot”) and turns gazer into stone (fish freeze to avoid being seen and eaten by the octopus).

  10. PERSEUS AS MITHRAS…. KILLING THE BULL. METAPHOR FOR THE END OF THE AGE OF TAURUS DUE TO THE PRECESSION.

  11. The Pleiades: 6 or 7 stars?

  12. The Pleiades have 7 stars in the west (Germania, 7 sisters in Greece & Europe and to some North American tribes) but 6 stars in China (6 bells), India, Japan (union of the 6), and in Meso-America. why? Did one blow up? No sign of such nor do stars evolve and die in such a short time as the era of humans. No resolution but either 6 or 8 clearly visible, never 7…but the Inca claim to see 13 in the clear Andean air, so…???

  13. Top six stars in brightness…note big jump down to 7th brightest.

  14. A “SIRIUS” MYSTERY !!! ANCIENT ACCOUNTS DESCRIBE SIRIUS, THE BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY AS BEING RED WHEN TODAY IT IS ALMOST PRECISELY WHITE ???

  15. A MORE “SIRIUS” MYSTERY ? • BRIGHTEST STAR IN THE SKY; DOMINATES OCTOBER – MARCH SKY ALONG WITH CANOPUS (2ND BRIGHTEST) ESPECIALLY IN THE TROPICS AND SOUTH • USED BY EGYPTIANS TO MARK THE BEGINNING OF THREE MONTHS OF THE FLOOD OF THE NILE (by its HELIACAL RISING). • MAJOR MYSTERY OR HOAX? DOGON PEOPLE OF MALI REPORTEDLY KNEW ABOUT “SIRIUS B”, THE SMALL, WHITE DWARF COMPANION STAR TO SIRIUS, VISIBLE ONLY THROUGH A TELESCOPE. 1. In the 1930s French Anthropologist MarcelGriaulewas puzzled by a Dogon shaman’s claim of knowing about Sirius B and , and remarked: “The problem of knowing how, with no instruments at their disposal, [the Dogon] could know the movements and certain characteristics of virtually invisible stars has not been settled, nor even posed.” 2. In 1976 R.K.G. Temple wrote “The Sirius Mystery” which purports that Dogon had such knowledge despite no apparent means of obtaining it. 3. FRAUD, CONTAMINATION or a MISUNDERSTANDING OF THE PRINCIPLE of HERMES ???

  16. The Star, the Grain & the Principle of Hermes • Sirius is last seen in Mali in the west when the rains come. It rises heliacally in the east when a millet-like grain “Tolo” is planted. • But the Dogon people have two grains that they depend upon for their livelihood: Tolo and Po Tolo, which is a small, hard grain. Tolo and Po Toloare planted at the same time when Sirius is in the east at dawn. • For the Dogon the connection between Toloand Sirius makes Sirius a “celestial grain”. And so Po Tolomust be there in the sky too. Ergo, there must be a small hard companion to Sirius that is the celestial Po Tolo. • Like the evil eye star is the head of Medusa is the octopus, the Principle of Hermes makes Sirius (and Sirius B) into the grains which sustain the Dogon people.

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