Observing left of Cygnus

Observing "left" of Cygnus and a bit "down" reveals first a prominent pair of stars and then a remarkable large triangle of stars.

What is lost when a culture no longer offers an OLD story about these ? Far from Deneb and Sadr, I would be happier with a story about Antares that preserved both its distance and its size relative to our Sol and, say, Betelgeuse.

What is most worrying is if we lose the habit of observing the night sky, whether we construct our own asterisms or follow the houses of constellations from The East or from The West or those of a sci-fi series gone viral or whatever.

Observing the night sky through a lens has aspects which would surprise ... whether "splitting" binary stars or learning to "SEE" faint non-stellar objects.

Arendt missed so much when she went after the telescope, mouthing the certainties that Heidegger had flung at his old master, Husserl. The sons of Husserl are a story so unlike the Heidegger story.

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Germain Nouveau et les astres

If Germain Nouveau had lived another 3 years, would he have learned of Hubble's work on the nebulae ? But for that of Monseigneur Georges Lemaître, he would have had to live past 1927 to hear of it.

But from "Immensité", what was his grasp of the facts known of les astres when he emerged as poet and when he emerged from the asylum ?

Would he have been amused to know that Hubble's name would be attached to the work of Lemaître ?

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Dwarf spheroidal galaxies

Dwarf spheroidal galaxies - a fascinating topic for a first course in philosophy of science.

The options that remain open as of January 2013 are remarkable : dark matter, revised Newtonian laws, …

Related : the galactic rotation problem; formation of barred-spiral galaxies

Web astronomy of related interest : the Sloan digital survey's colliding galaxies as categorized by the GalaxyZoo social astronomy image project.

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Poet and astronomer (amateur) in response to Heidegger

Any amateur poet (unpublished in any book by third parties, itself a book devoted principally to poetry) who is also an amateur astronomer (whether by sundial, lunar records, binoculars, azimuth-mounted telescope or other telescope either solar or astral, reflector or refractor, planetary or nebular or spectrographic) may wish to reply to Herr Heidegger.
It has long been claimed that a geocentric viewpoint is of more value in navigation on the seas than a heliocentric viewpoint.  Heidegger was concerned more with hiking than with celestial navigation, but some matters can be addressed to his followers.
The heideggerian speech among those with a reverence for Being can be compared to communication among those making astronomical observations: this need involve no technology.  Somewhat north of the Mediterranean, the stars which are visible throughout the night travel about in the heavens as would indicate the thumb of the right-hand outstretched when facing north (what techno-trolls call "counter-clockwise") while some considerable distance south of that Sea, the stars visible all night have no central star about which they swing, but swing they do, as indicated by thumb of the outstretched left-hand when facing south.
Heidegger was very fond of notes left by ancients, so we can imagine how disconcerting [throwing them for a loop] that those to the north should read that only a few thousand years earlier, the stars of the northern summer sky swung about a major star such as that of the Lyre.
The structuralists should have been able to demonstrate that to the south lay left-handed languages and to the north lay right-handed languages.  The heideggerian could explain that the technology of the pack camel and the barge had led to commerce which had allowed these languages to be polluted and the origins lost.
Worse yet, the moon far south of the Mediterranean in the reverse of the moon far to the north: both see a "man in the moon" but for one the grey Mare are an eye, for the others a mouth.  This heresy is easily disposed of by condemning the idolatry of the lunar images and the technology of charcoal on parchment.
But surely we are not doomed to be unable to communicate the peculiar balancing of the crescent moon such that it face one way in the heat of summer in the north while it sets facing quite the other way far to the south and yet never sets in the east when south nor rises in the west when the observer is south.
Heidegger on the search for "grounds" rightly reminds us that all understanding and explanation occurs against a background and in a situation in which the wonder of the world makes itself available to itself and in which the friend is willing to listen or the wise one willing to speak, the better slaves permitted to pose questions at the end and the women content to quietly serve beer or mead or peppermint tea.

[Husserl began as a student of astronomy, whatever his reservations later about the epistemology of Galileo]

Science in the daily news: protecting astronomy funding

Ever since Senator Joe McCarthy referred to Harlow Shapley as an astrologer, if should have remained clear to us that funding for astronomy must be protected from idiots in high office.
The BBC online reports that Britain may try protecting funding for astronomy and physics research.
This report comes at a time when BBC online is undergoing some changes to reflect the interests of their current viewers/visitors.

Until now, BBC has been distinctive for having a news category of "Science and Environment" and that category is distinguished from "Technology".  American services, pandering to the anti-science right-wing Christians, have moved from "Tech and Science" to "Technology".  After all, science news is a form of entertainment and available elsewhere for those who feel the need (a tiny minority of skepticks.)
But now the BBC is changing the rubric to "Science and Nature".  You see, Nature is something that appeals to all of us - especially to Deists and is almost o-kay with theists.  And as Palin has taught Americans, man does not affect nature.  God created nature.  It's His design.  Part of His plan.  "Environment" is a word cooked-up by liberals!  The people want "raw Nature".  With more pictures (nature is never obscene or pornographic unlike those "animal rights" doctored snapshots!)  Nature abhors a hoax.  "Environment" is the holy whore of scientism!

Of course pictures are alright.  But how many people REALLY want to see the Hubble picture that demonstrated gravitational lensing?  That relativity stuff - it's just a theory!  It has critics, just like that theory of evolution!  Big Bang? Heck no! That theory is about to go POOF!

And what about errors in measurement? The longest-standing NASA research project was Gravity Probe B and they have been given months just to squeeze out of the data what they want!  It's "climate change" all over again!  Errors on top of more errors!  CLIMATE_GATE!  We know, we just ran another viewer poll ... once Hawking's gone, fizzle, pip.  That hole Black Matter business, sucked down the tubes.

FLASH:  BBC reports that American science "journalists" have been denying global viewers regular updates on the advocates of Hidden Variable Theory!  By relying on the unreliable statistics of a Bell curve and some known inequalities, the real alternative to foaming quantum space-time has been denied us!  Bring back unpasteurized Pilsner!  They are gamma-irradiating our ale!  Warning: some opinion always colours the reporting of most facts.  It's a fact.  Some opinion is added for colour to hold the attention of you, our viewer, during tedious factual reporting until the next advert. and that lovely advert's more colourful facts of new technology and those trusty old no-interest payment plans!