Another clue: While it's still out there, so to speak, it no longer has any official existence.

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Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
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Oh, now I haven't got a clue. Uh, I mean...

My first and second guesses were "globular cluster" and "Hertzsprung-Russell
diagram". There are many globular clusters, of course, not just one, but they
certainly make excellent monuments to Earth's shape. It might be a question
whether the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram is one thing or not, but it is made
of stars, and it is possible that you have some connection to Hertzsprung or
the place where he was born or the place where he worked.

But no longer has any "official existence"??? No idea.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

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"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

Is it an obsolete constellation?

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Yup.

Now, which?

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Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
-- Richard Feynman

I'm not aware of any with Swedish connections, except for Rangifer, the Reindeer, possibly.

Cosmopolitan?

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It's Rangifer (aka Tarandus). The "cosmopolitan" part was about the global significance of Maupertuis's measurements.

Your turn.

__________________
Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
-- Richard Feynman

No, really???

I have a 300-page book on the origins of the constellations. It mentions
reindeer in Cassiopia, Ursa Major, and Gemini, but no mention of Rangifer.

Non-experts would have no idea WHAT to look up.

I gather that all the easy questions have already been used...

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

Given that I - certainly no expert on the history of astronomy - knew it and that Eroica got it fairly quickly, I'd like to think it wasn't too obscure. But I wasn't joking when I said that "[m]y estimations of what's general knowledge are notoriously unreliable".

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Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
-- Richard Feynman

This is a quotation from one of Galileo's dialogues. What discovery is he describing, and what are the two remarkable spots on the lunar disk he refers to?

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I have not read Galileo's text (I did spend a few minutes browsing through
the "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" one day when I
came across it in the library, but that didn't turn me into an expert) and I
didn't do any searching. But it is pretty obvious that Galileo was describing
the Moon's libration in the north-south direction. I presume that in the
immediately preceeding passage he described its east-west libration.

The descriptions of the two spots suggest that the larger is Mare Imbrium
and the smaller is Mare Crisium. The position of Mare Crisium seems better
suited for revealing east-west libration than north-south, but the description
is too good a fit not to be right.

Doncha think?

If I'm right about the Maria, it slightly surprises me that Mare Imbrium is
placed in the northwest rather than northeast. I would have guessed that
Galileo would call the limb toward the eastern part of the sky the east limb.
Did he really think it through so far as to consider that for a resident of the
Moon, Mare Imbrium would be to the west?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

Eroica,

Would you mind explaining how you came up with Rangifer; whether you
consider yourself to be an expert; and if you do, an expert at what?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

He is indeed describing latitudinal libration, and he has just mentioned longitudinal libration (though he gives the wrong explanation). The dragon's belly is a medieval name for the points in the Moon's orbit where it is at its highest point above and lowest point below the plane of the ecliptic.

Those do not tally with my identifications of Galileo's spots.

But you have already copped on that Galileo has just earlier spoken about longitudinal libration, so the two remarkable spots are brought in to prove libration in general!

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AndreasJ said it was "full of stars", and then he said that it was still out there but not officially speaking. Those two clues together immediately reminded me of obsolete constellations, which I am quite interested in. I found Rangifer on Wikipedia.

I certainly don't consider myself an expert in anything we do on this forum! I agree with Robert Graves, though, when he wrote in The White Goddess that he who is an expert in one field and a novice in all the others has the mind of a barbarian.

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Oh, okay. I knew Mare Crisium is visible to the naked eye. It just seems
small in comparison to the gigantic Mare Imbrium.

Ah, my brain is too frazzled right now to fiddle with quoting, but I see you
are telling me that the two spots illustrate BOTH north-south AND east-west
libration. So the first, larger spot is probably Mare Crisium, and diametrically
opposite (almost) Grimaldi crater? It is very dark in the photo I'm looking at.

If Galileo could see Grimaldi, then he must also have been able to see Plato.
Plato always impresses me. So perfectly shaped; so distinct; with such a
smooth, flat, dark bottom!

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

If you are "quite interested in" obsolete constellations, then you are an
expert. Even if you didn't know anything about Rangifer, you knew what
to look for and where to look for it. That makes you an expert.

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

FWIW, that's a wider definition of 'expert' than what I assumed when answering your question.

__________________
Science is like sex. Sometimes something useful comes out, but that is not the reason we are doing it.
-- Richard Feynman

They are the two I was looking for. Take it away, Jeff.

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- Learn a lot teaching others.

My apologies for taking so long. Here is your new question!

Where was the largest meteor ever seen and recorded?
What about it was probably unique?

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves

hi guys,




http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/news_detail.cfm?ID=37

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"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

That's a really good meteor, and it has a good story, but mine is bigger!

-- Jeff, in Minneapolis

__________________
http://www.FreeMars.org/jeff/

"I find astronomy very interesting, but I wouldn't if I thought we
were just going to sit here and look." -- "Van Rijn"

"The other planets? Well, they just happen to be there, but the
point of rockets is to explore them!" -- Kai Yeves