Starship Asterisk*

http://www.hschamberlain.net/donati.html wrote:

Donati's Comet [near Arcturus], over Paris, France, on 5 October 1858. This artwork shows the view looking down the River Seine. The comet brightened over the following months, reaching its closest point to Earth on 10 October 1858. It was one of the brightest and most spectacular comets of the 19th century, and the first to be photographed. Here [on the left], the comet is above a building called the Conciergerie, a former royal palace and prison, which is on the Ile de la Cite, an island in the Seine.
Artwork published in Les Cometes (Paris, 1875), a 470-page French book about comets.
Credit: ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

<<The appearance of the comet of Donati in 1858 made a lasting impression on Houston S. Chamberlain, then 3 years old, and he became interested in astronomy for the rest of his life. His last home in Bayreuth had an observatory on its rooftop. The comet will return in 3898 — if it doesn't get lost somewhere in space. Hereunder follows an excerpt of his autobiography, describing the phenomenon:

„I will always be grateful that fate has allowed me to witness the comet of 1858. I had just turned three years old, as this meteor, discovered in June, approached in September and filled a width of 64 degrees of the dark autumn sky in October with its mild and nevertheless radiating gloss — for my „short-sighted“ eye like a living and pulsating heart. Even today, after nearly 60 years, I can still remember the comet, as if I had seen it only yesterday; I could draw an exact map of the room with three windows, at which left one I was lifted on a chair every evening before I went to sleep, to look at the phenomenon in the sky, and I remember the pain I felt inside, when after watching a while — my small face stuck to the windowpanes — the maid came to bring me to bed. Never again there appeared such an enchanting light-phenomenon out of the darkness of the infinite universe that can be compared with the comet of 1858; the senses of he who witnessed it with a receptive soul will be opened forever for the unexpected miracles that contradict everyday life. My whole life long this radiating star was to me as a symbol of the inexhaustible possibilities of nature.“ >>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Donati wrote:
<<Comet Donati, or Donati's Comet, formally designated C/1858 L1 and 1858 VI, is a long-period comet named after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Battista Donati who first observed it on June 2, 1858. After the Great Comet of 1811, it was the most brilliant comet that appeared in the 19th century. It was also the first comet to be photographed. It was nearest the Earth on October 10, 1858. The comet has an orbital inclination of 116.9°. Abraham Lincoln, then a candidate for a seat in the U.S. Senate, sat up on the porch of his hotel in Jonesboro, Illinois to see "Donti's Comet" on September 14, 1858, the night before the third of his historic debates with Stephen Douglas. Donati's Comet appears as a streak and star in the early evening sky of a painting by William Dyce, A Recollection of October 5th, 1858.>>

lordcat darkstar wrote:
Lovely picture but it makes me think of two words: light pollution ouch

http://www.universetoday.com/94394/go-an-hour-without-power-earth-hour-2012/#more-94394 wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<You’ve seen all the videos and images we’ve been featuring lately that astronauts on the International Space Station have taken of Earth from orbit. The one ubiquitous feature is the amount of lights showing up from cities and towns around the world. But will you be turning off the lights this weekend for Earth Hour 2012?

Earth Hour is a world-wide effort to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. This year, Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 31 and starts at 20:30 (8:30pm) wherever you are. People all over the world — and off the planet — will be turning off non-essential lights for an hour. Even the astronauts on the Space Station will be doing their part, as well as watching from above to see if they can there is a noticeable change in the amount of lights from Earth. Astronaut and nature ambassador André Kuipers will be taking photos and videos of Earth Hour from space.

What began as a single-city initiative in Sydney, Australia – in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global symbol of hope and movement for change. Earth Hour 2011 was the world’s largest ever voluntary action with people, businesses and governments in 135 countries across every continent joining in the symbolic environmental event. Organizers say as many as 1.8 billion people will participate this year. Will you be one of them?>>

Ann wrote:I like the Eiffel Tower "spitting light".

I was thinking, however, that I don't recognize much else of Paris in this image, and that I would have preferred to see Paris in daylight. And then I thought that most images we see are daylight images, although there is almost as much darkness as there is daylight on the Earth. So are we "daylight chauvinists", in that we are taking so many pictures of our own little patch of the Earth when it is illuminated by daylight, and neglecting its "dark side"?

And then I thought that we are lucky that we get almost as much darkness as we get daylight. Suppose we didn't. Suppose the Earth didn't turn on its axis, so that we got either daylight or darkness all the time. How we would miss the darkness if we had to live "under the Sun" all the time!

And I guess the Earth would be a so much more inhospitable place, too, if we always got either darkness or daylight. Either the Earth would always be too hot or too cold, or else we would always have rather terrible storms as the Earth tried to "even out" the temperature.

Nice picture, by the way!

Ann

neufer wrote:

lordcat darkstar wrote:
Lovely picture but it makes me think of two words: light pollution ouch

http://www.universetoday.com/94394/go-an-hour-without-power-earth-hour-2012/#more-94394 wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<You’ve seen all the videos and images we’ve been featuring lately that astronauts on the International Space Station have taken of Earth from orbit. The one ubiquitous feature is the amount of lights showing up from cities and towns around the world. But will you be turning off the lights this weekend for Earth Hour 2012?

Earth Hour is a world-wide effort to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change. This year, Earth Hour is on Saturday, March 31 and starts at 20:30 (8:30pm) wherever you are. People all over the world — and off the planet — will be turning off non-essential lights for an hour. Even the astronauts on the Space Station will be doing their part, as well as watching from above to see if they can there is a noticeable change in the amount of lights from Earth. Astronaut and nature ambassador André Kuipers will be taking photos and videos of Earth Hour from space.

What began as a single-city initiative in Sydney, Australia – in 2007, Earth Hour has grown into a global symbol of hope and movement for change. Earth Hour 2011 was the world’s largest ever voluntary action with people, businesses and governments in 135 countries across every continent joining in the symbolic environmental event. Organizers say as many as 1.8 billion people will participate this year. Will you be one of them?>>