Starship Asterisk*

Beyond wrote:
I know i'm going to regret asking, but what the hell is THAT about??

neufer wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

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Beyond wrote:

neufer wrote:
Without Alpheratz, the Square would collapse into an ordinary triangle.>>

Gee, i'd like to see that!

Beyond wrote:

neufer wrote:
Without Alpheratz, the Square would collapse into an ordinary triangle.>>

Gee, i'd like to see that!

neufer wrote:Without Alpheratz, the Square would collapse into an ordinary triangle.>>

http://astrobob.areavoices.com/?blog=78068 wrote:

[b][color=#0000FF]Venus and El Nath, a star [u]officially belonging to Taurus but shared by Auriga[/u], will be closest tonight. They'll still be close the next few nights. (Stellarium Map)[/color][/b]

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Venus butts up against the “linking star” tonight
Posted on May 6, 2012 by astrobob

<<If you look to the west at nightfall tonight you’ll notice that Venus has a close companion, the star El Nath. El Nath sits at the tip of Taurus the Bull’s northern horn; its name comes from the Arabic “al nath” meaning “the butting one”. Fitting for a bull, I’d say.

Over the past week or so, Venus and the star have been closing in toward each other. Tonight the two will be closest at only 0.8 degrees apart.

El Nath is also known as Beta Tauri – the second brightest star in Taurus – and shines a bright second magnitude. That hardly compares to Venus’ brilliance. If we could somehow be transported to an imaginary planet orbiting El Nath, we’d be taken aback. Blazing before our eyes would be a star 4.6 times the size of the sun and shining 700 times brighter. Its true brilliance is masked by the 130 light years that separate us. Venus wins out by proximity at a trifling 38 million miles.

El Nath is one of only two “linking stars” in the sky. Linking stars officially belong to one constellation but do double duty filling out the outline of another. El Nath, also called Beta Tauri, completes the familiar pentagonal outline of Auriga the Charioteer directly above Taurus. The other one, Alpheratz (AL-fer-ratz), is Andromeda’s brightest star and completes the well known diamond-shaped Great Square of Pegasus. Without Alpheratz, the Square would collapse into an ordinary triangle.>>

MikeyMike wrote:Incredibly cool looking, but unfortunately phony. I was suckered in by it myself, until a friend pointed out if you download it then zoom in close on Venus you can tell by the pixelated square around it that it's been pasted in.

neufer wrote:

RET wrote:I think this photo was taken 'after' the eclipse, not 'before' as told in the explanation.

I suppose that the event occurred May 21, 2004. The moonage of the day was about 2.
So, the moon should be moving to the right (in this image).
A computer simulation gives me the same answer.

Do I make some mistakes?

You are correct (assuming that it is May 21, 2004).

(Did they print to photo upside down?)

RET wrote:I think this photo was taken 'after' the eclipse, not 'before' as told in the explanation.

I suppose that the event occurred May 21, 2004. The moonage of the day was about 2.
So, the moon should be moving to the right (in this image).
A computer simulation gives me the same answer.

Do I make some mistakes?

Quigley wrote:I was wondering why the planet Venus appears brighter and more crisp than the closer crescent moon in this image?

Czerno wrote:Easily remembered : Crescent (inCreasing) moon -> D ; Decrecent moon -> C .

beyond wrote: I've seen many crescents of the moon and do not remember any crescents being on the left side. Maybe all the ones i have seen has been when the moon is waxing and not waneing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croissant wrote:
<< A Kipferl: precursor to the Croissant

The kipferl - ancestor of the croissant - has been documented in Austria going back at least as far as the 13th century, in various shapes. The kipferl can be made plain or with nut or other fillings. Fanciful stories of how the kipfel was created are culinary legends, at least one going back to the 19th century. These include tales that it was invented in Europe to celebrate the defeat of a Muslim invasion at the decisive Battle of Tours by the Franks in 732, with the shape representing the Islamic crescent; that it was invented in Vienna, Austria in 1683 to celebrate the defeat of the Turks to Polish forces in the Turkish siege of the city, as a reference to the crescents on the Turkish flags, when bakers staying up all night heard the tunneling operation and gave the alarm; tales linking croissants with the kifli and the siege of Buda[pest] in 1686; and those detailing Marie Antoinette's hankering after a Polish specialty.


The "birth" of the croissant itself - that is, its adaptation from the plainer form of kipferl, before its subsequent evolution (to a puff pastry) - can be dated with some precision to at latest 1839, when an Austrian artillery officer, August Zang, founded a Viennese Bakery ("Boulangerie Viennoise") at 92, rue de Richelieu in Paris. This bakery, which served Viennese specialties including the kipfel and the Vienna loaf, quickly became popular and inspired French imitators. August Zang himself returned to Austria in 1848 to become a press magnate, but the bakery remained popular for some time after.>>