APOD: Himalayan Skyscape (2009 Dec 05)

[APOD Robot]

Himalayan Skyscape (2009 Dec 05)

Explanation: Capella, alpha star of the constellation Auriga, rises over Mt. Everest in this panoramic view of the top of the world at night. The scene was recorded in late November near Namche Bazar, Nepal, gateway to the Himalayan mountain range. Moonlight illuminates the famous peaks of Everest (8840 meters) and Lhotse (8516 meters) at the far left, and a stupa (a Buddhist religious monument) in the foreground, along the main trail to the Everest Base Camp. The light in the valley is from the Tengboche Monastery, also along the trail at about 4000 meters. From left to right above the moonlit peaks, the stars of Auriga give way to bright giant star Aldebaran eye of the Taurus the Bull, the Pleiades star cluster, alpha Ceti, and finally alpha Phoenicis of the Phoenix. Peaks and stars can be identified by placing your cursor over the image.

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[apodman]

Congratulations (and domo arigato), Mr. Robot, on your first post. I guess your post count doesn't increment, huh?

[bystander]

Actually, I copied it from a test post, after proof reading, and fixing one error. Accolades to geckzilla!

[orin stepanek]

Soooo! Are all the APOD's going to be posted automatically by APOD Robot? Bummer! Part of the fun of this site was in being able to start a new post! I guess I'll get used to it.

Orin

[neufer]

The Winter Hexagon

<<In Hindu mythology, Capella was seen as the [four star chambered?] heart of Brahma, Brahma Ridaya. To the Bedouin of the Negev and Sinai, Capella al-‘Ayyūq ath-Thurayyā "Capella of the Pleiades", from its role as pointing out the position of that asterism. Capella is thought to be mentioned in an Akkadian inscription dating to the 20th century BC. It is sometimes called the Shepherd's Star in English literature. Other names used by other cultures include: in Arabic, Al-Rākib "the driver", a translation of the Greek; in Quechua, Colca; and in Hawaiian, Hoku-lei (English: Star-wreath).

[Finnegans Wake p. 463.15] Got by the one goat, suckled by the same nanna, one twitch, one nature makes us oldworld kin.

The name Capella (English: small female goat) is from Latin, and is a diminutive of the Latin Capra (English: female goat). Capella traditionally marks the left shoulder of the constellation's eponymous charioteer, or the goat that the charioteer is carrying. In Roman mythology, the star represented the goat Amalthea that suckled Jupiter. It was this goat whose horn, after accidentally being broken off by Jupiter, was transformed into the Cornucopia, or "horn of plenty", which would be filled with whatever its owner desired. Astrologically, Capella portends civic and military honors and wealth. In the Middle Ages, it was considered a Behenian fixed star, with the stone sapphire and the plants horehound, mint, mugwort, and mandrake as attributes. Cornelius Agrippa listed its kabbalistic sign Agrippa1531 Hircus.png with the name Hircus (Latin for goat).

In traditional Chinese astronomy, Capella was part of the asterism 五車 (Simplified Chinese: 五车; Wŭ chē; English: Five Chariots), which consisted of Capella together with β, ι, and θ Aurigae, as well as β Tauri. Since it was the second star in this asterism, it has the name 五車二 (Simplified Chinese: 五车二; Wŭ chē èr; English: Second of the Five Chariots). In Australian Aboriginal mythology for the Booroung people of Victoria, Capella was Purra, the kangaroo, pursued and killed by the nearby Gemini twins, Yurree (Castor) and Wanjel (Pollux).>>

[geckzilla]

Soooo! Are all the APOD's going to be posted automatically by APOD Robot? Bummer! Part of the fun of this site was in being able to start a new post! I guess I'll get used to it.

Orin

Lots of people are confused when they get dumped into this long list of topics and don't realize that a topic has already been created for a particular APOD. So the plan is to have the "Discuss" link go straight to the topic. Gets rid of redundancy and reduces confusion, hopefully. This thread shouldn't have been posted yet. Bystander is unwittingly throwing more variables at me.

[bystander]

This thread shouldn't have been posted yet. Bystander is unwittingly throwing more variables at me.

Sorry, wasn't trying cause trouble. Thought I would put it out there and see what the public thought.

But that does bring up a point. What if someone like Orin or Art beats the bot? The discuss link would need to be able to find the topic. Orin usually sticks to the Apod Title (date) format, but Art can get some what imaginative at times (not to imply Orin can't).

I still think you deserve kudos.

[apodman]

But how 'bout that skyscape? Amazing how all those foreground peaks are higher than Everest. And tell those monks to do something about all that light pollution.

[Ace Of Space]

Speaking of variables, notice Mira is in the picture at the extreme upper edge near the right-hand side!

[apodman]

Speaking of variables, notice Mira is in the picture at the extreme upper edge near the right-hand side!

Mira is in Cetus which is near the center of the very wide APOD. You may have some horizontal scrolling to do before you see the actual right-hand side. For anyone who wants to compare stars with a sky chart, north is roughly left in this picture. In the cropped view below with the arrow pointing to Mira, the brightest star is alpha Ceti (Menkar) while the two prominent blue stars are gamma Ceti (Kaffaljidhma) and delta Ceti.

[neufer]

But how 'bout that skyscape? Amazing how all those foreground peaks are higher than Everest.

Well...more imposing, at least:

<<Ama Dablam is a mountain in the Himalaya range of eastern Nepal. The main peak is 6,812 metres. Ama Dablam means "Mother's neclace"; the long ridges on each side like the arms of a mother (ama) protecting her child, and the hanging glacier thought of as the dablam, the traditional double-pendant containing pictures of the gods, worn by Sherpa women. For several days, Ama Dablam dominates the eastern sky for anyone trekking to Mount Everest basecamp.

Ama Dablam was first climbed on March 13, 1961 by Mike Gill (NZ), Barry Bishop (USA), Mike Ward (UK) and Wally Romanes (NZ) via the Southwest Ridge. They were well-acclimated to altitude, having wintered over at 5800 meters near the base of the peak as part of the Silver Hut Scientific Expedition of 1960-61, led by Sir Edmund Hillary.

Ama Dablam is the third most popular Himalayan peak for permitted expeditions. The most popular route by far is the Southwest Ridge (right skyline in the photo). Climbers typically set up three camps along the ridge with camp 3 just below and to the right of the hanging glacier, the Dablam. Any ice that calves off the glacier typically goes left, away from the camp. However, a 2006 avalanch proved otherwise. A climbing permit and a liaison officer are required when attempting Ama Dablam. As with Mt. Everest, the best climbing months are April-May (before the monsoon) and September-October.>>

[geckzilla]

But that does bring up a point. What if someone like Orin or Art beats the bot? The discuss link would need to be able to find the topic. Orin usually sticks to the Apod Title (date) format, but Art can get some what imaginative at times (not to imply Orin can't).

They won't be able to because only the bot and admins/mods will be allowed to post new topics. So they'll just have to go click the "Discuss" link if we haven't gotten it automated to the point where it's faster than them. Well, that's the plan, anyway. If something I didn't predict comes up and makes it all terribly annoying then I'll have to modify the plan.

[neufer]

• • Finnegans Wake: Page 4
  Haroun Childeric Eggeberth...would caligulate by
  multiplicables the alltitude and malltitude until he
  seesaw by neatlight of the liquor wheretwin 'twas born,
  his roundhead staple of other days to rise in undress maisonry
  upstanded (joygrantit!), a waalworth of a skyerscape
  of most eyeful hoyth entowerly, erigenating from
  next to nothing and celescalating the himals and all,
  hierarchitectitiptitoploftical, with a burning bush abob
  off its baubletop and with larrons o'toolers clittering up
  and tombles a'buckets clottering down.