APOD: Castle Eye View (2017 Apr 07)

[APOD Robot]

Castle Eye View

Explanation: The best known asterism in northern skies, The Big Dipper is easy to recognize, even when viewed upside down, though some might see a plough or wagon. The star names and the familiar outlines appear framed in the ruined tower walls of the French Chateau du Morimont if you just slide your cursor over the image or follow this link. Dubhe, alpha star of the dipper's parent constellation Ursa Major is at the lower left. Together with beta star Merak the two form a line pointing the way to Polaris and the North Celestial Pole, hidden from view by the stones. Since the image was captured on March 30, you can follow a line from dipper stars Phecda and Megrez to spot the faint greenish glow of Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak below center, still within the castle eye view. The periodic comet made a remarkable close approach to planet Earth on April 1.

<< Previous APOD

This Day in APOD

Next APOD >>

[/b]

[Boomer12k]

Neat...

:---[===] *

[Ann]

Nice Dipper!

Ann

[BobStein-VisiBone]

Correction to the first link, an article about The Big Dipper from the wayback machine.

[Cousin Ricky]

Explanation: The best known asterism in northern skies, The Big Dipper is easy to recognize, even when viewed upside down, though some might see a plough or wagon.

What is this expression “upside down” of which you write?

[Cousin Ricky]

P.S. The Big Dipper is not circumpolar where I live, so this is how it always appears (more or less) to me.

OTOH, when I visited South Africa, it was odd seeing the Southern Cross with Gamma Crucis towards the bottom!

[Chris Peterson]

Explanation: The best known asterism in northern skies, The Big Dipper is easy to recognize, even when viewed upside down, though some might see a plough or wagon.

What is this expression “upside down” of which you write?

Wouldn't an upside down dipper be one positioned such that it can't hold water?

[BobStein-VisiBone]

Explanation: The best known asterism in northern skies, The Big Dipper is easy to recognize, even when viewed upside down, though some might see a plough or wagon.

What is this expression “upside down” of which you write?

Wouldn't an upside down dipper be one positioned such that it can't hold water?

So many ways the upside down Big Dipper does not hold water.

[neufer]

The best known asterism in northern skies, The Big Dipper is easy to recognize, even when viewed upside down, though some might see a plough or wagon.

• King Henry IV, part I : Act II, scene I
  
  [Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand]

First Carrier: Heigh-ho! an it be not four by the day,

• I'll be hanged: Charles' wain is over the new chimney,
  and yet our horse not packed.

<<Charles's Wain [or Charles his Wain] derived from the still older Carlswæn. A folk etymology holds that this derived from Charlemagne, but the name is common to all the Germanic languages and intended the churls' wagon (i.e., "the men's wagon"), in contrast with the women's wagon (the Little Dipper). An older "Odin's Wain" may have preceded these Nordic designations.>>

[Fred the Cat]

No dirty snowball but I liked the idea too. The other evening I saw another familiar night sight from our living room and thought of a similar idea.

Too bad I only badly photographed Orion and a dirty window.

[CURRAHEE CHRIS]

Is the comet still visible or has it left the building?

[Chris Peterson]

Is the comet still visible or has it left the building?

Quite visible. I saw it last night with binoculars, but the Moon is starting to produce significant interference.

[Ann]

<<Charles's Wain [or Charles his Wain] derived from the still older Carlswæn. A folk etymology holds that this derived from Charlemagne, but the name is common to all the Germanic languages and intended the churls' wagon (i.e., "the men's wagon"), in contrast with the women's wagon (the Little Dipper). An older "Odin's Wain" may have preceded these Nordic designations.>>

The Big Dipper is called "Karlavagnen" is Swedish, which means Charles' wagon. Admittedly, it could also mean the men's wagon! "Karl" in Swedish means either "Charles" or "man", "fellow". How fascinating that the original Germanic word was "churl"!

The Swedish word "karlakarl" means "a real man", "a very masculine man". Someone like this, perhaps?

I like that Shakespeare quote!

Ann

[neufer]

• King Henry IV, part I : Act II, scene I
  
  [Enter a Carrier with a lantern in his hand]

First Carrier: Heigh-ho! an it be not four by the day,

• I'll be hanged: Charles' wain is over the new chimney,
  and yet our horse not packed.

I like that Shakespeare quote!

• You mean the Oxford quote :

[b][color=#0000FF]Where Falstaff, Prince Hal and their pals attack & rob some travelers[/color][/b]

---

<<On May 20-21, 1573, [when at 4 AM Charles' wain was in its low upright position over (a chimney on?) the horizon] three of Oxford’s servants helped him carry out an elaborate prank involving the robbery of two of the earl’s former employees. After lying in wait for them at Gad’s Hill, by the highway between Rochester and Gravesend, they jumped out of hiding – apparently led by Oxford himself, since the two men later described his “raging demeanor” as he led the mock assault like a wild man. The two men were traveling on state business for Oxford’s father-in-law William Cecil, Lord Treasurer Burghley, carrying money that would have been intended for the Exchequer.

<<In 1573 three of Oxford's rude companions staged a mock robbery (or possibly it was intended as a real one) of two men formerly employed by the boisterous young earl, "by the highway from Gravesend to Rochester," according to a letter of complaint that the victims promptly wrote to Burghley. In Henry IV, Part I, Falstaff and three of Prince Hal's companions hold up some travelers on the highway near Gadshill—which is on the highway between Gravesend and Rochester.>>

<<In 1573, some of the young earl's companions (with Oxford reputedly in their company) waylaid travelers on the road from Gravesend to Rochester—an episode uncannily similar to the scene in Shakespeare's Henry the Fourth, Part One where Falstaff and his companions assault the King's receivers. Amazingly, the Shakespearean account includes detail of this assault that corresponds to the circumstances involving Oxford's men down to the author's placement of Falstaff and his bandits on the very road where Oxford's men confronted the troupe ambushed in 1573.>>

<<In May 1573, in a letter to Lord Burghley, two of Oxford's former employees accused three of Oxford's friends of attacking them on "the highway from Gravesend to Rochester." In Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1, Falstaff and three roguish friends of Prince Hal also waylay unwary travellers at Gad's Hill, which is on the highway from Gravesend to Rochester. Scott McCrea says that there is little similarity between the two events, since the crime described in the letter is unlikely to have occurred near Gad's Hill and was not a robbery, but rather an attempted shooting. Mainstream writers also say that this episode derives from an earlier anonymous play, The Famous Victories of Henry V, which was Shakespeare's source. Oxfordians argue that The Famous Victories was written by Oxford, based on the exaggerated role it gave to the 11th Earl of Oxford.>>