Starship Asterisk*

by **LocalColor** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 12:06 am

This "video" is both art and science (in my very humble opinion) - showing the reason for our seasons.

by **Anthony Barreiro** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:49 pm

Nitpicker wrote:The following link shows the terminator about one minute after equinox -- 2014-03-20 16:57 UT -- on a more conventional 2-D world map projection:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/s ... n=58&sec=0

Happy Northward Equinox. Enjoy that Sun!

Thanks for taking good care of him since the Southward Equinox. (I like that terminology.)

by **OzRattler** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:30 pm

A clip that gives a certain objectivity to Earth and us who dwell on it.

Brilliant bit of image compilation. Thanks!

by **Nitpicker** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:30 pm

The following link shows the terminator about one minute after equinox -- 2014-03-20 16:57 UT -- on a more conventional 2-D world map projection:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/s ... n=58&sec=0

Happy Northward Equinox. Enjoy that Sun!

by **geckzilla** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 11:21 pm

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Really ? You could have fooled me.

Yeah, except it is not a rug but rather a bin. It is called the Bin of Hidden Shame located invisibly at the bottom of the forum (you need special glasses to see it). And there really isn't any laughter inside except for a few rare morsels. Mostly there is sadness. So I did lie. Really, you don't want to take a trip there.

by **Nitpicker** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:50 pm

therm wrote:
Phm wrote:Vertical means perpendicular to the surface of the geoid (aligned with the gradient of the gravity field), or pointing to the center of mass of the Earth. Therefore the terminator is always vertical (assuming the earth is a sphere, the plane of the terminator always cuts this sphere in two halves).
I think they mean vertical to the ecliptic plane of the solar system.

Well, the terminator is always vertical (perpendicular) to the ecliptic plane. In this APOD, the ecliptic plane rotates.

by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 10:31 pm

geckzilla wrote:
Anthony Barreiro wrote:If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.
Luckily, we never delete any posts. We just sweep them under the rug and laugh at you guys in private.

Really ? You could have fooled me.

Science is to Art

as

Posts are to _________

a. Ron's ideas/humor
b. APOD moderation
c. Art
d. All of the above

by **Anthony Barreiro** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:22 pm

FloridaMike wrote:
Anthony Barreiro wrote:If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.
WAIT! I thought this was an art discussion forum, my bad!

No worries. I'm not the moderator, either.

by **Anthony Barreiro** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:20 pm

Boomer12k wrote:Hurray, Equinox!!!!!

Got to get out the drums, and the beads, and the horns, and make a Bonfire, get out the Chant Book, etc.....so many things to do.....

Very interesting video...thanks!

:---[===] *

Yes, I'm looking forward to measuring my shadow at local solar noon tomorrow ... . Just one small way to celebrate this amazing planet we live on, and our lovely star, and the seasonally changing relationship between the Earth's rotation and her orbit around the Sun, which is displayed vividly by this video from a geostationary satellite.

Happy Spring to everyone in the northern hemisphere, and best wishes for a good harvest for folks down under.

by **FloridaMike** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 9:16 pm

Anthony Barreiro wrote:If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.

WAIT! I thought this was an art discussion forum, my bad!

by **Boomer12k** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:53 pm

neufer wrote:
Chris Peterson wrote:
Art is just our feeble attempt to interpret nature in different ways.
I resemble that remark.

Did not know Andy Warhol's Soup Can was Nature.....

:---[===] *

by **geckzilla** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:51 pm

Anthony Barreiro wrote:If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.

Luckily, we never delete any posts. We just sweep them under the rug and laugh at you guys in private.

by **Boomer12k** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:43 pm

Hurray, Equinox!!!!!

Got to get out the drums, and the beads, and the horns, and make a Bonfire, get out the Chant Book, etc.....so many things to do.....

Very interesting video...thanks!

:---[===] *

by **Nitpicker** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 8:19 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
FloridaMike wrote:It took a second for my brain to adjust to the image, but what a unique perspective! I love it how we can extract art from the cold logic of science and technology. Humans are great.
"Cold logic of science and technology"? Rubbish. More like spirit warming beauty.

Science borrows from art and art borrows from science. Both are essential to humanity. Hot and cold are relative terms.

geckzilla wrote:Imagine yourself atop a precipice overlooking the vastness of a natural landscape. A sunrise to your east is illuminating the world in golden hues, birds are sounding off around you, and an ancient meandering river is just discernible through a morning fog clinging to the valley below. Behind you is a famous Turner painting on a stand of some sort. It's a masterpiece. You get to choose one to keep and view for the rest of your life. Which do you choose?

A painting offers two paltry dimensions and its meaning and beauty are derived from a fleeting and mutable pattern of neural signals confined within one's cranium. It is a momentary hijacking of the credit for what nature has spent a few billion years on. The artist's finest brush strokes are haphazard piles of molecules compared to the intricate microscopic arrangements found within a single leaf. Still, it is somewhat amazing that nature has concocted a way to observe and imitate itself by paintings or mathematical formulas, feeble as they may be.

Mainly since the advent of photography, the art of painting changed, to include depictions of abstraction, and other things not necessarily observable in nature. My house is full of bright, colourful impasto oil paintings of beautiful but "unnatural" depictions of nature. No less inspiring than my nature and astronomy photographs.

Anthony Barreiro wrote:If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.

Yup.

by **Anthony Barreiro** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:30 pm

If this were an art theory discussion board and I were the moderator, my finger would be itching over the delete button.

by **CURRAHEE CHRIS** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 7:24 pm

Is it me or does anyone else notice lines in the dark (western hemisphere) part of the video after it plays?? It looks like a bunch of rings of saturn!!

Perhaps there is some ghost anomalies the satelite picked up that weren't immediately visible to the naked eye

by **Chris Peterson** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:23 pm

FloridaMike wrote:I think you are confusing one of the things that art does with a definition of what art is.

Who knows? In my view, humans are native engineers, and art is just one form of engineering.

by **FloridaMike** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:20 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
FloridaMike wrote:The Mona Lisa and Flight of the Valkyries is just our feeble attempt to interpret nature in different ways?
Yup.

I think you are confusing one of the things that art does with a definition of what art is.

by **Chris Peterson** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:11 pm

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:Was there or will there ever be a time when precession would allow the Earth to spin at a 90 degrees angle to the sun for longer than mere moments thus eliminating the seasons?

No. First of all, precession isn't the issue. All precession does is change the direction the Earth's axis tilts, not the angle. The angle, currently about 23°, does vary somewhat over long periods, but not more than couple of degrees.

I had read one day tidal forces will also affect the Earth so it too will be locked with the same side facing of the Earth facing the moon.

Probably not. First of all, the oceans will evaporate in a couple of billion years, reducing most of the tidal effects. And in another couple of billion, the Earth and Moon will be inside the solar radius, something that neither is likely to survive. These things will occur sooner than tidal locking could.

by **Ron-Astro Pharmacist** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 6:00 pm

The funny side appears. That was good Chris.

Was there or will there ever be a time when precession would allow the Earth to spin at a 90 degrees angle to the sun for longer than mere moments thus eliminating the seasons?

I had read one day tidal forces will also affect the Earth so it too will be locked with the same side facing of the Earth facing the moon.

http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/ ... idal-force

Will this process affect precession possibly, one day, making both the tides and the seasons a thing of the past?

by **Chris Peterson** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:10 pm

geckzilla wrote:(Moments after you make your decision, a bear plows through the painting, scares the crap out of you and you jump off the cliff to your death. Oops.)

But fortunately, it is witnessed by a competent artist standing on yet a higher cliff, who immortalizes the moment on another canvas, capturing again a fleeting glimpse of the beauty of nature.

by **geckzilla** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 5:03 pm

Imagine yourself atop a precipice overlooking the vastness of a natural landscape. A sunrise to your east is illuminating the world in golden hues, birds are sounding off around you, and an ancient meandering river is just discernible through a morning fog clinging to the valley below. Behind you is a famous Turner painting on a stand of some sort. It's a masterpiece. You get to choose one to keep and view for the rest of your life. Which do you choose?

A painting offers two paltry dimensions and its meaning and beauty are derived from a fleeting and mutable pattern of neural signals confined within one's cranium. It is a momentary hijacking of the credit for what nature has spent a few billion years on. The artist's finest brush strokes are haphazard piles of molecules compared to the intricate microscopic arrangements found within a single leaf. Still, it is somewhat amazing that nature has concocted a way to observe and imitate itself by paintings or mathematical formulas, feeble as they may be.

(Moments after you make your decision, a bear plows through the painting, scares the crap out of you and you jump off the cliff to your death. Oops.)

by **Chris Peterson** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:53 pm

therm wrote:Vertical means perpendicular to the surface of the geoid (aligned with the gradient of the gravity field), or pointing to the center of mass of the Earth. Therefore the terminator is always vertical (assuming the earth is a sphere, the plane of the terminator always cuts this sphere in two halves).

The Earth is only a sphere in one sense. We frequently are interested in just its surface, which is a non-Euclidian plane, a two dimensional surface. In that frame, "vertical" is readily interpreted as a line that passes through each pole.

by **therm** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:49 pm

Vertical means perpendicular to the surface of the geoid (aligned with the gradient of the gravity field), or pointing to the center of mass of the Earth. Therefore the terminator is always vertical (assuming the earth is a sphere, the plane of the terminator always cuts this sphere in two halves).

I think they mean vertical to the ecliptic plane of the solar system.

by **neufer** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 4:10 pm

Chris Peterson wrote:
Art is just our feeble attempt to interpret nature in different ways.

I resemble that remark.

Starship Asterisk*

APOD: Equinox on a Spinning Earth (2014 Mar 19)

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