APOD: Contemplating the Sky (2010 Dec 13)

[APOD Robot]

Contemplating the Sky

Explanation: Have you contemplated your sky recently? Tonight will be a good one for midnight meditators at many northerly locations as meteors from the Geminids meteor shower will frequently streak through. The Geminds meteor shower has slowly been building to a crescendo and should peak tonight. Pictured above ten days ago, a group of celestial sightseers in the Maranjab Desert in Iran, were treated to a dark and wondrous pre-dawn sky that contained the planet Venus and a crescent Moon. Tonight Mars and Mercury should be visible just above the southwestern horizon at sunset, while the first quarter Moon will set around midnight.

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[owlice]

Congratulations to Amir on his APOD!!!

[neufer]

Contemplating the Sky

The Seventh Seal final scene depicting [b][i][color=#FF0000]dance of death[/color][/i][/b]

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<<The Seventh Seal (Swedish: Det sjunde inseglet) is a 1957 Swedish film directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight named Antonius Block (Max von Sydow) and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death, who has come to take his life.

Antonius Block pretends to be clumsy and knocks the chess pieces over, distracting Death long enough for the family of actors he has befriended to slip away. Once the pieces have been replaced on the board, Death then places the knight in checkmate, winning the game, and announces that when they meet again Block's time—and the time of all those still traveling with him—will be up. Before departing, Death asks if Block has accomplished his one "meaningful deed" yet; Block replies that he has. Meanwhile, the little family of actors and jugglers have endured a strange light and roar in the forest which the father, Jof, interprets to be "the Angel of Death and he's very big." They now awaken listening to the rain tapping on the wagon canvas and crawl out, noticing "the dark retreating sky where summer lightning glitters like silver needles" over the ridges, forests, wide plains and sea. Jof, with his second sight, sees a vision of the knight and his followers being led away over the hills in a solemn dance of death. "They dance away from the dawn and it's a solemn dance towards the dark lands, while the rain washes...and cleans the salt of their tears from their cheeks." His wife, Mia, turns to him and says "You with your visions and dreams.">>

[dim12trav]

I live in rainy Oregon and the skies are filled with clouds at this time of year but in earlier times and other places I did in fact contemplate the sky.

[Harry Watts]

Nothing peaks to a crescendo. A crescendo is the process of building up to a CLIMAX

[León]

Looked at the sky mounted on a dune near the caravasai of maranjab, one of the oldest in the thousands that were built on the Silk Road

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

Click to view full size image

[owlice]

Nothing peaks to a crescendo. A crescendo is the process of building up to a CLIMAX

Indeed, a crescendo is an increase; it's also used informally to indicate the result of the "building up," whether talking about music or something else. Put another way, I've heard the term used by conductors and other musicians in the same sense it's used in today's APOD. Not the most precise usage, but not a sin.

[orin stepanek]

Ahh! Neat picture. Silhouettes usually are!
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1012/mo ... ri_big.jpg
I edited to remove the hi-def picture but left the url there. Sorry I didn't realize it was a problem.

[neufer]

Ahh! Neat picture. Silhouettes usually are!

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

[lenka]

The sky is so clear.
All I can say tonight is Dear clouds iam begging you, please go away.

[Amir]

Owlice, Orin, Thanks for your comments!

Yes, but folks with slow internet connections probably don't need to see silhouettes in high def.

a 900x600 version is already on Recent Submission Dec 8-10 thread (http://asterisk.apod.com/dow ... &mode=view).
not hi-def, but better than the image posted on the first page.

[Chris Peterson]

Indeed, a crescendo is an increase; it's also used informally to indicate the result of the "building up," whether talking about music or something else. Put another way, I've heard the term used by conductors and other musicians in the same sense it's used in today's APOD. Not the most precise usage, but not a sin.

Most English dictionaries, including the OED, give one definition of "crescendo" as "climax", in both musical and non-musical contexts. So the usage is neither informal nor imprecise, but is perfectly proper English. (The OED dates the musical usage meaning climax, with the example "reached its crescendo", to 1903.)

I'm always amused when linguistic conservatives get so bent out of shape by the continual changing of English. It is precisely that flexibility that makes it the richest, most literary language on Earth. And to worry about this one word- in a context everybody understands- when there's a beautiful image to discuss... well, that's just crazy!

[neufer]

Indeed, a crescendo is an increase; it's also used informally to indicate the result of the "building up," whether talking about music or something else

Most English dictionaries, including the OED, give one definition of "crescendo" as "climax", in both musical and non-musical contexts. So the usage is neither informal nor imprecise, but is perfectly proper English. (The OED dates the musical usage meaning climax, with the example "reached its crescendo", to 1903.)

Finnegans Wake: Page 492

-- Loonacied !
Marterdyed !!
Madwakemiherculossed !!!
Judascessed !!!!
Pairaskivvymenassed !!!!!
Luredogged !!!!!!
And, needatellye, faulscrescendied !!!!!!!

[neufer]

Starwatch: The Geminids – rich and mysterious
Alan Pickup, guardian.co.uk
Monday 13 December 2010 08.00 GMT

Starwatch Dec 13 Graphic: Jenny Ridley

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<<Tonight sees the peak of perhaps the most puzzling, meteor shower of the year. The Geminids shower, which began almost a week ago and continues until Thursday, should be most spectacular before dawn tomorrow when up to 120 meteors per hour might be counted under ideal skies.

Geminids are slow (35 km per second) and often bright as they trace parallel paths into the Earth's upper atmosphere. Perspective means that they appear to diverge from a radiant in Gemini, hence the shower's name. That point, close to the star Castor and plotted on our chart of the constellation, climbs from near the NE horizon at nightfall to pass some 70° high in the S at 02:00 before sinking through the W before dawn. Meteors, though, rain down in all parts of the sky – it is just their paths that point back to the radiant.

Three factors make the morning hours more favourable for Geminids spotting. The first is moonlight which swamps the fainter meteors. The Moon lies close to the bright planet Jupiter this evening and does not set until after midnight. The second factor is the radiant's altitude; when the radiant is highest in the sky we see more meteors because we are facing more "head-on" into the stream of Geminid meteoroids as they orbit the Sun. And thirdly, the Earth is expected to plough through the densest part of the stream tomorrow morning.

Meteoroids in that stream take about 524 days to plunge from the asteroid belt, beyond the orbit of Mars, to inside the orbit of Mercury, and back again. They follow the same eccentric orbit as the asteroid Phaethon, 5km wide and at the root of the mystery. Most meteor showers occur when the Earth encounters the dust left along the orbits of comets. Phaethon, though, is not a comet and nor does it appear to be an extinct comet nucleus; indeed its spectrum links it to the large asteroid Pallas, 544km wide. Were Phaethon and other so-called Palladian asteroids blasted from Pallas in some ancient collision? And where does the dust in Phaethon's orbit, our Geminid meteoroids, come from? One theory, backed up last year by observations of Phaethon as it passed through perihelion only 21 million km from the Sun, is that the Sun's intense heat can cause Phaethon's rocks to shatter, with the fragments able to escape Phaethon's feeble gravitational pull to replenish the Geminids stream.

Incidentally, the star cluster M35, near the right edge of our chart, lies only 4° E (left) of the Moon's position during the total lunar eclipse before dawn on the 21st. The Moon begins to enter the central dark umbra of the Earth's shadow at 06:33 and is fully within the umbra by 07:41 as it dips towards our NW horizon.>>

[biddie67]

A beautiful and elegantly simple photograph - congratulations !!!!

[Chris Peterson]

Madwakemiherculossed !!!

I couldn't agree more!

[owlice]

Indeed, a crescendo is an increase; it's also used informally to indicate the result of the "building up," whether talking about music or something else. Put another way, I've heard the term used by conductors and other musicians in the same sense it's used in today's APOD. Not the most precise usage, but not a sin.

Most English dictionaries, including the OED, give one definition of "crescendo" as "climax", in both musical and non-musical contexts. So the usage is neither informal nor imprecise, but is perfectly proper English. (The OED dates the musical usage meaning climax, with the example "reached its crescendo", to 1903.)

I'm always amused when linguistic conservatives get so bent out of shape by the continual changing of English. It is precisely that flexibility that makes it the richest, most literary language on Earth. And to worry about this one word- in a context everybody understands- when there's a beautiful image to discuss... well, that's just crazy!

Chris, I'm not bent out of shape, nor am I a linguistic conservative. I am, however, a musician and familiar with the origin of the (Italian) word and the meaning it carries for musicians. I'm agreeing with you that it's OKAY to use the term as it was used here. It's not the most precise usage, but it doesn't need to be.

Sheesh.

[Chris Peterson]

Chris, I'm not bent out of shape, nor am I a linguistic conservative. I am, however, a musician and familiar with the origin of the (Italian) word and the meaning it carries for musicians. I'm agreeing with you that it's OKAY to use the term as it was used here. It's not the most precise usage, but it doesn't need to be.

Sorry if I wasn't clear... I wasn't calling you a linguistic conservative, nor did I sense you were bent out of shape. My comment was directed at a few other disgruntled posters who had nothing to say about the image, but merely complained about a word in the caption.

[orin stepanek]

Hi Art! I forgot about 'Silhouettes'; neat song; Thanks for the nostalgia.

[mexhunter]

Congratulations to Amir for Apod of today.
Greetings
César

[owlice]

Chris, I'm not bent out of shape, nor am I a linguistic conservative. I am, however, a musician and familiar with the origin of the (Italian) word and the meaning it carries for musicians. I'm agreeing with you that it's OKAY to use the term as it was used here. It's not the most precise usage, but it doesn't need to be.

Sorry if I wasn't clear... I wasn't calling you a linguistic conservative, nor did I sense you were bent out of shape. My comment was directed at a few other disgruntled posters who had nothing to say about the image, but merely complained about a word in the caption.

Oh! Thanks for letting me know. I wasn't bent out of shape until I read your post, but now I'll straighten back into shape (such as it is and I can... oof!)!

I like this image a lot; it's very peaceful and captures the sense of sharing the awe of the heavens with good friends.

[Beyond]

I don't have anything to say about the caption, but the moon sure does have a nice little smile
I think it likes the little 'night light' thats close to it.

[neufer]

I like this image a lot; it's very peaceful and captures the sense of sharing the AWE of the heavens with good friends.

AWE is taken from the Old English "AGHE" , meaning 'DREAD'.
Never use a short word when a long one will do, especially if you are not certain what it means.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AWE, n. [OE. ae, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, ga, Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear,
Gr. pain, distress, from the same root as E. ail. 3. Cf. Ugly.] Dread; great fear mingled with respect.

"His frown was full of terror, and his voice Shook the delinquent with such fits of AWE." - Cowper.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

• • Measure For Measure > Act II, scene IV
  ANGELO: How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
  ___ Wrench AWE from fools and tie the wiser souls
  ___ To thy false seeming!
  
  • King Henry IV, part II > Act IV, scene V
  PRINCE HENRY: Let God for ever keep it from my head
  ___ And make me as the poorest vassal is
  ___ That doth with AWE and terror kneel to it!
  
  • Hamlet > Act V, scene I
  HAMLET: O, that that earth, which kept the world in AWE,
  ___ Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw!
  
  • King Henry V > Act IV, scene I
  KING HENRY V: ART thou aught else but place, degree and form,
  ___ Creating AWE and fear in other men?
  ___ Wherein thou ART less happy being fear'd
  ___ Than they in fearing.

----------------------------------------------

ART

[Di]

I wonder why isn't there a single star in that beautiful sky! It might have been too early in the evening for the stars to become visible, but if that was the case, then Amir darkened the sky (thanks, Photoshop!) to help the Moon and Venus -also the silhouettes- stand out from the background... Sorry if I appear so distrustful, but as a photographer in the digital age I've learnt to doublecheck on images that look "too clean to be true"! If it was a straight shot, congratulations, Amir!

[Chris Peterson]

I wonder why isn't there a single star in that beautiful sky! It might have been too early in the evening for the stars to become visible, but if that was the case, then Amir darkened the sky (thanks, Photoshop!) to help the Moon and Venus -also the silhouettes- stand out from the background... Sorry if I appear so distrustful, but as a photographer in the digital age I've learnt to doublecheck on images that look "too clean to be true"! If it was a straight shot, congratulations, Amir!

In that little section of the sky, at that time, there were no stars brighter than about magnitude +2. So any stars will be at least 600 times dimmer than Venus. The image itself is capable of showing about 256 different intensity levels (perhaps a little more by allowing for tricks with color). In fact, because Venus is saturated, it does appear that there are a few stars just visible above the background, which are best seen looking at the full size image.

I don't think anything too exotic in terms of image processing was used here.