Starship Asterisk*

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080208.html

I think this is a very nice photo; but I can't see that is has any similarity to rainbows. Anyone have an idea how it got named?
Orin

No, but I'm venturing a guess that it has to do with its geometry.

I like this picture, it is now my scream saver....pass the beer, please.

can anyone come up with a reason why the Basaltic Mare's of the moon predominate on the nearside?

My memory tells me that all old moon maps said "IRIDUM" - is this the truth, a faulty recollection, or the particular maps they chose to give me as a child?

Now I see both "IRIDUM" and "IRIDIUM" enough places to say that either spelling appears to be currently accepted as common and correct. If there was a change in policy, I didn't get the memo.

Is there an astroLatin scholar out there who can testify to the technical correctness of one or the other? Is there a archaeoCartographer out there who can say when each spelling came into use? I don't want to put any pressure on you.

I've read that it is because the crust is thicker on the far side, allowing less mare volcanism after an impact occurs. Why it is thicker on that side, I'm less sure. The differential crust thickness is a result of tidal forces, particularly when the moon formed.

The large complex of connected Maria on the second quarter of the moon is dominated by Oceanus Procellarum (Storms) and Mare Imbrium (Rains).

If you can accept these imaginary oceans and seas, surely you can also accept imaginary weather systems in them.

Around the edges of the storms and rains we have Humorum (Moisture), Nubium (Clouds), Vaporum (Vapors), Rainbows (Iridum), Roris (Dew), and probably more.

To see these scenes, you need to be standing on the surface of the moon in a fantasy illustration.

It's also a good name if you wanted to sell real estate

Sea front property on the moon... a place to ride your lunar surf board without the danger of preditory moon sharks

Strike that...

Sea front property on the moon... over the calmest of seas!

emc wrote:It's also a good name if you wanted to sell real estate

Sea front property on the moon... a place to ride your lunar surf board without the danger of preditory moon sharks

I guess the name's OK. Just didn't understand the reasoning behind it. apodman gave a good reconing of how it was named. Fantasy; OK.
Orin

apodman wrote:My memory tells me that all old moon maps said "IRIDUM" - is this the truth, a faulty recollection, or the particular maps they chose to give me as a child?

Now I see both "IRIDUM" and "IRIDIUM" enough places to say that either spelling appears to be currently accepted as common and correct. If there was a change in policy, I didn't get the memo.

I see "Iridium" often enough on the Internet, but haven't seen it in any astronomical catalogs or publications. I don't think it has become an accepted form. Purely in terms of the Latin, "Iridium" is simply incorrect. The root word, irid-, forms the genitive plural iridum, never iridium.

That's not to say it couldn't become accepted, although I think it is unlikely. I'm a big fan of eliminating Latin grammar rules from astronomical nomenclature. For instance, I don't normally use the Latin genitive when referring to stars (I prefer "delta Scorpius" to "delta Scorpii"). But in the case of Sinus Iridum, the Latin grammar is largely lost in what is really just a proper name.

Yes, apodman is very insightful! I liked his answer too...

So it is safe to say that science and fantasy are partners at more than one point. Such as during the initial stages of an idea/concept/visualization/map naming/APOD intrepretation.

Not just for the fantasy crowd, the related names and scenes make a handy mnemonic map overlay for observers.

If observation and naming had started in a later age, we'd have a McDonaldland scene superimposed on the lunar map and someone would be asking why this place is named for Mayor McCheese.

emc wrote:It's also a good name if you wanted to sell real estate

Sea front property on the moon... a place to ride your lunar surf board without the danger of preditory moon sharks

Strike that...

Sea front property on the moon... over the calmest of seas!

There wouldn't be any predatory sharks on the moon, just the sharks selling real estate!
I'll get my coat...

LOL....

the smooth areas of the bay are so beautiful... and the Cape towering 3000 meters above the bay below! holy base jump batman. Wonder how long it would take to reach the bottom. =)

And McDonald's will be up there soon enough with Mayor McCheese... too soon in my opinion. Once the corporate hounds are unleashed upon the outer worlds, its all over for fantasy-fantasy land and the wonder of unknown sciences, unless you think Corporate megagiants would want to help with exploration and research and not just the manifest destiny of all these franchise chains waiting to take a bite out of available resources needing to be plundered. =/

Chris Peterson wrote:

apodman wrote:My memory tells me that all old moon maps said "IRIDUM" - is this the truth, a faulty recollection, or the particular maps they chose to give me as a child?

Now I see both "IRIDUM" and "IRIDIUM" enough places to say that either spelling appears to be currently accepted as common and correct. If there was a change in policy, I didn't get the memo.

I see "Iridium" often enough on the Internet, but haven't seen it in any astronomical catalogs or publications. I don't think it has become an accepted form. Purely in terms of the Latin, "Iridium" is simply incorrect. The root word, irid-, forms the genitive plural iridum, never iridium.

That's not to say it couldn't become accepted, although I think it is unlikely. I'm a big fan of eliminating Latin grammar rules from astronomical nomenclature. For instance, I don't normally use the Latin genitive when referring to stars (I prefer "delta Scorpius" to "delta Scorpii"). But in the case of Sinus Iridum, the Latin grammar is largely lost in what is really just a proper name.

I think the root word is actual iris (like the Greek rainbow goddess) which is actually Greek and/or NEW Latin.
The OLD Latin genitive plural would have been irium = "of rainbows"
but the more proper NEW Latin genitive plural is iridum = "of rainbows" .
http://tinyurl.com/3ax75z

The nearby "Sea of Rains" is probably also New Latin
since if it was OLD Latin it would be: "Mare Imbrum" rather than "Mare Imbrium"
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/imber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinus_Iridum

In any event, Sinus Iridium is probably a modern mistake
and one should stick to the text books.

Note: The element Iridium is actually NEW Latin for "LITTLE rainbow."

Arramon wrote:LOL....

the smooth areas of the bay are so beautiful... and the Cape towering 3000 meters above the bay below! holy base jump batman. Wonder how long it would take to reach the bottom. =)

=/

If you were to dome over a crater, and give it atmospheric pressure equal to earth, you could literally fly with arm mounted wings and stay aloft till your arms grew tired. Considering you would weigh between 25 and 40 pounds. A base jump would indeed last a very long time.

I know that on earth the rate of acceleration is 32'ps/ps but what is the rate of acceleration on the Moon? (I would presume it to be 1/6th 5.334 but would terminal velocity also be diminished?)

A possible explanation for why the Bay Of Rainbows is so named might lie in what I call The Jura Mountain Necklace. Every month the rising sun illuminates the tips of the Jura Mountain range leaving the slopes of the mountains in the dark. This has the remarkable appearance of a necklace of pearls hanging in the darkness above the Bay of Rainbows. This "string of pearls" has the shape of a rainbow. I got a fair photograph of this which I could E-mail to anyone interested. Contact me at
mnd.busby@verizon.net. Harold Busby.

That's just funny... freefalling for hours, thinking you're on your way to the bottom, only to see an hour later you're halfway there. =b

Would using your jetpack then be cheating if you used a couple bursts to speed you on your way 'down'? hehehe.... you could break the record for the most flips on a single jump.

And there are plenty of image hosting services online to just upload the photo and post using the given direct url for the image. =)

[img]my%20uploaded%20photo.jpg[/img]

The nearby "Sea of Rains" is probably also New Latin
since if it was OLD Latin it would be: "Mare Imbrum" rather than "Mare Imbrium"

So then would it be Sea of Little Rain??? =b

neufer wrote: I think the root word is actual iris (like the Greek rainbow goddess) which is actually Greek and/or NEW Latin.
The OLD Latin genitive plural would have been irium = "of rainbows"
but the more proper NEW Latin genitive plural is iridum = "of rainbows"

Please Neufer, don't quit you domain of competence ! The root is Irid- in Greek or Latin. Lat. nominative Iris (for irid-s, with a regular loss of the dental before the s desinence), gen. Iridis (or, by imitation of the Greek, Iridos) and plur. gen can't be anything but Iridum. "Iridium" or "Irium" would be what my teachers used to call barbarisms. There's no "new latin" or neo-latin versus old latin involved here, just plain old classical Latin morphology !

Regards

Arramon wrote:

The nearby "Sea of Rains" is probably also New Latin
since if it was OLD Latin it would be: "Mare Imbrum" rather than "Mare Imbrium"

So then would it be Sea of Little Rain???

Well it certainly is a Sea of very Little Rain.

Czerno wrote:

neufer wrote: I think the root word is actual iris (like the Greek rainbow goddess) which is actually Greek and/or NEW Latin.
The OLD Latin genitive plural would have been irium = "of rainbows"
but the more proper NEW Latin genitive plural is iridum = "of rainbows"

Please Neufer, don't quit you domain of competence ! The root is Irid- in Greek or Latin. Lat. nominative Iris (for irid-s, with a regular loss of the dental before the s desinence), gen. Iridis (or, by imitation of the Greek, Iridos) and plur. gen can't be anything but Iridum. "Iridium" or "Irium" would be what my teachers used to call barbarisms. There's no "new latin" or neo-latin versus old latin involved here, just plain old classical Latin morphology !
Regards

I don't have a domain of competence (; though I did have two years of high school Latin in 1960-1).
But I'm constantly learning to be less incompetent by saying stupid things and having others correct me.

neufer,

So we have noticed.

neufer wrote: I don't have a domain of competence (; though I did have two years of high school Latin in 1960-1).

I took some 8 years of Latin, fewer of Greek, back in the 50-60s, I certainly wouldn't call myself a latin litterate ! Over the course of those studies we did learn by rote and recited, by heart, verses and prose alike, and many of those have remained engraved in our memories.

But I'm constantly learning to be less incompetent by saying stupid things and having others correct me.

Stupid things are OK as long as they stay on topic ;=)
Off-topic stuff, OTOH, has to be smart... or not to be.

Your Iris reminded me of her (grammatical) cousin, the nymph, Amaryllis, whom we hear Tityrus with his flute teach the forest to "resonate" her name in the beginning of Virgil's Eclogues aka Bucolics (I'm afraid my English is almost as awful as my remnants of Latin) thus...

"... Tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra
"Formosam resonare doces Amaryllida silvas."

Notice the obligatory "Greek" accusative in -a ;=)

--
Czerno

It is interesting and fun to ponder first hand conditions off of planet earth. And since we need orientation to a some point or set of points for mental security purposes ;>)... For example, our northern hemisphere is "up"... I am wondering... since the same side of the moon always faces earth and the moon orbits around the earth in one moon rotation... which end of the moon is up?