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APOD: Snake in the Dark (2009 Feb 20)

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 3:38 pm
by neufer
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http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090220.html

<<Explanation: Dark nebulae snake across a gorgeous expanse of stars in this telescopic view toward the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. In fact, the twisting central shape seen here is well known as the Snake Nebula. It is also listed as Barnard 72 (B72), one of 182 dark markings of the sky cataloged in the early 20th century by astronomer E. E. Barnard. Unlike bright emission nebulae and star clusters, Barnard's nebulae are interstellar dark clouds of obscuring gas and dust. Their shapes are visible in cosmic silhouette because they lie in the foreground along the line of sight to rich star fields and glowing stellar nurseries near the plane of our Galaxy. Many of Barnard's dark nebulae are themselves likely sites of future star formation. Barnard 72 is about 650 light years away.
With bluish star 44 Ophiuchi at bottom left, the intriguing star field spans nearly 2 degrees or almost 20 light-years at the estimated distance of the Snake Nebula. >>
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Bluish star 44 Ophiuchi is the line connected
"pinkie toe star" in this early 17th century Kepler drawing:
Image
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And 44 Ophiuchi is also the star closest to Mars
in this Wed 1604 Oct 6 18:30 UTC view: http://tinyurl.com/bwxupa

The Snake Nebula lies in a position (near the ecliptic) that is
the mirror image of Mars vis-a-vis the nearby 44 Ophiuchi
or on the top center of the foot in Kepler drawing above.
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http://www.ips-planetarium.org/planetarian/articles/common_errors_xmas.html wrote:---------------------------------------------------------------
Common Errors in "Star of Bethlehem" Planetarium Shows
by John Mosley, Griffith Observatory

<<The massing of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 1604 was awaited with
anticipation. "Somee watched to correct their ephemerides, some for the
sake of pleasure, some because of the rarity of the occasion, some to
verify their predictions, and others, indeed, to see if there would be
a comet as had been expressly predicted by the astrology of the Arabs,"

Kepler wrote (Opera Omnia vol. II, p.617, as quoted by
BurkeGaffney). Mars came first into conjunction with Saturn,
on September 26, and then with Jupiter on October 9.
Although Kepler missed this last event because of clouds,
others in Europe saw the two planets and noted nothing amiss.

On October 10 a new star, as bright as Jupiter, was spotted essentially
between Jupiter & Saturn, which themselves were only 9 degrees apart.

Kepler observed it carefully until it faded into the sun's glare
the following year, and later wrote a book De Stella Nova in
Pede Serpentarii (About the New Star in the Serpent Holder's Foot).

While writing this book, Kepler came across a work by Laurence
Suslyga of Poland that argued that Christ was born in 4 B.C.
Kepler noticed that this was shortly after a triple conjunction that
he calculated had occurred in 7 B.C., and wondered if there was a
connection. In 1614 he published his conclusions: the triple conjunction
of 7 B.C. was followed by a massing of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 6
B.C., and just as the conjunction and massing of 1603 4 had produced a
new star, so the events of 7 6 B.C. had produced a miraculous nova, and
THAT NOVA was the Star of Bethlehem. The biblical triple conjunction
took place in Pisces, but the massing that followed took place
in Aries -- one of the fiery signs -- just as the massing
of 1604 had also taken place in a fiery sign.

Kepler believed that the star over Bethlehem was a nova placed
there specifically to alert and guide the magi. He wrote,
"I do not doubt but that God would have condescended
to cater to the credulity of the Chaldeans.>>
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[Note: For historical purposes only. :wink: ]

Re: Snakes in the grass (APOD 2009 February 20)

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 4:26 pm
by aristarchusinexile
Thanks Neufer, for the history lesson.

You know, I must protest the common imagination of mankind by asking why any long squiggly thing needs to be indentified as a snake. It could just as easily be a child's skipping rope lying in the freshly mown beside the sidewalk while the child takes a break sipping lemonade which their mother has made specially for the occasion, which is to celebrate the growing of the grass around the skipping rope to a height which will cover it, to be discovered a slit second too late by Dad next time he is cutting the grass.

Re: Snakes in the grass (APOD 2009 February 20)

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 7:20 pm
by neufer
aristarchusinexile wrote:You know, I must protest the common imagination of mankind by asking why any long squiggly thing needs to be indentified as a snake. It could just as easily be a child's skipping rope lying in the freshly mown beside the sidewalk while the child takes a break sipping lemonade which their mother has made specially for the occasion, which is to celebrate the growing of the grass around the skipping rope to a height which will cover it, to be discovered a slit second too late by Dad next time he is cutting the grass.
Well, the Snake Nebula does make for a pretty convincing sidewinder:
Image

But more importantly: the Snake Nebula lies on the foot of Ophiuchus ("the serpent-bearer")/Asclepius
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Acts.28:3: And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius wrote:
<<The rod of Asclepius is an ancient Greek symbol associated with astrology and with healing the sick through medicine. It consists of a serpent entwined around a staff. Asclepius, the son of Apollo, was a practitioner of medicine in ancient Greek mythology. The Rod of Asclepius also represents the constellation Ophiuchus, also known as Ophiuchus Serpentarius, the thirteenth sign of the sidereal zodiac.

The rod of Asclepius symbolizes the healing arts by combining the serpent, which in shedding its skin is a symbol of rebirth and fertility, with the staff, a symbol of authority befitting the god of Medicine. The snake wrapped around the staff is widely claimed to be a species of rat snake, Elaphe longissima, also known as the Aesculapian or Asclepian snake. It is native to southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, and some central European spa regions, apparently brought there by Romans for their healing properties.

There are several different theories as to the origin and development of the rod of Asclepius, any or all of which may have contributed to its development. The symbol is named for an ancient Greek legend, although the legend could be older.

According to Greek mythology, Asclepius was said to have learned the art of healing from the centaur Chiron. He is customarily represented as a surgeon on the ship Argo. Asclepius was so skilled in the medical arts that he was reputed to have brought patients back from the dead. For this, he was punished and placed in the heavens as the constellation Ophiuchus (meaning "serpent-bearer"). This constellation lies between Sagittarius and Libra. In early Christianity, the constellation Ophiuchus was associated with Saint Paul holding the Maltese Viper. According to some, Asclepius fought alongside the Achaeans in the Trojan War, and cured Philoctetes of his famous snake bite.

Some scholars have suggested that the symbol once represented a worm wrapped around a rod; parasitic worms such as the "guinea worm" (Dracunculus medinensis) were common in ancient times, and were extracted from beneath the skin by winding them slowly around a stick. Physicians may have advertised this common service by posting a sign depicting a worm on a rod. The worm was mistaken for a snake in the Middle Ages and has since been known as a snake entwined round a staff and not a worm.

A similar symbol, Nehushtan, is mentioned in the Bible. In Numbers 21:4-9 the Bible tells of the Israelites complaining to Moses and to God about their desperate situation.

"Why have you brought us...to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water...." Numbers 21:5 (NKJV)

This angered God, and He sent fiery serpents that attacked the Israelites, and many died. The Israelites came to Moses with an appeal to God, repenting for their sin and asking forgiveness. God then spoke to Moses, telling him to make a bronze serpent set on a pole. Anyone who was bitten by one of the fiery serpents was to look at the bronze serpent and he or she immediately was healed. It is possible that this incident and the Nehushtan influenced the symbol of the Rod of Asclepius, and possibly explains why it is used today as a symbol of medicine and the medical field.>>
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THE VARIETIES of SCIENTIFIC EXPERIENCE
A Personal View of the Search for God by CARL SAGAN

<<"Two strands entwined (i.e., DNA) is the secret of life"? You may say that the Greeks were onto that because of the caduceus. You know, in the American army all the physicians wore the caduceus on their lapels, and various medical insurance schemes also use it. And it is connected with, if not the existence of life, at least saving it. But there are very few people who use this to say that the correct religion is the religion of the ancient Greeks, because they had the one symbol that survives critical (scientific) scrutiny later on.>>
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Re: Snakes in the grass (APOD 2009 February 20)

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:01 pm
by apodman
The APOD description wrote:Dark nebulae snake across a gorgeous expanse of stars in this telescopic view toward the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.
The link gives the correct, or at least the most popular, pronunciation:

off-ih-YOU-kuss

Unfortunately, Harcourt Fenton (Harry) Mudd misled a generation by famously saying:

uf-FYE-uh-kuss

Re: Snakes in the grass (APOD 2009 February 20)

Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:26 pm
by neufer
apodman wrote:
The APOD description wrote:Dark nebulae snake across a gorgeous expanse of stars in this telescopic view
toward the pronounceable constellation Ophiuchus and the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.
The link gives the correct, or at least the most popular, pronunciation:

off-ih-YOU-kuss

Unfortunately, Harcourt Fenton (Harry) Mudd misled a generation by famously saying:

uf-FYE-uh-kuss
Kepler neatly solved that problem by using the Latin Serpentarius

De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarii (About the New Star in the Serpent holder's Foot).

Re: Snakes in the grass (APOD 2009 February 20)

Posted: Thu Nov 04, 2010 5:39 am
by stevetakajo
The serpent is one of the oldest and most widespread mythological symbols. Considerable overlap exists in the symbolic values that serpents represent in various cultures. Some such overlap is due to the common historical ancestry of contemporary symbols. Much of the overlap, however, is traceable to the common biological characteristics of snakes.