Starship Asterisk*

250 full moons betwen them ?!? It's almost a third sky (125°) !
I checked it in my favourite sky maps software : it's about 13°, so... "only" 25 full moons.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091103.html

Yeah. I made the same calculation as well. Anyway the Image and capture or both Blue and Red is beautiful.

250 moons is about what takes to fill the entire space in the image between the two objects, not 250 moons one after another forming a single line.

In today's picture of the Seven Sisters and California if you look to the upper right you will see
"Michigan" in blue. This is also in the correct configuration of the U.S. map.

RBA wrote:250 moons is about what takes to fill the entire space in the image between the two objects,
not 250 moons one after another forming a single line.

• ____ 16 ~ sqrt(250)
  --------------------------------------------------------
  ____ King Lear > Act I, scene V
  
  Fool: The reason why the seven stars
  are no more than seven is a pretty reason.
  
  KING LEAR: Because they are not eight?
  
  Fool: Yes, indeed: thou wouldst make a good fool.
  --------------------------------------------------------

di-er-e-sis or <di-aer-e-sis>(die er'uh sis) n. pl. <-ses>(-seez )
1. a sign placed over the second of two adjacent vowels to indicate that it is
to be pronounced separately, as in the spellings naïve and coöperate.

If you wanted to use a dieresis in "Pleiades", it should be above the "a" (to be pronounced as a separate syllable from the preceding "ei") - not above the "i" (which is pronounced as part of the same syllable as the "e").

In any case, "Pleïades" looks hideous as if written by Kilroy.

apodman wrote:

di-er-e-sis or <di-aer-e-sis>(die er'uh sis) n. pl. <-ses>(-seez )
1. a sign placed over the second of two adjacent vowels to indicate that it is
to be pronounced separately, as in the spellings naïve and coöperate.

If you wanted to use a dieresis in "Pleiades", it should be above the "a" (to be pronounced as a separate syllable from the preceding "ei") - not above the "i" (which is pronounced as part of the same syllable as the "e").

In any case, "Pleïades" looks hideous as if written by Kilroy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diphthong wrote:
<<In phonetics, a diphthong (from Greek δίφθογγος, diphthongos, literally "two sounds" or "two tones") is a contour vowel—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow. This contrasts with "pure" vowels, or monophthongs, where the tongue is held still, as in the English word papa.>>

• Modern Greek has the following diphthongs:
  
  * αι (ai) represents /e̞/
  * ει (ei) represents /i/
  * οι (oi) represents /i/
  * ου (ou) represents /u/
  * υι (yi) represents /i/

--------------------------------------------
I would agree with you...however Google search results give:

22,600 for "Pleïades"
299 for "Pleïads"
62 for "Pleiädes"
3 for "Pleiäds"

neufer wrote:Google search results give:

22,600 for "Pleïades"
299 for "Pleïads"
62 for "Pleiädes"
3 for "Pleiäds"

All the more reason to post an opinion against such spellings.

(One more note: you will never see me referring to Atlas, Pleione, and their Five Brightest Daughters - nor Atlas and his Six Brightest Daughters when variable Pleione is at the dim end of her cycle - as "The Seven Sisters".)

---

I see now the APOD description has backed off from 250 full moons to 25. Makes me feel good that I didn't waste my time pulling out my sky map and steradian calculator in the wee hours last night.

apodman wrote:

neufer wrote:Google search results give:

22,600 for "Pleïades"
299 for "Pleïads"
62 for "Pleiädes"
3 for "Pleiäds"

All the more reason to post an opinion against such spellings.

I see now the APOD description has backed off from 250 full moons to 25. Makes me feel good that I didn't waste my time pulling out my sky map and steradian calculator in the wee hours last night.

Heaven forbid!!!

They also dropped the dieresis.

fszed wrote:In today's picture of the Seven Sisters and California if you look to the upper right you will see
"Michigan" in blue. This is also in the correct configuration of the U.S. map.

And looks like Florida just under the Seven Sisters.
Orin

APODs June 18, 1996 and November 3, 2009 show the same area, but look very different. The first loads of stars, the second loads of nebulosity. Could someone with astro-photography knowledge enlighten me why there is such a difference? Have the stars been suppressed or something in the latter image?

Well, first, there's 13 years between both images. The astrophoto gear amateurs use today has improved quite a bit from what they used 13 years ago.

The first image was likely taken with a camera lens and film. The nebulosity was obviously already there but the film simply didn't capture it. It also is most definitely a single exposure, and maybe not too long even for film. The second image also has a lot of stars in it, but they don't overwhelm the image, which has been captured through very different techniques (multiple exposures, digital CCD, etc) and it has later been processed in such a way that the stars have been "contained" during the process of bringing out the dust and nebulosity. Each image has its merit for the year it was taken IMHO.

That's a really cool APOD redux, there. Usually repeats disappoint me but I'm loving these old versus new things we've been seeing lately.