Starship Asterisk*

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacker_von_Wackenfels wrote:
<<Johannes Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels (1550–1619) was an active diplomat, scholar and author, with an avid interest in history and philosophy. In 1611 his devoted friend Johannes Kepler dedicated "Strena seu nive sexangula" to him. (From hexagonal snow; see: Kepler conjecture).>>

http://bit-player.org/2012/keplers-snowflake wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Dana Mackenzie says:

<<I ran into this unique relationship between Kepler and Wackher von Wackenfels (note: my source had an “h” in Wackher’s name) when I was writing my first book, “The Big Splat.” In 1610, Wackher found out about Galileo’s telescope experiments and raced across Prague to tell Kepler. Wackher “told me the story from his carriage in front of my house,” Kepler wrote. “Intense astonishment seized me as I weighed this very strange pronouncement. [That Galileo had discovered new planets orbiting another "star"--which was in fact Jupiter. -- DM] He was so overcome with joy by the news, I with shame [because Kepler had tried to convince Wackher that other stars did not have planets, as Giordano Bruno had argued -- DM], both of us with laughter, that he scarcely managed to talk, and I to listen.”>>