Starship Asterisk*

mzf wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 11:52 am I'm confused. I see three telescopes but MAGIC has only two. What am I missing in this picture?

On July 20, two of the three telescopes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Mirror_(M._C._Escher) wrote:

Magic Mirror

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<<Magic Mirror is a lithograph print by the Dutch artist M. C. Escher first printed in January, 1946. It depicts a mirror standing vertically on wooden supports on a tiled surface. The perspective is looking down at an angle at the right hand side of the mirror. There is a sphere at each side of the mirror. The main focus of the image is a procession of small griffin (winged lion) sculptures that emerge from the surface of the mirror and trail away from it in single file. Both the angular reflection of the tiles and the offset between the reflection of the sphere in front of the mirror and the sphere behind it prove it is a mirror. Yet the reflection of the griffin procession continues to emerge from behind the mirror. The griffin processions of both sides loop around to the front and enter a tessellated pattern on the tile surface.>>

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Mirror_(Snow_White) wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<The Magic Mirror is a mystical object that is featured in the story of Snow White. The Magic Mirror is owned by the Evil Queen and has been depicted in different versions as either a hand mirror or a mirror on the wall. Every morning, the Evil Queen asked the Magic Mirror the question "Mirror mirror in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?". The mirror always replies: "My Queen, you are the fairest in the land." The Queen is always pleased with that because the magic mirror never lies. But, when Snow White reaches the age of seven, she becomes as beautiful as the day and even more beautiful than the Queen and when the Queen asks her mirror, it responds: "My Queen, you are the fairest here so true. But Snow White is a thousand times more beautiful than you." This resulted in the Evil Queen enlisting a huntsman to kill Snow White and bring her Snow White's lungs and liver.

German pharmacist and fairy-tale parodist Karlheinz Bartels suggests, in a tongue-in-cheek manner, that the German folk tale "Snow White" is influenced by Maria Sophia Margaretha Catherina von und zu Erthal, who was born in Lohr am Main in 1725. After the death of Maria Sophia's birth mother in 1738, her father Philipp Christoph von und zu Erthal remarried. Claudia Elisabeth von Reichenstein, the stepmother, was domineering and greatly favored the children from her first marriage. The Queen's iconic mirror, referred to as “The Talking Mirror,” can still be viewed today at Spessart Museum in the Lohr Castle, where Maria Sophia was born. The mirror “talked” predominantly in aphorisms. The upper right corner of “The Talking Mirror” contains a clear reference to self-love (Amour Propre).

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=aphorism wrote:
aphorism (n.) 1520s, "concise statement of a principle" (especially in reference to the "Aphorisms of Hippocrates"), from Middle French aphorisme (corrected from Old French aufforisme, 14c.), from Late Latin aphorismus, from Greek aphorismos "definition; short, pithy sentence," from aphorizein "to mark off, divide," from apo "from" (see apo-) + horizein "to bound" (see horizon). General sense of "short, pithy statement containing a truth of general import" (e.g. "life is short, and Art is long") is from 1580s in English. Distinguished from an axiom, which is a statement of self-evident truth; an epigram is like an aphorism, but lacking in general import. Maxim and saying can be used as synonyms for aphorism, but maxims tend to be practical and sayings tend to be more commonplace and have an author's name attached.

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Boomer12k wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 7:56 pm
Would have been an interesting shot to turn the scopes around and have the comet reflected in them
... but this is a good shot too.

• But what a missed opportunity for a good photoshoot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_XB-70_Valkyrie#Mid-air_collision wrote:

The aircraft formation prior to the collision on 8 June 1966; the F-104, with a red tail, is the second plane from the right.

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The aircraft formation immediately following the collision; the F-104 has exploded, while the XB-70 is missing one of its vertical stabilizers. The F-4, F-5 and T-38 had yet to break formation.

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<The North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie was the prototype version of the planned B-70 nuclear-armed, deep-penetration strategic bomber for the United States Air Force Strategic Air Command. Designed in the late 1950s by North American Aviation (NAA), the six-engined Valkyrie was capable of cruising for thousands of miles at Mach 3+ while flying at 70,000 feet.

On 8 June 1966, XB-70A No. 2 was in close formation with four other aircraft (an F-4 Phantom, an F-5, a T-38 Talon, and an F-104 Starfighter) for a photoshoot at the behest of General Electric, manufacturer of the engines of all five aircraft. After the photoshoot, the F-104 drifted into the XB-70's right wing, flipped and rolled inverted over the top of the Valkyrie, before striking the bomber's vertical stabilizers and left wing. The F-104 then exploded, destroying the Valkyrie's rudders and damaging its left wing. With the loss of both rudders and damage to the wings, the Valkyrie entered an uncontrollable spin and crashed north of Barstow, California. NASA Chief Test Pilot Joe Walker (F-104 pilot) and Carl Cross (XB-70 co-pilot) were killed. Al White (XB-70 pilot) ejected, sustaining serious injuries, including the crushing of his arm by the closing clamshell-like escape crew capsule moments prior to ejection.

The USAF summary report of the accident investigation stated that, given the position of the F-104 relative to the XB-70, Walker, the F-104 pilot, would not have been able to see the XB-70's wing, except by uncomfortably looking back over his left shoulder. The report said that it was likely that Walker maintained his position by looking at the fuselage of the XB-70, forward of his position. The F-104 was estimated to be 70 ft to the side of the fuselage of the XB-70 and 10 ft below. The report concluded that from that position, without appropriate sight cues, Walker was unable to properly perceive his motion relative to the Valkyrie, leading to his aircraft drifting into the XB-70's wing. The accident investigation also pointed to the wake vortex from the XB-70's right wingtip as the reason for the F-104's sudden roll over and into the bomber.>>

mzf wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 9:56 pm As I mentioned in my earlier comment above regarding the number of MAGIC telescopes, I see 3 in the APOD picture yet the MAGIC site indicates that there are two telescopes spaced 85 meters apart. See: https://magic.mpp.mpg.de
Also, wiki also mentions two telescopes. So, the picture in today's (July 24, 2020) post still confuses me.

DonB312 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:34 am

mzf wrote: ↑Fri Jul 24, 2020 9:56 pm
As I mentioned in my earlier comment above regarding the number of MAGIC telescopes, I see 3 in the APOD picture yet the MAGIC site indicates that there are two telescopes spaced 85 meters apart. See: https://magic.mpp.mpg.de

Also, wiki also mentions two telescopes. So, the picture in today's (July 24, 2020) post still confuses me.

I think the telescope on the left in the APOD is a member of the Cherenkov Telescope Array. However I am not 100% certain of that.

https://www.cta-observatory.org/lst1-detects-first-gamma-ray-signal/ wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<In its first attempt to detect a gamma-ray source, the Large-Sized Telescope prototype (LST-1) successfully detected its first gamma-ray signal on 23 November 2019 when it pointed to the Crab Nebula, which is considered the standard candle in very high-energy astronomy. Preliminary analyses show a very clear detection of a gamma-ray signal coming from the source, reassuring the team’s expectations that the telescope is performing as designed. These results are being discussed at the LST General Meeting that is taking place this week in Marseille, France. Right: the two-dimensional excess map of the gamma-ray excess from the direction of the Crab Nebula at an exposure of 269 min. (Credit: Rubén López-Coto, LST Collaboration)

The LST-1 will be one of four LSTs located on the CTA-North array situated on the existing site of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias’ (IAC’s) Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos in Villa de Garafía on the island of La Palma, Spain. The four LSTs arranged at the centre of both the northern and southern hemisphere arrays will cover the low-energy sensitivity of CTA between 20 and 150 GeV. Although the LST-1 has a 23-metre diameter reflective surface, stands 45 metres tall and weighs around 100 tonnes, it is extremely nimble, with the ability to re-position within 20 seconds to capture brief, low-energy gamma-ray signals. Both the fast re-positioning speed and the low energy threshold provided by the LSTs are critical for CTA studies of transient gamma-ray sources in our own Galaxy and for the study of active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts at high redshift.>>

mzf wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 12:49 pm Sorry to be so repetitive but I went to Google Earth and found the three telescopes seen in this article in an Oct 2017 image located at N28d45m40s, W17d53m29s (sorry, I'm not familiar with the proper way to write this location.) Two are the MAGIC telescopes and the third seems to be LST.