|
Stars And Stories Tues 29th Jan, 1800 Another in the series of stars evenings as seen from the quiet waters of Marmaris bay is soon on the social calendar. Start from Aquarium bar in downtown Marmaris at 18.00, pick up 18.30 Alpha pontoon at Yacht Marina aboard a lovely wooden boat, then to anchor in the lee of Bedasi Isle, sheltered from the obtrusive city and marina glare. In the cosiness of the mid deck, a hot dinner will be served (chicken, pasta, salad) with a couple of drinks included in the price. Up on the top deck, big enough to accommodate 120 comfortably on star beds, we'll search for the elusive road map round the skies. Constellations will be patiently pinpointed, while myths and legends surrounding them recounted with care, all in slow and easy to understand English. We'll be concentrating on the stunning winter hexagon especially the hunter Orion and his two dogs - Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky at -1.4 magnitude (a near neighbour at 8.7 light years shining blue-hot at more than 10,000 degrees), and Procyon. Others in the hexagon going clockwise being the heavenly twins Castor and Pollux in Gemini, Capella in Auriga the charioteer, Aldebaran (66 light years away a relatively cool reddish star at 3500 degrees) in Taurus the bull, and back to Rigel in Orion. How Orion's sword indicates south - this comes from inquisitive observations and countless nights in the cockpit with nothing better to do than contemplate the destiny of mankind. All under the ever watchful eye of the god of war, the red planet Mars, the very next day up for a direct hit from an asteroid. Even brighter than Mars at the moment is Venus, |
|
blue white before dawn and still visible to the naked eye 10 minutes after sun up. 1,500 light-years away, along our spiral arm of the Milky Way, is located the Orion nebula, or M42 as Charles Messier the 18th century French astronomer defined this immense hydrogen cloud and birthplace of stars. M31 the farthest galaxy visible to the naked eye at 2.2 million light-years will be located in Andromeda, the Princess of Ethiopea. In Taurus can also be found Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, a local cluster of young stars in a nearby part of our galaxy. Binoculars show a wonderful myriad of stars, while long exposure visual images reveal wispy dust clouds uncondensed into star systems and illuminated by adjacent stars. From the "W" of Cassiopeia, Queen of Ethiopia, we'll find Polaris, and also the great autumn square Pegasus, the flying horse. The common pointers to the North Star in the Great Bear have recently been hidden from our evening view, so discovering an alternative route to the all important Pole Star is vital to navigators. In this modern day and age should all electronic widgets and gadgets fail, whiz kids can still cross the ocean using only a stick as a navigation instrument by night or a wooden disc and cone by day - this will be discussed in some detail. Especially of interest to astrologers, the zodiac signs forming the ecliptic will be studied, exceptionally high at this time of year due to the tilt of the earth's axis relative to the plane of its orbit round the sun. The planets also follow the same ecliptic path across the skies. This month the earth passes perihelion, the closest point to the sun in its orbit, a mere 147 million km away. Northern hemisphere dwellers may therefore wonder why the weather isn't |
|
warmer. Our tilted planet is by far the greatest factor in the changing seasons and right now we in the north are tilted away from the sun. We'll seek out Holmes Comet in Perseus and maybe pick up a satellite, back home around 22.00, much the wiser. Of course there'll be a surprise, but not a word more or that would spoil the surprise.. Please sign up before Sunday sundown at reception to confirm numbers, expected to be 50-100. Price 25 YTL. Check The Net on VHF 69 for confirmation of dark skies on the night, although special links are ensured with Poseidon and Zeus.
|
|
Astronomy, astrology, & mythology Made Easy Hugh of ‘Eagle Ray’ |
|
www.followtheboat.com/porthole |
|
Page 6 |
|
LORE, LEGENDS AND A MYRIAD OF MYSTERIES OF THE DEEP Popeye and Olive Oil of ‘Open Return’ The Devil’s Triangle Or Bermuda Triangle: although ships sink or disappear in every ocean the proportion of ships missing in the above area far exceeds in proportion to the amount of traffic in any other part of the world. This is a stretch of the Atlantic bounded by lines connecting Miami, Puerto Rico, and Bermuda. At least 100 ships and planes and 1,000 sailors have disappeared in the last 30 years, in this most fearsome area of all the seven seas, often for no apparent reason and in calm weather. Seldom has any debris or clue been found, leaving nothing remaining to show that the ship or plane was ever in the area. Many respected scientists are at a loss and close to conceding |
|
that some phenomenon we do not yet understand may be causing these disappearances. How else can one explain the number of ghost ships drifting aimlessly in the triangle, cargo intact, undamaged, and their crews mysteriously missing? In 1881, for example, a schooner was discovered in the Triangle by the ‘Ellen Austin’, carrying a cargo of timber, its sails billowing and no crew on board. The captain assigned a full crew to sail the derelict ship to port, but during a storm the ships were separated. When the schooner was again sighted and boarded in a few days, still under sail, the new crew had also disappeared. A new second crew were put aboard and this time the ship and crew disappeared forever.? Whatever the cause of the disasters may be, it strikes quickly, without warning, and with such devastating effect that there isn’t even time to send a radio message. Ships large and small have been found unscathed with no one aboard and the captains log in mid-sentence, as if he had been whisked away without warning.
|
