I'm still reading Mary Evershed's own book about Dante and the early astronomers. She begins with a useful set of chapters explaining various theories and discussing Ptolemy. Part II is then her discussion of Dante. I'm not there yet. However, I did finish the biography that George sent me by Tracy Daugherty. Besides being interested [...]
Category: APOD
Odds and Ends
Another lovely APOD Jupiter and Venus picture ... The Astronomy Picture Of the Day website has a new glorious picture of Jupiter and Venus together in the sky, along with a telescope, and children being shown this wonder. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230315.html ~*~*~*~ I got to thinking about Andrew II of Hungary, again. He seemed to be the [...]
Jupiter, Venus, and the ecliptic
(The two little crescents in the above picture are the planets Jupiter and Venus. Their shape is an artifact of my camera and blowing up the picture beyond what it can manage.) There are two definitions of the ecliptic that are easy to find. One says that the ecliptic is the plane of the earth's [...]
Saint Lucy and her feast
Last week I pointed out that Saint Lucy's feast day (December 13) is celebrated differently in Sweden and in Sicily. Sicily has processions and food, but Sweden has candles and breakfast in bed. Generally (meaning if you look it up on Google), this Swedish idea is attributed to the "fact" that Saint Lucy's feast day [...]
Janey's blog 