StarLink shower. Countrd 38 satellites in 10 mins. iPhone pic. Cloudy at start. Second StarLink batch of this evening “only” about 20 satellites. Far more spread out. iPhone pic of 35 mins, plenty of planes and -2 flare of Cosmo SkyMed 4 SAR panel.
Who is stalking who? In 15 min iPhone pic, seen 10 planes, 39 StarLink satellites, flaring a little just under Pegasus square, a bright meteor, and ... bright Venus down right.
Moose setting this morning (below) and rising this evening (above) All iPhone pic, and handheld at eyepiece
How was astronomy in ancient times or over 2000 years ago?
No light, neither air pollution. No streetlights, garden beamers and any other engine polluters. No telescopes ... yet. 585BC Thales predicts a solar eclipse 467BC Anaxagoras gives and explanation of an eclipse 400BC Babyloniers map the zodiac 387BC Plato explains the universe is in harmony, planets all around d the Sun 270BC Aristarchus endorsed heliocentric 240BC Halley’s comet by the Chinese 4BC Shi Shen cataloged constellations and did some sunspot observing 140 AD Ptolemy star catalogue, endorsed geocentric (for the next 1500 years) 2020? We have mobile devices to tell you where the planets are, the constellations, even when and where to watch the International Space Station or many other satellites. All details of solar eclipses, etc, etc. But, we also can define what we could have seen over 2000 years ago! What did the Magi see? What was the Star of Betlehem, the Christmas Star? We need to define date, year, time, travel time, position, direction …. 25 December year ? Some facts …
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At least 4 theories have been advanced to explain the Star of Betlehem from a purely astronomical viewpoint: The Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament is the only place this “star” is mentioned in the Bible (Matt 2:2, 7-10, King James Version). Even there, information on the star is sparse. The most telling reference is Matt. 2:9: When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.
Magi would likely have gone the other way
If you accept the story told in the Bible as the literal truth, then the Christmas Star could not have been a natural apparition (its movement in the sky and its ability to stand above and mark a single building). Science cannot explain it as any known physical object; history offers no clear record; and religion offers only an untestable miraculous apparition. |
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