After waiting somewhat impatiently for the Union astronomique internationale, or International Astronomical Union (IAU), to publish the next lot of official star names (the last set of additions was back in August 2018), I did some link clicking on their website and have just discovered that some 112 additions were made two weeks ago, on 13th February 2020.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that a star in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe) has been named Mago! Apparantly, the star designated HD 32518 was named after the Mago National Park in Ethiopia (noted for its giraffes), but a little research and some wild deductions later has led me to conclude that the star is, in fact, named after our very own Mago! And he very probably influenced its naming considering that the name was suggested by pupils at a school in the town of Neckargemünd, in Baden-Württemberg, Germany - not a million miles away from our Mago in Franconia. Surely not a coincidence?
HD 32518 Mago is almost 400 light years from Earth, and although bigger and more luminous than our sun, is barely visible to the naked eye from here. It is certainly undetectable by Camera (or it was back in August 2019 when I took this photo), so I've marked its approximate location with a golden circle.
Mago can be found at right ascension 05h 09m 36.7201s, declination +69° 38′ 21.8551° - or at the nape of the giraffe's neck not far from the star Alpha Camelopardalis, also known as Shǎowèi.
Camelopardalis is one of the northern most constellations and, therefore, is only partially visible (if at all) from south of the equator (sorry, Dinah). It is bordered by Ursa Minor and Cepheus to the north, Cassiopeia to the east, Perseus, Auriga and Lynx to the south, and Draco and Ursa Major to the west.
I shall be scouring the additions to the list of IAU-approved star names to see if any other Blogorati have managed to get themselves so immortalised.
Thursday 27 February 2020
Sunday 23 February 2020
First Photos of the Year
I feel like I'm at a loose end, despite having various things to do. Probably because I have various things to do, actually - I can't muster up the enthusiasm to do any of them. And I've felt this way since before hearing the sad news that we've lost LẌ (which has only made me feel more "meh").
So, forgetting everything else and going against my not-really-a-New-Year's-resolution to NOT clutter up the blog with meaningless photo-posts when I've got shit-all else to post about, I've flicked through the few photos I've taken so far this year, and plopped the "best" ones up here. They're of the same old subject matter that I've subjected you to a thousand times before, so don't expect anything to write home about.
1st January: The first day of 2020 finds the cliff sacrificing itself to replenish the beach again just past the End-of-the-Line (and Camera reminding me to clean its lens...).
3rd January: A cleaned Camera lens later allows for a clear sunset and moon shot.
So, forgetting everything else and going against my not-really-a-New-Year's-resolution to NOT clutter up the blog with meaningless photo-posts when I've got shit-all else to post about, I've flicked through the few photos I've taken so far this year, and plopped the "best" ones up here. They're of the same old subject matter that I've subjected you to a thousand times before, so don't expect anything to write home about.
1st January: The first day of 2020 finds the cliff sacrificing itself to replenish the beach again just past the End-of-the-Line (and Camera reminding me to clean its lens...).
3rd January: A cleaned Camera lens later allows for a clear sunset and moon shot.
Labels:
Beach,
Boats,
Cormorants,
End-of-the-Line,
Groynes,
LẌ,
Mago,
Mood Swings,
North Norfolk,
Swearing,
The Science Bit,
Vos Gorgeous
Sunday 16 February 2020
Pixmit: Tales from a Romulan Tarot
Arranged pixmit cards |
Since first becoming aware of this Romulan tarot a week or so ago (see my previous post), my fascination has remained constant. So much so that I scoured Ariane's screencaps of the new Star Trek: Picard series (which I still haven't seen) for all instances of these intriguing triangular pixmit cards.
After much adjusting, rotating, enhancing, muttering, cropping, and mucking about in MSPaint, I thought I might as well show you the results. Whether you're interested or not...
Sunday 9 February 2020
Prophecies of Green and Gold
I have just discovered that it has been a month since we last plopped something up on the blog. A month! The Ms Scarlet Approach has got out of control somewhat...
We have got so many things that we have "almost done" and "nearly finished" and "not quite got around to yet", but nothing in a state worthy of a post. Well, not on their own-
Oh, get on with it!
Yes. Get on with it!
Oh, all right! Here are some of the many things that have kept us otherwise occupied in the last month that will likely be expanded upon into posts of their own at some point:
Between Christmas and New Year (and even afterwards) we fannied around with some new designs for a blog header.
This is the best of what we came up with, but I'm not overly enthused with it, so it will probably change later in the year.
Hey! I quite like it. The font, anyway.
::
Labels:
Blogorati,
Canvas,
Ferrero Rocher,
I We Me Us,
Ms Scarlet,
Star Trek,
Tin Foil Hattery,
Witchcraft
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