#precessing

[amazon-reef]

rewatching some of dragons rising just to dissect Kai even more. In the scene w/ Wyldfyre and Heatwave, Kai teaches Wyldfyre a type of moving meditation to get her mind off of the distress she feels over Heatwave being injured. This is probably something that helped Kai find his center in the Land of Monsters to distract himself from the worry and dread of not finding his team. Another thing he tries so hard to do to cling onto humanity. How long has he gone without human contact? How many times has he failed to save a village or others from those monsters? But Ninja Never Quit. So he will never stop quitting on his humanity even if it kills him.

Its the small things me thinks. Or im going crazy again. Probably both. (ALSO THE ONE LINE: "Fireproof monster!? I hate fireproof monsters!" Will expand on this later but im like running on 5 hours of sleep in the span of 2 days)

[lonestarflight]

"In the Orbiter Processing Facility, Columbia's engine no. 2 is seen at left after its removal from the orbiter. After small cracks were discovered on the LH2 Main Propulsion System (MPS) flow liners in two other orbiters, program managers decided to move forward with inspections on Columbia before clearing it for flight on STS-107. The heat shields were removed, and after removing the three main engines, inspections of the flow liners will follow. The July 19 launch of Columbia on STS-107 has been delayed a few weeks."

Date: June 28-29, 2002

NASA ID: KSC-02PD-1092, KSC-02PD-1101, KSC-02PD-1107, KSC-02PD-1108

[zespaceblog]

The North Star - Polaris

You may have heard of the North Star, but have you ever seen it ? It's not the brightest star in our sky, but it does appear across from one of the most famous asterisms in the northern night sky.

Just that one image will help you find it for the rest of your life !

But what's really special about Polaris and why is it the North Star.

Truth is, it hasn't always been so, our planet is a little like a spinning top, and over thousands of years it wobbles making the star most close to the North, change over time, 26,000 years or so.

In 14,000 years from now, Vega will be the North Star ! That will be a much brighter star than Polaris.

Like many stars, Polaris is a binary system, with some smaller stars that orbit it.

The main star has a spectral classification of F7Ib, meaning it's a white/yellow supergiant, although not as luminous as the Ia types. It's also a Cepheid variable, a star that pulsates and changes it's brightness as it expands and shrinks.

This is actually a timelapse of Polaris.

[cutetrilobite2]

the construction of the western royal gate

[hinotorihime]

the tl;dr of that 1500-word post is this:

the zodiac is fundamentally a timekeeping system, where the signs are defined as 12 equal divisions of the solar year, with the four cardinal signs (aries, cancer, libra, capricorn) defined as beginning at the equinox and solstice points; the names are mnemonic devices and have nothing to do with the physical constellation boundaries...

...therefore ophiuchus is not "the new thirteenth zodiac sign"...

...and the decision to tie the zodiac points to the equinoxes instead of to the position of the original reference stars was deliberate and not because ancient astronomers didn't know about axial precession.

in fact, vedic astrologers have been correcting for axial precession for centuries, because they use a space-based sidereal zodiac instead of the western time-based tropical zodiac; because the current sidereal position of the vernal equinox point, and thus the relative position of the sign boundaries, is in the constellation pisces, the same objective position of the sun (or any other planet) in a birth chart will have different names depending on what zodiac system you're using.

so if the mismatch between the tropical signs and the constellation boundaries really, really bothers you, maybe try looking into vedic? they've got two extra planets, too!

but criticizing the tropical zodiac for not correcting for axial precession is like criticizing a cat for being bad at barking.

[loafofryebread]

Sucks reading a book utterly life changing cause what am I mean to do now? Read a different book?!?!? After that!?!?!?

[goatjamesaz]

[tomorrowusa]

Astrology is total crap, there's no getting around that. Nobody explained why in a more effective way than astronomer Carl Sagan.

Earth's precession (a type of natural wobble) and the proper motion of the stars themselves have changed the way we Earth people view the night sky in the 3,000 or so years since astrology was concocted. In fact, there are actually 13 rather than 12 constellations the sun appears in throughout the course of the year. And the dates the sun enters and leaves those constellations of the zodiac can be weeks off from what astrologers tell you.

And just because stars appear close to each other from our perspective on Earth does not mean they are actually close to each other in reality.

Here is a diagram of the brighter stars in Gemini. The ones labeled range from Pollux (Beta Geminorum) which is an estimated 34 light years away to Mekbuta (Zeta Geminorum) which is about 1200 light years away. BTW Wasat (Delta Geminorum), which they forgot to number, is 60 light years away.

So a constellation is not some sort of special conclave of stars, it's a random collection which simply appears in the same patch of the sky as seen from Earth. The same is true of the other constellations – not just Gemini.

So your destiny has nothing to do with the changing positions of the stars and planets. Sorry! But we do all share a far more concrete connection to the universe.

All the elements except for hydrogen, helium, and (a tiny bit of) lithium were created inside of stars which blew up or ejected much of their contents billions of years ago.

I edited together a few sentences from the companion volume for the COSMOS series which the vid above comes from.

So yeah, the universe is inside all of us. That's our true connection to the cosmos.

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Columbia “roll into new OPF Bay 3 fit checks the 1st spot of the OPF.”

“Columbia was the first on-line orbiter to undergo the scheduled inspection and retrofit program. It was transported August 10, 1991, after its completion of mission STS-40, to prime Shuttle contractor Rockwell International's Palmdale, California assembly plant. The oldest orbiter in the fleet underwent approximately 50 modifications, including the addition of carbon brakes, drag chute, improved nose wheel steering, removal of development flight instrumentation and an enhancement of its thermal protection system. The orbiter returned to KSC February 9, 1992 to begin processing for mission STS-50 in June of that year.”

Posted on Flickr by Mike Acs.

Date: February 9, 1992

NASA ID: KSC-391C-5045.11

[zespaceblog]

The Black Hole with Spin

The Earth has a wobble in it's orbit brought about by it's spin as it also orbits the Sun. The Sun also has a spin, rotating every 27 days.

We also know most stars spin, and can detect this through observation, so the assumption has always been that black holes also spin, but until now, it's not been possible to detect it.

Then came the first images of a super massive black hole, M87 is a massive elliptical galaxy 53 million light years from us, but is significantly larger than our own Sag A*. One aspect of this black hole that isn't the case in our galaxy, is the jet of material being blasted from the poles.

Close observations of this jet, over decades has shown there is a wobble, similar to the precession wobble the Earth has. The wobble appears to be completed every 11 years, but it's the very first evidence that the black hole itself is spinning.

The team of astronomers at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan noted that the spin matched a number of mathematical models, helping the team have a clearer understanding of how the black hole is behaving and interacting with it's accretion disk and near surroundings.

[oflgtfol]

WHY ARE YOU CONSULTING A SOCIAL SCIENTIST ON WHETHER ASTROLOGY COUNTS AS A SCIENCE. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE EVER CONSULT ACTUAL ASTRONOMERS. BECAUSE THEY KNOW THE ANSWER THEY'LL GET THAT'S WHY!!!

[tousey-mousey]

do any of you ever like... look at your open browser tabs, and feel a heavy lever go CLUNK in your brain as you sit there and realise

"ohhhh shit, new special interest just dropped huh"

because that's my day rn.

[wekillitwithfire]

i used to be terrified of space (and i still could not be paid to go out there) but i thinking learning more about it and seeing these new photos from the space telescopes has made it a lot less scary and instead just really, really cool

[recitedemise]

WAX POETIC.

Send 'wax poetic' for Gale to work some poetry; his muse is you: still accepting.

Not for the first time, Gale watches the sun wreathe that head like a gold-hewn garland. It would make Wyll stand nobler, shimmering him kingly like the grandest of keeps, and on the run of his skin, Gale feels the gentlest summer, the kindest morning, and the stroke of wind.

Of course. Wyll's presence, he decides, is like an inspiring tale. He watches him smile, heroic and heartening. When the Blade speaks alone, a soft timbre that'd spring like sun to lift the dark, it's like... to stand in the audience of sounding trumpets, silver with the banners that'd greet you home.

He can dare the foul with him. They march toward the Shadow lands. Yes, even the longest night is but a passing shadow beside you. You are the very stirring of dawns. I dare the dark to come.

Wylll's first to breach the wall of that wading penumbra. Gale follows not frightened, morning never far.

[historysurvivalguide]

Armillary Sphere Model for the demonstration of precession of the equinoxes and nutation

Model for explaining the very slow motion called precession of the equinoxes. The phenomenon—which sparked scientific and doctrinal controversies—was investigated for several centuries. It was one of the arguments cited by Copernicus in support of his astronomical system. The model, actuated by a series of hand-operated gears, also simulates the nutation of the Earth's axis

Precession: “the slow movement of the axis of a spinning body around another axis due to a torque (such as gravitational influence) acting to change the direction of the first axis. It is seen in the circle slowly traced out by the pole of a spinning gyroscope”

versus

Nutation: “a periodic oscillation of the earth's axis that causes the precession of the poles to follow a wavy rather than a circular path”

[cactusbaseball]

Tucson has a LOT of cool shit actually what are you on about

tucson aint got much but it does have a bridge shaped like a rattlesnake