#precessing

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Columbia main landing gear being serviced for STS-2.

"On April 12, 1981, the Columbia was the first Space Shuttle to fly into orbit and was followed by four more orbiters: Challenger, Discovery, Endeavor, and Atlantis. The great success of the shuttle program has come with a high price as Columbia and Challenger along with each of their crews of seven astronauts have been lost—a reminder of the high risk and courage involved in spaceflight."

Date: August 6, 1981

Boeing Images: BI630341

[idyllicallyeuphoric]

i need more people to start being suspicious of mew... those big brown eyes WON'T DECEIVE ME PRETTY BOY 😾

[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.

[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!!!

[goatjamesaz]

[some-eldritch-bats]

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.

[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.

[lonestarflight]

"Space Shuttle Columbia being transferred from the Orbital Processing Facility to the Vehicle Assembly Building in preparation for the STS-5 mission."

Date: September 9, 1982

source

NASA ID: link, link

[daily-ethoslab]

i dont know why we are doing food comparisons but etho is crackers!! cheesy crackers! whenever he says go get your snacks that's what I think of, and it's perfect because I take a while to get through a video, just like I don't (shouldn't) eat a whole box of cheezits in one sitting. does that make any sense? anyway, can i just say i really love ur banner, the one with the mooshroom!! so pretty

The food talk is just about how etho makes us feel haha. I also think about cheesy crackers when he says “get your snacks~”. Also tysm qwq its one of my favorite etho drawings

[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

[butchboromir]

jack butchboromir graduation stats: 2hrs of sleep. one nutella sandwich. 2 dayquil (the wildfire smoke is down in md and it made me feel shitty). 0 people i know around me. 2 hrs of boredom incoming

[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.

[sukimas]

"mercury is visibly affected by relativistic effects" is a true statement no matter what meaning of the word mercury you use

[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”

[kelemengabi]

Vortex

[lonestarflight]

Space Shuttle Columbia arrives at Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) entrance after its roll over from the orbiter maintenance and refurbishment facility. At the OPF, OV-102 will be processed for the STS-28 Department of Defense (DOD) dedicated mission. Technicians monitor OV-102 as it is towed via its landing gear by a ground handling vehicle. View looks from the aft section of OV-102 forward. Orbital maneuvering system (OMS) pods and space shuttle main engines (SSMEs) have been removed. Protective covers are visible on SSME ports and dome heatshield.

Date: January 23, 1989

NASA ID: S89-28090, NIX-S89-28109

source, source