Terry on The Sky At Night

[Tonyblack]

Sorry to those of you not in the UK, but Terry was on The Sky At Night tonight at Patrick Moore's 88th birthday party. Asked what his favourite constellation was, he chose Orion.

See the episode on the BBC iPlayer HERE.

 

[DaveC]

Cool. Will check it out when I get home. Don't think I have ever seen a whole episode, only bits. Looking forward to Mastermind on Thursday, am curious as to why DW is suddenly allowed.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

You beat me to it Tony but you would have had the better link.

 

[Tonyblack]

It's an interesting show, Dave. Well worth checking out.

 

[mspanners]

Is it this months episode? My sky box fail to record it! Thanks for the link..... 8)

 

[Tonyblack]

Is it this months episode? My sky box fail to record it! Thanks for the link..... 8)

I don't know to be honest. It was just the episode that was on the BBC iPlayer last night.

 

[mspanners]

Well thanks anyways, was a good episode!

Orion is the only constellation I can pick out with any certainty in the Sky!

 

[Tonyblack]

Ursa Major - The Great Bear or The Big Dipper is an easy one to spot as well.

 

[poohcarrot]

...or the Plough (as we say in England )

 

[Tonyblack]

...or the Plough (as we say in England )

Darn it, I was trying to remember what we call it. My mind went blank.

It's a useful constellation as it's almost always visible from Britain (weather permitting) it points to Polaris (the North Star) and is a good starting point for finding other constellations.

I'm no expert though and can only recognise a few of the 88 constellations.

 

[Willem]

In the Netherlands we either call it 'de Grote beer' (dutch translation of Ursa Major) or 'het steelpannetje' meaning something like 'the longhandled cooking pan'. It looks more like that last one... you'd think those cavemen who first thought up the name would have seen that too!

 

[Tonyblack]

In both Ireland and Great Britain, this pattern is known as the Plough or sometimes the Saucepan. It is also occasionally referred to as the Butcher's Cleaver in northern England. In Ireland the figure is sometimes called the Starry Plough and has been used as a political symbol. Known as Charles his waine in some areas of England, it was formerly called by the old name Charles' Wain[1] ("wain" meaning "wagon," and derived from the still older Carlswæn), as it still is in Scandinavia, Karlavagnen, Karlsvogna, or Karlsvognen. In the northeast of England it is sometimes known as Charlie's Waggon. A folk etymology holds that it was named after Charlemagne, but this common Germanic name meant the men's wagon (the churls' wagon), in contrast to the women's wagon (the Little Dipper).[2][3] An older Odin's Wain may have preceded these Nordic designations.[1] Similarly, in Romanian and most Slavic languages it is known as "the Great Wagon", as opposed to "the Small Wagon," the Little Dipper. In German it is called Großer Wagen (Great Cart).

In Dutch, its official name is Grote Beer ( Big Bear), but often called Steelpannetje (saucepan), because of its resemblance to the utensil.

In Finland the figure is known as Otava and widely used as a cultural symbol. In Finnish dialects, the word otava means a 'salmon net', but this word is largely obsolete in modern Finnish.

In Hungary, it is commonly called Göncölszekér ("Göncöl's cart") after a figure in Hungarian mythology, a táltos who carried medicines in his cart that could cure any disease.[4]

These seven stars (septentriones, from the phrase septem triōnēs, meaning "seven plough oxen"[5]) are the origin of the Latin word septentriōnēs meaning "north" and now found as the adjective septentrional (northern) in English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. This etymology goes back to a passage in Varro (Marcus Terentius) who explains that triōn- (a word not attested elsewhere) means "plough ox" and derives the form from terō, one of whose meanings is "thresh grain by rubbing". The derivation is acceptable (Latin short vowels often syncopate before -r- in medial syllables), but the meaning, if Varro is right about the root derivation, is surely "threshing ox", as the seven stars (oxen) perpetually wheel about the pole star like oxen on a threshing floor. A different etymology appeals to *septem astr-iōn- "seven stars" (aster-), which is not obviously wrong (if lacking poetic inspiration), but the development of *-nstr- to -ntr- is not without problems.

 

[meerkat]

That was fascinating. And I understood nearly everything except when they got onto the telescopes!

 

[polythenegirl]

Cool. Will check it out when I get home. Don't think I have ever seen a whole episode, only bits. Looking forward to Mastermind on Thursday, am curious as to why DW is suddenly allowed.

Diswrold is on MM? WOW! I have to watch it

 

[DaveC]

Cool. Will check it out when I get home. Don't think I have ever seen a whole episode, only bits. Looking forward to Mastermind on Thursday, am curious as to why DW is suddenly allowed.

Diswrold is on MM? WOW! I have to watch it

Mastermind thread

 

[Daniel.Roscoe@gmail.com]

Night Sky

Neat - I didn't know Sir Pterry was a star gazer - should have I guess. Orion once helped me find my way through Swansee... I'm from the prairies and am NOT used to navigating on land where some bloody idiot has dumped a hill or valley in your way and the roads don't run straight. I tried to walk back to the B&B one night and got lost because the roads kept turning off to go around obstacles. Then I realized if I just kept Orion on me left I'd hit the shore and be able to figure out where I was and where the B&B was. It even worked.

I have a crazy brother in Noth Bay Ontario who will haul a toboggon with 30 kilos of cameras and tripods and telescopes 2 miles out into the middle of the bay, in the middle of a Canadian winter night, (well he waits for the warm ones, only -20C with no wind) just to get the good viewing conditions away from the city lights.

Here's his club's URL -
http://www.gateway-to-the-universe.org/ ... chure.html

And - BTW - we call it "The Big Dipper" - but that asterism is only part of a larger one called the Great Bear. Likewise the pole star is one star in a asterism called the Little Bear ...

 

[deldaisy]

In the Netherlands we either call it 'de Grote beer' (dutch translation of Ursa Major) or 'het steelpannetje' meaning something like 'the longhandled cooking pan'. It looks more like that last one... you'd think those cavemen who first thought up the name would have seen that too!

THUD! *Sound of stone gavel on stone*

"Right then chaps! Seconded and carried that the lovely arrangement of seven stars Crud saw last night be called Ursa MAJOR.... NOT to be confused with Ursa MINOR... and... now hang on Crud! DO sit down! .. No! We are NOT calling it "Fing Wot Looks Like A Big Stick Wiv A Rock Onit". We have told you a thousand times. No! ... No.. it doesn't count even if you "discovered it". It is NOTHING personal I can assure you of that. Now can we all get back to the business at hand..... Fire? I believe you have some momentus news for us?"

 

[DaveC]

Just watched it, mainly skipped to the section that Pterry was in.


You can hardly undersstand what Patrick Moore is saying, I know he's 88, but it doesn't make for a very good interview/presentation if you can't understand the questions being asked.

He is a legend, though.

 

[Tonyblack]

Just watched it, mainly skipped to the section that Pterry was in.


You can hardly undersstand what Patrick Moore is saying, I know he's 88, but it doesn't make for a very good interview/presentation if you can't understand the questions being asked.

He is a legend, though.

I used the subtitles.

 

[DaveC]

Just watched it, mainly skipped to the section that Pterry was in.


You can hardly undersstand what Patrick Moore is saying, I know he's 88, but it doesn't make for a very good interview/presentation if you can't understand the questions being asked.

He is a legend, though.

I used the subtitles.

Didn't think of that!