10 May 2011 by Tristan Gooley
My thanks to Mark Evans who not only flew over from Oman for a course, but also sent me this great time lapse photo from Oman.
Mark is the General Manager of Outward Bound Oman, which does not sound like the worst job in the world to me! Outward Bound Oman, under Mark’s leadership, is teaching young Omanis many outdoor skills, including traditional methods of desert navigation.
Time for a bit of fun. Which way are we looking in this picture and why?
Answers by email please. I’ll post the correct answer in a couple of days.
Update.12/05/11.
We are looking just south of west. approx 255 degrees. Orion’s belt can be seen setting about one third the way in from the right. The arcing to the right is anticlockwise around the North Celestial Pole, to the left the stars are arcing clockwise around the South Celestial…
Read More...
Tags: Betelgeuse, castor, desert navigation, oman, orion, outdoor navigation course, outward bound, pollux, Procyon, Sirius |
22 January 2009 by Tristan Gooley
I abhor the feeling of waste when throwing away a newspaper or magazine that I’ve bought but not read properly. It is more likely to find itself on a sprawling pile of catch-up reading. And so it was that I found myself picking up last month’s issue of Astronomy Now, one that had kept me company on a train journey in December. After flicking through its pages afresh, I came to thinking about the vast range and scale of human interest in the stars. It is sometimes hard to believe that the minds that give us astronomical science are from the same species that created the Greek myths. Let us take the example of the star Castor in the constellation Gemini.
Is it just that, a star in a constellation? Or is it the mortal son of Tyndareus, brother of Helen of Troy? Is it a ‘magnitude 1.93 A-class…
Read More...
Tags: Canis Minor, castor, celestial equator, constellation monoceros, finding east west, gemini |
