MDDM Ch. 11 Stars and Planets

[Otto]

jbor:
> Does the fact that St. Helena (15 55 S. 5 44 W.) is quite close to the
> Equator make a difference here? If it's the "Island's Zenith Star"
> (107.11)
> doesn't that mean that it is the one (and only?) star which does cross
> directly overhead every night at this latitude? Isn't the problem with the
> longitude caused by ships at sea not staying at the same latitude?
>

I had no trouble locating Sirius in the (Northern) winter months at my
virtual observatory after switching the settings to Midnight, St. Helena
(16° S lat., 5°45 W long.  from http://www.sthelena.se/
-- A tropical Island of unspoilt peace and beauty) and 1761, but Dinn
seems to be right about Sirius *not* to be seen in the months of May until
October 16.
["The star is currently not above the horizon" -- Sky Map, C. A.
Marriot]. Mason & Dixon are just arriving when Sirius has become visible
above the horizon.

>
> And, just above this, is the "Black Sheep of the family of Planets,
neither
> to be sacrificed to Hades nor spoken of by Name.... " (107.9) still a
> reference to Uranus?
>
>
> best
>

No, it best might be a reference to still unknown Pluto (who is of greater
importance in GR), or to Kuyper-Belt Object Varuna as the Brothers Hades,
Poseidon and Zeus are echoing the old Vedic trinity of Mitra, Varuna and
Indra (as Ranke-Graves writes) IF -- the object hadn't been discovered just
recently in Nov. 2000? Another one, KBO "KX76" is likely to be called Hades
but it isn't decided yet.
http://forums.about.com/ab-astrology/messages/?msg=1129

Seriously: Pluto's discovery (Feb. 18, 1930) has been made public on March
13, exactly 149 years after Herschel had discovered Georgian in 1781.

It is astrology that is spoken about above, not astronomy, but our
astronomers, at least Maskelyne, are still in the old tradition of Kepler:
"Kepler said that Astrology is Astronomy´s wanton little sister, who goes
out and sells herself that Astronomy may keep her virtue" (136, 17-19 -- if
I may take this from a forthcoming chapter)

Douglas Lannark should speak about this but astrologically Pluto and his
aspects mostly aren't especially the nicest ones in a horoscope, influencing
many people and whole generations, like the short-time Venusian influence
seemed to turn even the Boers who are violating all Venus-aspects normally
to relatively nice people in chap. 10.

Some astrologers seem to have little problems to incorporate newly found
celestial objects like Pluto or now from the Kuyper Belt into their
calculations while I know from others who refuse even to use the near-Earth
asteroids like Vesta or Chiron. I don't know what astrologers say to the
following from Pynchon about influences from other stars like Sirius, Gamma
Draconis and Mira. Does he make up the forgotten signs of astrology, the
"Apocrypha of Astrology" (107.15).

The remark on the "inconstant Mira" is correct, Omicron Ceti is indeed the
first whose periods in brightness has been proven in 1596 by D. Fabricius
(not far from here near Aurich/East-Frisia).

Otto

>
> on 6/11/01 3:16 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:
>
>
> > Looking back to the first MDMD, I noticed that Andrew Dinn thought that
> > P made a blatant error when he describes Sirius in this Chapter.
> >
> > Dinn's Note:
> >
> > 107.15  "Ev'ry Midnight the baleful thing is there, crossing directly
> > overhead..."  I think this is an outright error on TRP's part:  No
> > single star resides overhead each midnight of the year, otherwise the
> > longitude problem would have been a great deal easier.  Could just be
> > sloppy writing.
> >
> > Or it could be that St. Helena (its stars, its  sky, its seas, volcanic
> > landscape, etc.)  as Wicks "Baedeckers" it (having never been there) and
> > Pynchon fictionalizes it, is more like Swift's floating Island in GT.
> > Yup, that's what it is. The island, like many of the "Baedeckered"
> > landscapes and cities in P's fiction, is a stage or mechanical theatre.
>