MDDM Ch. 13 Stars and Planets: Uranus

[jbor]

on 10/11/01 6:37 AM, Otto at o.sell at telda.net wrote:

> Rob:
>> Yes, and there's also a reference to the "next Planet, yet without a name"
>> (133.27) in the passage where, "Obless" and "reluctant to sleep", Mason
> and
>> Maskelyne "open another bottle of Mountain."
>> 
>> But apparently the barflies in the James's Town pub know about this planet
>> in 1761 (133.28), so I wonder if rumours of Uranus's impending "discovery"
>> were actually circulating 20 years prior to it being officially recorded
> and
>> named?
>> 
> 
> I doubt that because Herschel first believed he'd discovered a new comet.

Yes, but Pynchon's text does indicate that Mason and Makelyne were "solemnly
assur'd" by the gossip-mongers in The Moon about the existence of this "next
Planet, yet without a Name." (133.28)

Uranus had been seen and charted prior to 1781, but it was mistaken for a
star apparently:

    (the earliest recorded sighting was in 1690 when John Flamsteed
    catalogued it as 34 Tauri).

http://www.skyhound.com/george.htm

http://www.public.coe.edu/~asmesser/uranus.htm

I'm wondering what Pynchon's source might be for the idea that there was a
suspicion in 1860-odd that a new planet was about to be discovered, or
whether it is just speculation on his part. I'm drawn back to the
description of "the strange mind-to-mind Throb" in The Moon, and Mr
Blackner's "remarkable intelligence-gathering mirror". (p. 130)

> But after the discovery of "Georgium" there were indications that there must
> be another planet according to the disturbances in Uranus' orbit around the
> Sun.

snip

> Indeed. Or the Sirius-mystery (the Dogon), on of those modern legends too.
> The interesting thing is that the Christian creation myth isn't "original"
> at all but a conglomeration of older stories with some new elements.
 
Thanks again, Otto.

best

> Otto
>