MD3PAD 91-93

[Toby G Levy]

        Austra advises the girls to cover their hair with shawls and
they reluctantly comply.  Mason leads the way up to the observatory.
 
        The setting sun is casting red light over the countryside and
Austra calls it "the Bull's Eye," ascribing mystical qualities to it.
 
        The rain starts up just before they enter the observatory,
making them arrive soaking wet. Some of the men from the Seahorse fixed
up the building for Mason and Dixon's astronomical use.
 
        Since Mason and Dixon can make no observations until the rain
stops, Mason decides to teach the girls something about the Transit of
Venus.
 
        Mason raps on the tables edge with "a sinister-looking Fescue of
Ebony, whose List of Uses simple Indication does not quite exhaust..." I
could find no explanation of what Fescue of Ebony might be. Maybe a
bottle of wine?
 
        Mason explains that on one day in June, Venus will pass across
the face of the sun and they will be required to track it's path with as
much accuracy as possible.  The girls were not impressed and asked why
they couldn't have stayed in England and observed the Transit.  The
answer was "parallax."
 
vw#28: Parallax - An apparent change in the direction of an object,
caused by a change in observational position that provides a new line of
sight.
 
        Their measurements will be combined with others taken worldwide
to give scientists new sources in which to draw maps and make other
measurements.
 
        The girls are not much impressed with Mason's lecture. This ends
Chapter 9.
 
Toby