M&D - pp 107-108 Inversion Layers

[Monte Davis]

Wires: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reticle

The eye is much better at identifying "contact" between a point (of light
for a star, of shadow for Venus crossing the face of the sun) or shadow)
and a line -- or better yet the crossing of two lines -- than at judging
"the point is centered in the disc of vision."

All convex lenses (including those in your eyes) invert the image.
Opticians figured out quickly how to re-invert it with an extra lens, a
prism, or a mirror -- but as every bit of glass absorbs and distorts to
some extent, astronomers generally did (and still do) without that. In the
absence of a horizon or other features of everyday vision correlated with
gravity and body movement, who cares if a star or planet is inverted?

On Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 1:46 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> https://books.google.com/books?id=0utHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA115&dq=wires+to+measure+stars&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DCLqVO-3G4iegwTskYDYCg&ved=0CE0Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=wires%20to%20measure%20stars&f=false
>
> Seems they did refer to 'wires' with(in) (or outside of) telescopes to
> measure stars. And, the telescope until some later time
> seemed to invert the image to viewers.
>
> Also, re Yellow Dog...another of those loosely--goosey associations, a
> later century layer of different resonance on Yellow Dog....it is a
> long time phrase to apply to hard-core Democratic voters in these
> United States....."a yellow dog democrat"....
> came about somehow when the dems were for unions.....as Alice---were
> art thou, Alice?---was always saying: It's about work (too).
>
> On Sat, Feb 21, 2015 at 6:52 PM, David Ewers <dsewers at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> > Here in St. Helena we have the Yellow dog as constellation...and The
> > Southern Cross?   Loosey-goosey... <<
> >
> >
> > Sorry.  Zenith star, not constellation.  But you got my point, I
> > reckon....<<<
> >
> >
> > On third thought, I'm liking Becky's idea of the wires as imaginary
> > constellation lines, and the Yellow Dog as constellation... (could still
> be
> > something to the telescope lens or mirror idea, though... or maybe the
> > inverted image suggests that St. helena itself is reversed or upside
> down,
> > or underneath?)
> >
> >
> >
> > On Feb 21, 2015, at 1:41 PM Jolly good day we are having,
> > <kelber at mindspring.com> <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> >
> > And, of course, there's the yellow-dog contract, which amounts to a
> forced
> > acquiescence to bad treatment:
> >
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-dog_contract
> >
> > In keeping with the pretense of offering the right for slaves to become
> > "free planters," while, in fact, keeping them firmly enslaved (as per the
> > reference Becky gives below).
> >
> > Laura (checking back in after a regrettable absence)
> >
> >
> >
> > Yes!  More odious deals!
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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