Re: OT: Celestial maps

On 15.1.2008 Herman Miller wrote:
 > Going back millions of years, even many of these
 > relatively distant stars will have moved quite a bit

So closer objects appear to move more quickly than distant
ones? Of course even down here on Earth a car which is
further down the road appears to move slower than one nearby
even if their actual speed is much the same. I even think I
understand the algebra behind it in an abstract sense.

It would be cool if there was a program where you could
view the celestial map from any choosen coordinate in
the galaxy...

I've heard that the Moon used to be much closer to Earth,
and that its time of orbit was different, but I guess that
was *very* long ago.

Tolkien had some misgivings that he hadn't bothered to find
out how the lunar cycles and constellations were ten to
twelve thousand years ago, but given the liberties he took
with geography it may be excused. FWIW I think one could fit
his map of western Middle-earth on ice age western Europe
provided the map isn't too accurate. To be sure it can be
even better fitted to England: if you put the Misty
Mountains over the Pennines Mordor will correspond roughly
to London and Minas Tirith roughly to Oxford! :-) At least
the absence of the North Sea corresponds to actual ice age
conditions...


/BP 8^)>
--
Benct Philip Jonsson -- melroch atte melroch dotte se
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
   "C'est en vain que nos Josués littéraires crient
   à la langue de s'arrêter; les langues ni le soleil
   ne s'arrêtent plus. Le jour où elles se *fixent*,
   c'est qu'elles meurent."           (Victor Hugo)

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