Re: Star Names (was; Re; Back!)

On Tue, 20 Jul 1999, Steg Belsky wrote:

> Gil-Estel = it says that this is Earendil in Vingilot with his silmaril -
> Venus?
>
yes.

> Looking at a star chart of the Southern Hemisphere, Wilwarin and the
> Valacirca don't seem to be visible from there, where the Rokbeigalm
> live.... or are you talking about before the Third Age, when Arda was
> still flat?
My planisphere goes from 60 degrees north to 80 degrees south.  I don't
know if I have ever seen that far north.  I will have to try it out and
see. The planisphere reads useful zone 30-40 degrees south.  I guess the
Rokbeigalm would be further north than that, in optimum conditions to see
that far north.

> And when the world was flat they would have seen the Unmoving Star
> themselves, and not have it be only a legend that only Stiigiyus and a
> handful of others have actually seen.  That would explain the existence
> of the legend.
>
I don't think I have ever come across any reference to the Unmoving Star,
by that name or any other, in any southern surviving post-bent-sea
culture.

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz

        Lo! thy dread empire, Chaos! is restored;
        Light dies before thy uncreating word:
        Thy hand, great Anarch! lets the curtain fall;
        And Universal Darkness buries All.
                        - Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, Book IV.