4 ms·
I found most interesting the part of your story where you developed an intuitive sense of its location: > […] it’s a nice trick if you can do it, but it’s bett
by quinncom 3y ago
I found most interesting the part of your story where you developed an intuitive sense of its location:
> […] it’s a nice trick if you can do it, but it’s better when you can do it at any time, without an app. Which is what happened.
>
> First I got good at figuring out the ecliptic. That’s the flat disc of the Earth’s orbit (and the solar system). If you wave your arm along the path that the Sun makes across the sky, that’s the disc.
>
> Then I can’t remember how I would locate Sagittarius each day (it lies on the ecliptic) but I trained my intuition by checking the app each day. Over the weeks and months, I could follow how the position changed (at the same time each day as I caught the bus). First through the ground that way, then under the ground further that way, and so on.
>
> Eventually then I had this picture of myself, and the Earth, and the solar system, and the centre of the galaxy which had initially been whirling round me, and now it had flipped, I was turning around it.
https://interconnected.org/home/2021/06/30/galaxy https://interconnected.org/home/2021/06/30/galaxy
- reportgunner 3y agoI don't mean to offend anyone but that sounds like a made up story to me.
- cryptoz 3y agoWhat makes you say that? After some months or years of finding Mars and Jupiter in the sky it became second nature to me. You can just judge the time, don’t need a clock, look up at the sky and spot things immediately. If you’ve been practicing every day for a long time why not? Yes they also move in the sky but you get that too. You’ll think, oh it’s April and 11pm, I know where mars is instinctively.
- reportgunner 3y agoThe sentence "Then I can’t remember how I would locate Sagittarius each day" and also absence of any elaboration on how the galactic center is calculated. If you can't remember why even mention it ?
- genmon 3y agoI built up the intuition 10 years before the 2021 post -- it's a while back so my memory is fuzzy. But once you've got the ecliptic, you're most of the way there: you can visualise where the Earth is in its orbit based on the time of year, and Sgr A* is in a fixed direction relative to the Solar System. Build up to it, a few minutes waiting for the bus every day, checking your sense with an app like Star Walk... it's relatively straightforward. I've learnt harder things I'm sure.
- zikduruqe 3y agoNow you know why navigators on ships (before the chronograph) were highly paid positions. The nautical almanac is just superb to me, based on its age. https://thenauticalalmanac.com/Everything_You_Need_For_2024.html https://thenauticalalmanac.com/Everything_You_Need_For_2024.... If you ever need to exercise your cartography, astronomy and navigational skills, I highly recommend learning to use a sextant.
- aivisol 3y agoStrange that you say that. I am also at the point where I can pretty well figure out the plane of ecliptic regardless of where I am. It is just you pay attention to it and it comes with time. Never occurred to me to look for center of Galaxy, but now I know what I will do next.
- greggsy 3y agoSeems legit to me. He was engrossed in the project.
- xtiansimon 3y agoYou underestimate how boring it taking the bus. Sounds plausible to me.
- xorbax 3y agoWhat a strange response. You think he quickly devised a way - which would work - for a webboard comment? It sounds more like cynicism and denial of others' internal lives