Are these trick questions?

On Mar 16, 7:34 am, "Ben" wrote:
I'm curious about Sirius. What's the longitude of Oxford?

Ben, 90.126 n 35.539


1d 14' 42'' west is where I am.

On 16 Mar 2007 00:34:15 -0700, in uk.sci.astronomy , "Ben"
wrote:

I'm curious about Sirius. What's the longitude of Oxford?

Ben, 90.126 n 35.539

Oxford is more or less N51:46:19 W1:16:13
--
Mark McIntyre

On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:34:25 +0000, Mark McIntyre
wrote:

On 16 Mar 2007 00:34:15 -0700, in uk.sci.astronomy , "Ben"
wrote:

I'm curious about Sirius. What's the longitude of Oxford?

Ben, 90.126 n 35.539

Oxford is more or less N51:46:19 W1:16:13


At Oxford, Sirius transits at about 10 minutes past midnight on New
Year's Day so there will always be 366 transits of Sirius there in a
given year. Any star will transit about one minute later on the same
day in successive years at any given location, except when the
interval includes a leap year day, when the transit will occur about 3
minutes earlier. By choosing a location further east, such as
Canterbury, where Sirius can transit less than a minute before
midnight one year, then less than a minute after midnight the
following year, you sometimes get (as in 2007) 365 transits of Sirius
in the calendar year, but 367 in 2008.

Regarding the Moon, as Ben said, you always get one day a month, near
full moon when there is no transit. So look through your diary, add up
the number of full moons throughout the year and subtract the total
from 365. In 2007 there are 13 full moons, so the total number of
transits of the moon for this year would be 352.

Dave W.

On Mar 16, 2:58 pm, Dave W wrote:
On Fri, 16 Mar 2007 12:34:25 +0000, Mark McIntyre

wrote:
On 16 Mar 2007 00:34:15 -0700, in uk.sci.astronomy , "Ben"
wrote:

I'm curious about Sirius. What's the longitude of Oxford?

Ben, 90.126 n 35.539

Oxford is more or less N51:46:19 W1:16:13

At Oxford, Sirius transits at about 10 minutes past midnight on New
Year's Day so there will always be 366 transits of Sirius there in a
given year. Any star will transit about one minute later on the same
day in successive years at any given location, except when the
interval includes a leap year day, when the transit will occur about 3
minutes earlier. By choosing a location further east, such as
Canterbury, where Sirius can transit less than a minute before
midnight one year, then less than a minute after midnight the
following year, you sometimes get (as in 2007) 365 transits of Sirius
in the calendar year, but 367 in 2008.


Numbskulls have built on the notion that the Earth's axial rotation
can be tied directly to celestial sphere geometry by noting that
Sirius returns in 23 hours 56 minutes 04 seconds constantly.

"Flamsteed used the star Sirius as a timekeeper correcting the
sidereal time obtained from successive transits of the star into solar
time, the difference of course being due to the rotation of the Earth
round the Sun. Flamsteed wrote in a letter in 1677:-

.... our clocks kept so good a correspondence with the Heavens that I
doubt it not but they would prove the revolutions of the Earth to be
isochronical... "

In as simple as terms as possible for the original poster of this
thread,there are no exceptions to this false correlation between axial
rotation and the return of Sirius to a meridian.It also means that the
system is a 1461 calendrical cycle split into 3 years of 365 days and
1 year of 366 days.

To Themos - you may not know it but you are seeing one of the most
catastrophic astronomical maneuvers ,be it intentional or
unintentional.The way Flamsteed tried to use the Sun and the distant
stars to justify the motions of the Earth via the calendrical cycle is
an incredible injustice to the careful work and spectacular insights
of the great astronomers.

Maybe you can live comfortably with all the nonsense but I assure you
it is not worth it.Use you own intelligence.




Regarding the Moon, as Ben said, you always get one day a month, near
full moon when there is no transit. So look through your diary, add up
the number of full moons throughout the year and subtract the total
from 365. In 2007 there are 13 full moons, so the total number of
transits of the moon for this year would be 352.

Dave W.

In uk.sci.astronomy message
roups.com, Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:34:09, Ben
posted:

There is always one day in every month which is
deprived of a transit, moonrise and moonset.

I don't believe that. Since the longest type of average lunar month is
noticeably shorter than 31 days, ISTM that there must be some months
which have more than one transit, or moonrise, or moonset. But perhaps
your language is only an approximation to precise English.

The relevant lunar month is longer than February, so I'd expect at least
one of each in every month. But as those events are well-separated in
the "lunar day" of about 24.7 hours, I'd expect only one to be
duplicated in any given month.

I'm curious about Sirius. What's the longitude of Oxford?

Surely that is easy to determine without asking? Google for oxford
latitude longitude and the second entry shows it. Ignore the ones in
KS, &c.

--
(c) John Stockton, Surrey, UK. Turnpike v6.05 MIME.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - FAQqish topics, acronyms & links;
Astro stuff via astron-1.htm, gravity0.htm ; quotings.htm, pascal.htm, etc.
No Encoding. Quotes before replies. Snip well. Write clearly. Don't Mail News.

I don't believe that. Since the longest type of average lunar month is
noticeably shorter than 31 days, ISTM that there must be some months
which have more than one transit, or moonrise, or moonset. But perhaps
your language is only an approximation to precise English.

The average lunation is 29.530589 days. There is no "longest
type"
of an "average" lunar month. To assert otherwise requires language
that is an approximation *of* precise English.

The relevant lunar month is longer than February, so I'd expect at least
one of each in every month. But as those events are well-separated in
the "lunar day" of about 24.7 hours, I'd expect only one to be
duplicated in any given month.

Do the math.

I'm curious about Sirius. What's the longitude of Oxford?

Surely that is easy to determine without asking? Google for oxford
latitude longitude and the second entry shows it. Ignore the ones in
KS, &c.

I consider the discourse as more important than any googling.

Ben

Dr J R Stockton wrote:
In uk.sci.astronomy message
.com, Fri, 16 Mar
2007 00:34:09, Ben posted:

There is always one day in every month which is
deprived of a transit, moonrise and moonset.

I don't believe that.
,,, ISTM that there must be some months which have more than one
transit, or moonrise, or moonset.

Observations (from the UK) for moonset on 23/3/07 & 20/4/07, transit on
2/4/07 & 2/5/07, or rise on 7/4/07 & 6/5/07should provide sufficient
evidence to make it unnecessary to resort to belief.

But perhaps your language is only an approximation to precise English.

Only insofar as:
EITHER: the words "at least" are missing between "always" and "one" and
"calendar" is absent between "every" and "month" :-) . (See Oxford
transits in on1/6/07 and 30/6/07, for example.)
OR: the word "synodic" is absent between "every" and "month".


(Hoping that I haven't contrived to do the equivalent of relocating Ben
to Xigaze again..!)

Best,
Stephen

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On Mar 18, 12:37 am, Stephen Tonkin
wrote:
EITHER: the words "at least" are missing between "always" and "one" and
"calendar" is absent between "every" and "month" :-) . (See Oxford
transits in on1/6/07 and 30/6/07, for example.)
OR: the word "synodic" is absent between "every" and "month".

(Hoping that I haven't contrived to do the equivalent of relocating Ben
to Xigaze again..!)

Best,
Stephen

Stephen,

Xigaze? Where's that?

I hardly ever calculate the passage through the nodes.
Meuss gives the formulas but I never entered them because one
can "peck out" the passages on an Excel spreadsheet
with no difficulty and with slightly better accuracy. "Synodic"
is a term that has escaped my lexicon.

I'm still trying to get used to thinking about everything
at quadrature.

Regards,

Ben

Ben wrote:
Xigaze? Where's that?

ISTR that you told me it was in Tibet. :-)


I hardly ever calculate the passage through the nodes.

Ah. That's "draconic month". :-)

"Synodic"
is a term that has escaped my lexicon.

Refers to the conjunction of, or the interval between conjunctions of,
celestial bodies.



Best,
Stephen

Remove footfrommouth to reply

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On Mar 18, 7:17 am, Stephen Tonkin
wrote:

ISTR that you told me it was in Tibet. :-)

O yeah, Tibet. Soo0 much more romantic than Arkansas...


I hardly ever calculate the passage through the nodes.

Ah. That's "draconic month". :-)

"Synodic"
is a term that has escaped my lexicon.

But now I've just realized that "synodic" doesn't imply
anything about the *nodes*. (I thought it did) "Synodic"
comes from syn (with) + odos (road, way) and the implication
is *the way* from New Moon to New Moon. (Gasp...)

All these years living in total delusion....(in Arkansas)

OK,

Ben