Starry Night Painting and Van Gogh, and Big Dipper

I'm reposting the material below with a slightly different title. I'm surprised no one has picked up
on this interesting topic. I did get the 1988 article and it pretty much answered my questions. Van
Gogh painted astro objects in about 10 of his paintings. He certainly had his own way of doing them.
The moon is also in The Road with Cypress. Interesting that he did a mirror image of the objects.

First Post:
===========
Van Gogh's Starry Night depicts the Big Dipper and his Road with Cypress shows Mercury and Venus.
Roger Sinnott of S&T discusses this in his Astro Computing Oct. 1988 column. I have copies of both
paintings. My issues don't go back that far. Venus and Mercury are easy to pick out, since there are
only two astro images. Not certain which planet is which. Can someone give me an idea how to figure
out the big dipper? I suspect it is in its winter position with the asterism stretching from left to
right across the painting. If so, what's the very large object in the upper right? Part of the
dipper?

--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr

"... the smallest known metal-rich asteroid -- Amun 3554, about one kilometer in
diameter, contains 3.5 trillion dollars' worth of cobalt, nickel, iron and platinum."
-- from Seeing in the Dark by Timothy Ferris

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews
Imaginarium Museum: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html

In article ,
Wayne Watson wrote:

I'm reposting the material below with a slightly different title. I'm
surprised no one has picked up
on this interesting topic. I did get the 1988 article and it pretty much
answered my questions. Van
Gogh painted astro objects in about 10 of his paintings. He certainly had his
own way of doing them.
The moon is also in The Road with Cypress. Interesting that he did a mirror
image of the objects.

First Post:
===========
Van Gogh's Starry Night depicts the Big Dipper and his Road with Cypress
shows Mercury and Venus.
Roger Sinnott of S&T discusses this in his Astro Computing Oct. 1988 column.
I have copies of both
paintings. My issues don't go back that far. Venus and Mercury are easy to
pick out, since there are
only two astro images. Not certain which planet is which. Can someone give me
an idea how to figure
out the big dipper? I suspect it is in its winter position with the asterism
stretching from left to
right across the painting. If so, what's the very large object in the upper
right? Part of the
dipper?

--

I have more than a passing interest in Van Gogh, and wanted to help, but
your questions were unclear. Rereading the post several times only
confused me more. Glad you found your answers!

Starry Skies,
Rich

If you were confused by what I wrote, try listening to Don McLean's Vincent. That'll keep your mind
busy. :-)

Richard DeLuca wrote:

In article ,
Wayne Watson wrote:

I'm reposting the material below with a slightly different title. I'm
surprised no one has picked up
on this interesting topic. I did get the 1988 article and it pretty much
answered my questions. Van
Gogh painted astro objects in about 10 of his paintings. He certainly had his
own way of doing them.
The moon is also in The Road with Cypress. Interesting that he did a mirror
image of the objects.

First Post:
===========
Van Gogh's Starry Night depicts the Big Dipper and his Road with Cypress
shows Mercury and Venus.
Roger Sinnott of S&T discusses this in his Astro Computing Oct. 1988 column.
--


I have more than a passing interest in Van Gogh, and wanted to help, but
your questions were unclear. Rereading the post several times only
confused me more. Glad you found your answers!

Starry Skies,
Rich

--
Wayne T. Watson (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N, 2,701 feet, Nevada City, CA)
-- GMT-8 hr std. time, RJ Rcvr

"... the smallest known metal-rich asteroid -- Amun 3554, about one kilometer in
diameter, contains 3.5 trillion dollars' worth of cobalt, nickel, iron and platinum."
-- from Seeing in the Dark by Timothy Ferris

Web Page: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews
Imaginarium Museum: home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews/imaginarium.html

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 14:46:32 GMT, Richard DeLuca ...reflected:

In article ,
Alan W. Craft wrote:

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 08:10:10 GMT, Richard DeLuca
...reflected:
--

I have more than a passing interest in Van Gogh, and wanted to help, but
your questions were unclear. Rereading the post several times only
confused me more. Glad you found your answers!

Starry Skies,
Rich



His most fascinating works were those produced upon his
self-committance, I feel;
"Trees in the Asylum Garden", for example.


Starry Night was a big disappointment to me when I finally saw it in
person. More 'one dimensional' than I expected. I enjoy his Iris
paintings the most- they send my emotions into hyperdrive.

My mousepad is of that very painting, that is, "Iris", and chosen
for its relevance to the state flower of Tennessee.

Alan

In article ,
Wayne Watson wrote:

If you were confused by what I wrote, try listening to Don McLean's Vincent.
That'll keep your mind
busy. :-)


Gee, that's one of the few Don McLean songs that I think I *do*
understand..........;-)

Starry Skies,
Rich

(PrisNo6) wrote in message . com...

This is correct a couple of errors in the positional descriptions in
my prior post. Trial runs to simulate the probable position of the
Big Dipper, the Moon and Venus in Van Gogh's "The Starry Night",
painted in St. Remy, France (Lat: 46 45 00 N Long: 004 50 00 E )in
June 1889, a

A) June 16, 1889 near sunrise, about 5:00 am, looking north.

The closed end of the big Big Dipper's bowl is to the north horizon,
the open end pointed to the sourthern horizon. The laddle points to
the west.

Delete:

B) June 10, 1889 at 9 p.m., looking northwest (better fit)

Insert and use instead:

B) June 11, 1889 at 2:00 a.m. looking northwest (better fit)

The closed end of the big Big Dipper's bowl is to the north horizon,
the open end pointed to the southern horizon. The laddle points to the
south-west, towards the Moon.

The illuminated fraction of the moon is on the east on June 16. On
June 11, the illuminated fraction of the moon is on the west side.

Sorry for the posted errors. - Kurt

P.S. - Looks like Van Gogh may have liked to stay up late.