And There Was Light, by Rudolf Thiel

I had the opportunity, recently, to reread this book, which was one I enjoyed
when quite young.

In some Google searches, I found that it had a limited international popularity; in addition to the original German version,
Und es ward Licht

I found out about a few others:
Finnish:
Ja valkens tuli

Portuguese (Brazil):
E a luz se fêz

But I missed this one:

Swedish:
Och det var ljus

One thing I noted upon rereading it was an error in translating from German:

(begin quote)
The seventeenth-century Dutch mathematician Christian Huygens worked out the
mathematics of repeating fractions in order to calculate more easily the
dimensions of the cogs in a planetarium he was constructing.
(end quote)

That should, of course, have been _continued_ fractions.

And then there's some purple prose one might enjoy:

(begin quote)
Consequently, a new picture of our sidereal system emerges; the globular system
is not flattened, but if we were to look down on our Galaxy from a point
above its hub, it would appear, in two dimensions, to resemble an elongated
South Sea island, framed by a wreath of tiny coral islands. Amid these, like
bathing Polynesian girls, float numerous RR Lyrae stars, as the smallest and
fastest of the variables are called.
(end quote)

There's a metaphor I haven't encountered elsewhere!

John Savard

On Thursday, 2 June 2016 20:31:16 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:

.... if we were to look down on our Galaxy from a point
above its hub, it would appear, in two dimensions, to resemble an elongated
South Sea island, framed by a wreath of tiny coral islands. Amid these, like
bathing Polynesian girls, float numerous RR Lyrae stars, as the smallest and
fastest of the variables are called.
(end quote)

There's a metaphor I haven't encountered elsewhere!

John Savard

May one ask the best instrument required to see said Polynesian bathing girls..
and would a refractor be preferable due to its lack of obstruction of the view?

On Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 11:29:18 PM UTC-6, Chris.B wrote:
On Thursday, 2 June 2016 20:31:16 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:

.... if we were to look down on our Galaxy from a point
above its hub, it would appear, in two dimensions, to resemble an elongated
South Sea island, framed by a wreath of tiny coral islands. Amid these, like
bathing Polynesian girls, float numerous RR Lyrae stars, as the smallest and
fastest of the variables are called.
(end quote)

There's a metaphor I haven't encountered elsewhere!

May one ask the best instrument required to see said Polynesian bathing girls..
and would a refractor be preferable due to its lack of obstruction of the view?

Not really, as no actual Polynesian bathing girls were located by this
statement, and thus no helpful reply could be made to the statement.

Perhaps this would have been even clearer had I used the correct term; that
was, of course, not a metaphor, but a simile.

John Savard

Chris.B wrote:
On Thursday, 2 June 2016 20:31:16 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:

.... if we were to look down on our Galaxy from a point
above its hub, it would appear, in two dimensions, to resemble an elongated
South Sea island, framed by a wreath of tiny coral islands. Amid these, like
bathing Polynesian girls, float numerous RR Lyrae stars, as the smallest and
fastest of the variables are called.
(end quote)

There's a metaphor I haven't encountered elsewhere!

John Savard

May one ask the best instrument required to see said Polynesian bathing girls..
and would a refractor be preferable due to its lack of obstruction of the view?


I think averted vision would be more polite.

On Friday, June 3, 2016 at 9:45:00 AM UTC-5, Mike Collins wrote:
Chris.B wrote:
On Thursday, 2 June 2016 20:31:16 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:

.... if we were to look down on our Galaxy from a point
above its hub, it would appear, in two dimensions, to resemble an elongated
South Sea island, framed by a wreath of tiny coral islands. Amid these, like
bathing Polynesian girls, float numerous RR Lyrae stars, as the smallest and
fastest of the variables are called.
(end quote)

There's a metaphor I haven't encountered elsewhere!

John Savard

May one ask the best instrument required to see said Polynesian bathing girls..
and would a refractor be preferable due to its lack of obstruction of the view?


I think averted vision would be more polite.

Great response ;^))

On Friday, 3 June 2016 17:51:49 UTC+2, SlurpieMcDoublegulp wrote:
On Friday, June 3, 2016 at 9:45:00 AM UTC-5, Mike Collins wrote:

I think averted vision would be more polite.

Great response ;^))

Excellent! ;ø))