Cigar-shaped stars?NOT politically correct in non-smoking era.

Cigar-shaped stars?NOT politically correct in non-smoking era.
HAVANN Another think! TVNZ ONE News 31.05.05 20:41 Tues. 23:03

but, if it is scientifically (+ psychologically) correct
I'll just have to go with it!

- was,brenda,tpas,hallsquared,nzm,tom,iv

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iet.Science.WASWnAstro.MoonSolSys.Transit.cigarsta rs .. this file.


Don McDonald asked Ed Budding whether the
Christmas card 'Star of Bethlehem' emblem might
originate from the radiating lines /??Fauvian?? help /
we see when we screw up our eyes + look at a light.

It is not natural to be a 4-pointed, 5-pointed
or 6-pointed star.
It may be caused by the 'spider arms' that suspend the
photographic film (or secondary mirror) of a reflecting
telescope. 2003?

Don questioned Paul Callaghan at his Transit of
Venus radio NZ broadcast from Te Papa 2004-- "Is the Sun a
circle, a sphere or an ellipse?"

A sphere is a perfect figure. A few atoms or mountains
sticking out would spoil it. So various degrees of
flattening are presumably expected!

Professor Yock and (Ian Bond?? Massey University AUCK??)
revealed on ONE News 31.05.05 that the recent technique
of 'gravitational microlensing' (that discovered a very
distant planet) also shows that some stars are
ellipsoidal or cigar-shaped, not circles.

I created my new national flag for New Zealand, 31/1/05.
Don McDonald- 'Koru- Crux spiral Southern Cross.'
I rejected the popular 'pentagram' design of 5-pointed stars.
I adopted instead a pentagon or 5-sided regular polygon.
I designed (white stars *cells* with red centres.) A smooth
shaped ellipsoid may be the best.

I drew a candle flame or egg-shaped Acorn computer graphic, 1987.
The Crux is a tilted spiral image of (5-colour-sectors koru. fern.)

(Wellington city council 'CrossOver' exhibition, for Race
Relations Day, Easter 2005.)

Websters Dictionary - star ... a 5 or 6 pointed device
formed by producing sides of a pentagon or hexagon,
used as ornament, emblem, etc.


Teletext ONE Nat News p.126. 31.05.05 21:37.

Real shape of stars uncovered.
If you've ever peered into the night sky
and wished upon a star you've probably got
a pretty firm idea of what a star looks like,
but new research has found you'd probably be
wrong.

[a remote star is too small to see a disk.]

New research led by an Auckland astronomer has
found stars can be oval or cigar shaped.

Scientists used gravitational microlensing
which enables a distant star to be magnified [??]
by the gravitational field of a nearer star.

[but not focussed to a common focus like a spectacle lens.
near-axis rays are bent more
as they skim the heavy sun than off-axis rays which
experience much weaker gravity. Scientific American
cover 1970s. astronomy hour newstalk ZB, 1205am SAT Morning.
jenni mccormick, grant christie, james king.]

donald mcdonald

-to:transit@ ....co.nz,
to:donl,mcdonewt,tom,bradley,prof
subject: transit of Venus question.

Dear Kim Hill, Prof Callaghan,

Is the Sun a circle or sphere or ellipse?

If you use the special solar binoculars to view
the Transit of Venus can you imprint a clockface
with 12 hours (or perhaps 360 degrees) on the
disk of the sun? Is that how they read the
angle of Venus relative to the centre of the sun?

thank you
Donald McDonald

On Tue, 31 May 2005 19:06:45 -0700, don.lotto wrote:

Cigar-shaped stars?NOT politically correct in non-smoking era.

I thought you might take the angle of sex, crossed my mind :-0