(cba:news) Perihelion Musings
Joe Patterson
jop at astro.columbia.edu
Thu Jan 1 06:59:54 EST 1998
Dear CBAers, Approaching perihelion 1998
Oh that evening sky is a humdinger!
Not only do we have a really first-class alignment now (Venus, Jupiter,
and the crescent Moon), but another beautiful humping star has jumped
into the CBA bag courtesy of Jonathan's sleuthing skills.
It's CP Eri, one of the helium cataclysmics. Tonight it was pulsing
away with a period of 29 minutes and an amplitude of 0.2 mag. It's
about mag 16.5, basically in a "supermax" state. This may seem faint
to you, but with that period and that amplitude, it's really not that
hard to get. We desperately seek help from other longitudes, so we can
obtain unambiguous period solutions. And the time is precisely now,
because the star is in a cooperative state, and peril from the Moon
increases with each passing day. The chart is in the original Downes &
Shara (as well as on the CBA website), and the 2000 coords are 3h 10m
32.76s, -9d 45m 5.3s. We're using the comp star directly NE from the
variable, about 1.2 arcmin away.
We especially look to our friends in South Africa, New Zealand, Japan,
and Australia. Be the pride of your longitude! I append tonight's
light curve below to whet appetites.
TY Psc remains the best target for the smallest and most northerly
scopes. First well-observed supermax ever! Haven't heard from anyone
yet, I'm getting nervous.
And the other targets remain as discussed in the last coupla notes.
Anyone catch Steven J Gould's discussion of the various issues related
to the millennium? I liked his discussion of "when should we
celebrate?" As most of you probably know, the ambiguity arises from
the fact that there was never a year zero (zero was not even a number
until the tenth century), so the first hundred years had to end with
the end of the year 100 - and if we set the reasonable requirement that
every century should contain 100 years, then we have to concede that
the next century begins on January 1, 2001 (leaving out the
complication that the English year used to start on March 25). But of
course we all know that only a few highbrows will celebrate then. Even
computers will celebrate a year earlier.
I was amazed to learn from Gould that a spirited debate occurred on
these matters during 1899. Lowbrows said "we want to celebrate
when 00 rolls around", but highbrows said "sorry you have to wait a
year". My real amazement is that the highbrows won! According to
Gould, it was generally recognized (meaning, I guess, bigger parties)
that the new century began on January 1, 1901. But that will
certainly not be so in two years' time. He interprets this as
signifying that the devotees of high culture no longer run the world,
that "culture" now means pop culture (which understands what 0
means but doesn't care about its history -- thus the three zeroes in
2000 will overcome all arguments). I guess you have to be at least a
few hundred years old to know if he is right, but it sounds plausible.
So the 20th century will have 99 years, and the problem is now
fixed forever.
I can live with that. It did seem to go by a bit fast.
Alarms. Sound of distant drums. Signs of many beautiful wavy stars in
the night sky, awaiting your action.
joe
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