That sounds pompous, I’ve borrowed it from the bulletins of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams. But first —
–having looked yesterday at the evening sky, here is the scene on the other side of the Sun, in tomorrow’s dawn twilight.
Instead of the many planets to be seen in the evening, there is just Mercury. But Mercury is becoming nearly as high as it can, in fact approaching a peak. It will reach greatest elongation westward from the Sun on August 26 – only 18.3°, the smallest such elongation maximum of the year, yet one of the best for us in Earth’s northern hemisphere, because of this season’s angle of the ecliptic to the horizon. At the time and place of the picture Mercury is about 7° high. It would be slightly higher if it were not, as now, traveling south of the ecliptic (it will “ascend” northward through the ecliptic plane on Aug. 28).
The arrows through Mercury and the Sun show their movement (against the starry background) from two days before the picture time to two days after. The arrow through Mercury is very slightly shorter; in other words, it is still falling back relative to the Sun, because it is swinging out on the westward side of its orbit.
Space view (from 15° north of the ecliptic plane) of the planets’ paths in August and September 2018, with sightlines from Earth to Mercury at Aug. 24 (blue) and 26 (red). The dashed line is the vernal equinox direction. The Sun is exaggerated 5 times in size, the planets 300.
Even without Mercury, the August morning sky is grand, because it is a preview of the great constellations of winter evenings.
At this point I wish I hadn’t deleted the names of Canis Minor and Canis Major from the picture before converting it for use. But you know that Procyon and Sirius are the “lucidae.” the outstanding stars, of the constellations of the Lesser and Greater Dogs!
I had expected this post to be brief, a prelude to what I want to say – but, as so often happens, it’s taken me half the day, partly because I saw some needs for reprogramming. What I want to say is that I intend to do fewer posts. If I spend so much time on them, there will be little progress on other projects, such as further “Longer View” books to follow the one about Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, and two novels, one of them in two languages. I’ll do sky scenes from time to time, but may not remember to cover every fine conjunction. And I shall sound off about other interests besides astronomy. So there.
Such as language. Consider the neat exclamation “So there!” How on earth would you define it for a dictionary? Do other languages have a match for it?
I think “so there” might be short for “So there is my idea”, or “So there is my plan”. It’s less rude than “So take that”, which is probably short for “So take that fact and deal with it”.
From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
so there
informal
— used to say in a somewhat rude, angry, or childish way that one has stated one’s opinion or decision and will not change it – Well, I don’t want to be your friend, either. So there!
I just finished reading a fascinating book, _Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries_ by Merriam-Webster lexicographer Kory Stamper. It’s a bit of a memoir, a series of loving portraits of her fellow “harmless drudges”, the story of all the little steps involved in writing (and endlessly revising) a dictionary, a history of the unruly bastard that is the English language and the successive attempts to corral it into a dictionary, and an impassioned defense of English as it is actually spoken and written. Stamper argues that there is really no such thing as “Standard English”, or rather that English is composed of innumerable dialects, one of which is called “Standard English.” She expertly deflates a few of my cherished claims to speak “proper English,” but with such irrepressible wit and good humor that I can’t hold it against her.
I would highly recommend this book to anybody who loves the English language, dictionaries, or both.
By the way, I always appreciate your posts, astronomical or otherwise. And of course you have to decide where to focus your time and effort most effectively. I’ll look forward to the books!
Oh, thanks for mentioning that book, Anthony! I just stuffed it into my Amazon cart. I can’t help with “so there” in another language. It does have an Edith Ann connotation to it. :D
I think the “So there!” entry might have added that the phrase is used chiefly by children, and that when adults use it they are playfully imitating children.
The electronic Oxford English Dictionary doesn’t easily produce anything for “so there”, but under another and even more sub-standard (sorry, but that fits better than “informal”) phrase, “that there”, it has this entry from a piece of doggerel of 1933:
As they took a kiss, The keeper shouted this: You can’t do that there ‘ere, so there! You can’t do that there ‘ere. You’d ought to know you ‘ad, I’m sure, That that there ‘ere’s agin the law.
How about trying Merriam Webster for a definition of “so much for”? Today we boarded a train that had standing-room only, and I said: “So much for reading [the documents we had intended to read] in the train!”
I interpret your use of the term “So there!” this time as similar to “I have spoken”. That is easier to translate. E.g. in Esperanto, I might say “Tiel mi diras” (in that way I speak).
Sound reasonable?
Neal, similar to “I have spoken” is “I rest my case”, used to me yesterday by your fellow Esperantist Jack Warren. The expressions are at different levels of formality. But the others may not contain the cheekiness or defiance (playful or not) of “So there!” or apply to the same range of situations. Perhaps the French and Spanish ones do.
Alors là!
Thank you!
“Por lo tanto” comes to mind from Spanish, as an equivalent of “so there.”
Good question, Guy. Much love to you and Tilly!!