Hierarchies

This evening, the Moon is about to form a “trio” with Venus and Neptune.

See the end note about enlarging illustrations.

Here is the sequence of events:

Jan 24 Fri 22 Universal Time: New Moon
Jan 25 Sat 20 UT: Moon  closest (1.33°) south of Mercury
Jan 27 Mon 21 UT: Venus closest (0.07°) south of Neptune
Jan 28 Tue  0 UT: the time of our scene
Jan 28 Tue 10 IT: Moon, Venus, and Neptune within circle of diameter 3.86°
Jan 28 Tue 10 UT: Moon closest (3.8°) south of Neptune
Jan 28 Tue 11 UT: Moon closest (3.8°) south of Venus
Jan 29 Wed 21 UT: Moon at apogee (greatest distance from Earth)

So the tightest moment of the trio is in the following morning hours, when this part of the sky is below ground for the Americas and Europe, and in daylight for other parts.  That matters little, and you won’t be able to see Neptune without optical aid.  But think of it.

The astronomical magnitudes of Moon, Venus, and Neptune are at this time -7, -4, and 8.  This means that the Moon is about 16 times brighter than Venus, and Venus is about 53,000 times brighter than Neptune.

But that is because of their distances.  The diameters of Moon, Venus, and Neptune are, in kilometers, 3,475, 12,100, an, 49,500.

“The last shall be first and the first shall be last, for many are called but few are chosen.”

This photograph of Iran’s parliament illustrates for me something about those who are chosen.

As does this, of the British prime minister domineering over his ministers.

Headline: “Johnson to cabinet: shape up or I’ll sack you.”

The typical situation in a parliament, or a law court, is: a boss man (rarely woman) on high; a next-to-top layer of sub-boss men (few women).

Monarchy was usual throughout most of history.  Relatively recently, it was superseded by democracy.  Or was it?  I would say that the standard situation now is elected monarchy.  There is always a boss man (sometimes woman) at the pinnacle.

I’m not sure it was intended to be this way by the framers of constitutions.  My parents told me that the “prime minister” was supposed to be the first among equals.  “President” means “sitting foremost,” and can be interchangeable with “chairman” and “moderator”: the person who keeps order in a meeting.  But the moderator has taken power over the meeting’s conclusions.

There has not yet been a society, at least a large onee, governed by an elected council whose decisions by consensus or vote are not subject to overrule by a boss.  (There were in ancient Greece interludes of rule by small groups of men, but they were oligarthic seizers of power, not elected.)  Would that be closer to true democracy?

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ILLUSTRATIONS in these posts are made with precision but have to be inserted in another format.  You may be able to enlarge them on your monitor.  One way: right-click, and choose “View image”, then enlarge.  Or choose “Copy image”, then put it on your desktop, then open it.  On an iPad or phone, use the finger gesture that enlarges (spreading with two fingers, or tapping and dragging with three fingers).  Other methods have been suggested, such as dragging the image to the desktop and opening it in other ways.

Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after positing it.  If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more;, I think you are sure to see the latest version.

This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.