American clocks moved an hour backward on November 5, and an hour forward yesterday. If we could really make time run backward – redefine 12 o’clock as 11 o’clock, or today as yesterday – then I wouldn’t have to apologize for missing a whole raft of solar-system events, some of which would have been worth discussing.
I forgot to check for them in my own Astronomical Calendar because I was fiercely intent on some thinking necessary for an improvement in one of the large illustrations for the upcoming edition of the Astronomical Companion. Let’s rewind into yesterday anyway.
March 10: Clocks forward 1 hour (America)
– 7 Universal Time: Moon at perigee; distance 55.96 Earth-radii; nearest in year; only 2.1 hours before New Moon
– 9: New Moon
– 21: Moon 0.62° ESE of Neptune; 7° and 6° from Sun in evening sky; magnitudes -4.8 and 8.0
– 21: Moon, Mercury, and Neptune within circle of diameter 4.30°; about 8° from the Sun in the evening sky; magnitudes -5, -1, 8
And today:
March 11: 1st day of Ramadan
– 4: Moon 0.95° SE of Mercury; 11° from Sun in evening sky; magnitudes -5.3 and -1.3
– 18: Sun enters Pisces, at longitude 351.64° on the ecliptic
See the end note about enlarging illustrations. Arrows through the moving bodies show their movement (against the starry background) from 2 days earlier to 2 days later. Moon and Sun are exaggerated 2 times in size.
Home Planet Department
Can a word be re-defined by political decree?
The British government intends to announce a new definition of “extremism,” which civil servants and local councils will be obliged to apply when deciding whether to allow people to speak, write, or meet. The intention is to restrict freedom of speech and assembly for climate activists and peace activists.
According to an article in the Observer, “The proposed new definition of extremism… says “core behaviours” that could constitute extremism include… enabling the spread of extremism.”
Wait a moment! The definition of extremism includes “enabling the spread of extremism”? Before defining extremism you have to have defined extremism.
Such a definition is circular, or, we might say, transcendental. It’s like transcendental equations, such as Kepler’s equation of planetary motion (E = M + e sin E), which define something in terms of itself. So they go around infinitely, and can be solved only by repeatedly feeding the answer back in until the difference between answers becomes negligibly small.
There is negligibly small difference between this policy and – what? Censorship?
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This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
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” or ”Open image in new tab”, 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 publishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version. Or you can click ‘Refresh’ to get the latest version.
Elon Musk was accused yesterday of being an extremist because he doesn’t think minors should have sex change procedures, doesn’t believe in deficit spending by the government, and doesn’t think racism is good against any race. It’s an upside down world.
Shhhhh, goodness everyone knows the Sun and the planets all revolve around the Earth. What’s to censor? Oh yeah, don’t talk about that. You’ll get arrested. Good luck UK. Same idiots are on the loose here in the US.
write on.