[meteorite-list] Vestan Nights (A Midequinoccial Night's Dream)

From: MexicoDoug_at_aol.com <MexicoDoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Sep 20 17:44:53 2004
Message-ID: <3107E4C4.425BE95E.0BFED528_at_aol.com>

Hola everyone,

As Vesta and Earth accelerate away from each other, and Ron
posts all these interesting NASA accomplishments, I wanted to
share a somewhat more modestly priced remote sensing mission
of my own that also yielded priceless results, and mention a
little bit of mythology about the constellation Aquarius (And
Pisces Australis). And the good part is I was not only
principal investigator, but this time my collaborating
investigators were just a noisy bunch of coyotes that confined
me hermetically sweating projectiles inside the main transport
vehicle (15 year old Chevy) for a half hour in the solitude of
(desert) space.

At first I used my binoculars from inside the principal
vehicle, until life support systems started to fail and the
windows fogged over and my tee-shirt became heavy with sweat.
And how fitting it was that the starboard view was gawking
right at Aquarius, the "Water Bearer" who apparently was to
busy attending Zeus (technically, Zeus=Jupiter, but it was New
Moon, and no planets were in sight).

Most know that the most of the Jovian satellites (i.e.
Jupiter's moons), are named after the philandering King of the
Gods' secret hot consorts or women who suckled him as a baby.
They mostly take Greek names from Greek mythology even though
Jupiter is the Latin version of Zeus. So what does this have
to do with Aquarius and my wanting a drink in the command
module's sauna?

Well, the biggest moon of Jupiter, which is bigger than not
only Pluto, but also than Mercury, is named Ganymede.
Ganymede's Latin named counterpart is basically - Aquarius.
While today's morality is definitely different than that of
the Greeks, it isn't a secret that Hebe, Zeus' original female
liquid pourer (I believe it was wine, not water) fell and hurt
herself, and according to some accounts exposed her most
private parts. This caused celebration or consternation
depending on whom you ask. Older versions seem to suggest
that accidentally exposing one's err...genitals was good luck,
but other versions seem to say it was great chagrin. Either
way, asteroid Hebe (a prime candidate "body" for the Ordinary
Chondrites, according to Harry McSween Jr.'s "Meteorites and
their Parent Planets") hurt herself in the accident, so Zeus
sent his Eagle (right above Aquarius is Aquila, the Eagle) to
fetch the most beautiful and youthful lad on Earth to take her
place as liquid pourer and Youthful perfection. Why Zeus
would worry about beauty seems to indicate he was in the mood
for a male bedfellow ? something considered rather normal at
the time as most will see portrayed when Alexander the Great
gets released this fall. In any case, Zeus? Golden Eagle
fetched Ganymede, and Hebe and especially Juno (=Hera the
wife) were snubbed as Ganymede/Aquarius satisfied Zeus'
needs. Back on Earth, Zeus sent an immortal stallion to the
king of Troy, Ganymede's father, as a gift for the
kidnapping. (Ever wonder why Aquarius, Aqua and Aquila
[=>Aguila => Eagle] and Aurum are similar words, not sure, but
probably has to do with Ganymede/Aquarius liquid and the
Golden Eagle).

Well, by midnight the heat inside the command module was
unbearable, so I summoned up enough courage to get out and the
first thing I did was throw the odiferous astro-food (chicken
carcass) as far as I could. When I heard chomping mandibles,
I picked up lots of black looking stones (hey it was night)
and unfortunately a black looking little barrel cactus to
throw at the noises and I heard my non-value added
collaborating investigators make their exodus as I removed
lots of little spines from my fingers.

Fear now tossed aside by thoughts of hurt fingers and Vesta, I
deployed the remote sensing equipment. The equipment was my
landlocked Nikon and and the detector whatever chemical dyes
are in department store Kodak film these days. Using a
variation of Dave Freeman's meteorite hunting kit, I got out a
protractor and string attached to a cane with a safety pin
counter weight, used for orienting the main imaging barrel (a
Nikon 100 mm lens).

But first a view through the pan-bins (5X opera glasses), as
Fomalhaut glowed brightly in the Southern sky, and my
equipment magnetically responded. Time to go star hopping for
the third night from Fomalhaut to the "reflected curves" to
the "striking cobra" stars to then get a visual on Omega-2
Aquarii mag. 4.5 (and Omega-1 and HD8987).

While Fomalhaut is not really in the constellation Aquarius
according to modern astronomers, it is the eye, head or mouth
of Pisces Australis (The Southern Fish - not the zodiacal
fishes), it is the end of the stream of water being poured
from Aquarius's clay pot. In the link that will shortly
follow, Aquarius and Pisces Australis can be seen illustrated
by the imaging team with actual mission results (Science and
Nature magazines had a backlog of NASA papers, so I am
publishing the good stuff here). Please don't complain if it
isn't a Hubble image, after all the Principal Investigator had
to do it, not an imaging specialist coyote with NASA or at
least an Acme instrument catalog.

After enjoying a beautiful view of Vesta through the pan-bins,
I got out the has-bins (old 16X heavy astronomical scopes -
Bushnell binoculars). Wow was Vesta pretty. I was sure she
looked bluish, sitting there in the clock made by the Omega-2
centered, Omega-1 and HD8987 clock face...with Vesta now at
the 1:30 position between Ome1 and Ome2.

As I waited until the celestial sphere's surface containing
Vesta rotated further away from the glowing city light, I
started to begin imaging. Since the 100 mm lens was totally
dark that is where engineering came in with the elementary
school protractor, cane, string and pin. No light could be
seen through the camera lens, but analysis today showed that
every picture in the 10 degree field was successfully
oriented. Accolades to the team...

After hearing an occasional coyote munching, or with night
vision now able to see the bats when they swooped nearby, and
an occasion chirping night bird, it was about time to abort
the mission as I wondered if the mission commander would have
enough energy reserves to make the perilous journey home.

So very quickly as a finale, I switched to the wam-cam (wide-
angled monsterview camera) to try to record images of the
principal investigator, command module and centered the lens
near the Southern Fish's eye as the guide star.

After a few quick images, I again had ignition of the main
liquid-gas phase internal combustion propulsion system, and
left the solitude to the glutinous coyotes inhabiting that
region of (desert) space, under an occasional yucca tree.

After the outsourced image processing team in the local food
store processed the images, and ran them through an economical
printer which is really not optical but digital, and then the
Principal investigator scanned a print for posterity, with an
ancient Taiwanese 6-year old US$60 scanner, I was able to
prepare the image and explanations at the following link:
http://www.diogenite.com/vestad.JPG
It illustrates the constellations, stars and Vesta, all in the
same picture with the principal investigator (I am sitting on
the hood, but only a faint circle is visible down the
mountainside recognizable where the stars are blocked, and
command module which blend in with the mountainous horizon.
But such a large, dark swath of pretty night sky, almost clear
(clouds to the right) is always a pleasure, especially when
one of the little dots is Vesta and you know which one, as
well as who else is in the neighborhood (all are labeled)!
(the script "w" in the photo is Omega, i.e., Omega-1 is shown
as w1).

Enjoy, Vesta-fiesta is still not over...until the Harvest Moon
heavily materializes.
I?ll put up an image of Vesta with the 100 mm lens at this
link shortly:
http://www.diogenite.com/Vesta100.JPG
These are all garden-variety cameras that by day take the
pictures of some ugly mugs I know. That is what is so special
about Vesta for earthlings, besides the wonderful meteorites
she provides (Of course I brought some along)! Hope she
doesn?t stay too long in the sea (the part of the sky of
Aquarius, fishes, etc.
Saludos,
Doug
Received on Mon 20 Sep 2004 05:04:28 PM PDT