Re: Life as a law of physics?

Reading from news:talk.origins,
Ye Old One <usenet@xxxxxxxxx> posted:

On Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:41:50 -0500, Damaeus
<no-mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> enriched this group when s/he wrote:

Reading from news:talk.origins,
Ye Old One <usenet@xxxxxxxxx> posted:

On Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:25:58 -0500, Damaeus
<no-mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> enriched this group when s/he wrote:

And you seem to want to use whatever definition directly opposes mine.

No, I work with the one that I use when talking to other people
interested in the subject.

To ease modern astronomy we have, since the 1930s, used a system
that draws imaginary and irregular blocks in the sky - usually
based on old Greek constellations. In this system the Pleiades
comes within Taurus. See
http://www.iau.org/static/themes/constellations/gif/TAU.gif

And on your own image, constellations are labeled with capital letters.
Names of stars and star clusters are not. On your map, Orion, Taurus,
Aries, Auriga, Perseus, and Eridanus are all in all-caps, while Pleiades
is NOT because it is NOT a constellation, even on your own map you
provided as "evidence".

No you MORON. That map was there to show you how modern science has
chosen to define a constellation - as an area of sky. Bloody learn to
read.

A constellation is an area of sky. Okay, that's kind of vague.

It is how it is now defined.

constellation

1. a) a group of stars in the sky, usually named after some
object, animal, or mythological being that it supposedly resembles
or suggests b) the area of the sky assigned to such a group of
stars: currently the sky is considered to have 88 constellations

2. any brilliant cluster, gathering, or collection

3. Astrol. the grouping of celestial bodies at any particular
time, esp. at a person's birth

4. Psychol. a group of related thoughts or feelings regarded as
clustered about one central idea

How fitting! So now, we have scientists who seem to want to take one
chunk of rock and give it five different names depending on where it is,
what size it is, and what it's doing (asteroid, meteoroid, meteor, bolide,
meteorite), but they also want to take "constellation" and expand it to
mean more than just a collection of star that forms an image, but it can
now be the entire night sky if you want it to be. Taking a term that used
to have a more precise meaning, and now making it more ambiguous and
meaningless, leading to "discussions" like this.

A constellation used to be Ursa Major. Ursa Minor. the Southern Cross.
now it's just any old bunch of stars, no matter how big or how small.

Okay.

I can deal with the rearranging of language for the whim of convenience.

Does that mean the area of sky over the airport? Over downtown? Your
own map has constellations labeled with uppercase letters. Pleiades
is not labeled that way, because it is not a constellation,

It has been for at least the last 2,500 years.

Only because you choose to see it that way, which is fine. I just want to
be clear when informing you of the distinction. Pleiades is an open star
cluster that some have viewed as a constellation. Do you understand now?

Just like Pluto is not a planet, even if you want it to be.

Who raised Pluto?

I did. Aren't you paying attention? And you replied to ask that stupid
question in response to the very one who raised Pluto in the discussion.

However, since ancient times, the Pleiades have been known as the
constellation of the Seven Sisters or Seven Doves (IIRC Pleiades
roughly translates as doves).

Pleiades has over 3,000 stars.

Of which the average human, on a really dark nights, can see between 7
and 12.

I can see far more than that.

Liar!

http://www.kstrom.net/isk/stars/stareye.html

I did not lie. I looked through binoculars.

Damaeus

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Life as a law of physics?
    ... Pleiades is an open star cluster in the Taurus constellation. ... Names of stars and star clusters are not. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Life as a law of physics?
    ... Pleiades is an open star cluster in the Taurus constellation. ... Names of stars and star clusters are not. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Life as a law of physics?
    ... Pleiades has always fascinated me. ... It's not even a constellation, ... Pleiades is an open star cluster in the Taurus constellation. ... Names of stars and star clusters are not. ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Formatting [was: Re: Grammar Crackdown]
    ... "One of the oldest of all eye tests is the Pleiades. ... now the clouds were in my eyes, not the sky. ... two or three more which I dismissed as fore- or background stars. ... test for eyesight - someone with good vision will be able to see the 6 ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: constellation question
    ... I now think that this galaxy picture was labelling areas of stars ... by constellation names one would have to look towards in the earthly ... sky. ...
    (sci.astro)
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