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On Tuesday morning (the 11th), I was walking toward the bus stop at about 6:10 AM (ie still really dark at this latitude) and was struck by a very bright thing in the sky. I decided it must be "that comet." I kept staring at it while waiting for the bus, amazed at its size. When I finally got around to looking up the comet (46P/Wirtanen, as it happens),it seems unlikely that it was what I was seeing.
https://earthsky.org/space/46p-wirtanen-possibly-visible-to-eye-dec-2018
Was Venus having a particularly extravagant morning? At any rate, looking at a comet (or not) this close to Christmas made me think of a video by Hannah Gadsby. Before her recent US fame, she did a lot of other work, including a short series of Renaissance art explainer videos. The reference to a comet comes up at about 0:50 or so, but watch the whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqq0B21fhAA
And then I thought of the Sacred Harp song "Star in the East," sung here by Norumbega Harmony, which includes some people I know. The text has many settings in other styles, but I like this best
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5aAinuE_M
Then I started wondering how long the wise men would have been walking. When would they have to have seen the comet (star) to get to Bethlehem by Epiphany? I picked Najaf, Iraq as a possible starting area (presuming ancient Babylon). Google maps claims it would take 242 hours to go almost 1200 km. At ten hours a day, a little over three weeks would do it, so my non-comet would have timed it about right. It's good to remind oneself of old-style travel. I follow Martha Ballard on twitter (she's been dead for 206 years. The tweets are excerpts from her diary). She really got around, and so did lots of her family and neighbors. She often mentions staying over at someone's house, or other people staying with her. I guess people didn't worry much if a family member didn't turn up by bedtime, presuming that it was too far to go, so they broke up the journey by staying with someone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Ballard
https://twitter.com/Martha_Ballard
Relatedly (?), it looks like it will be too cloudy to see the Geminid shower.
https://earthsky.org/space/46p-wirtanen-possibly-visible-to-eye-dec-2018
Was Venus having a particularly extravagant morning? At any rate, looking at a comet (or not) this close to Christmas made me think of a video by Hannah Gadsby. Before her recent US fame, she did a lot of other work, including a short series of Renaissance art explainer videos. The reference to a comet comes up at about 0:50 or so, but watch the whole thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqq0B21fhAA
And then I thought of the Sacred Harp song "Star in the East," sung here by Norumbega Harmony, which includes some people I know. The text has many settings in other styles, but I like this best
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5aAinuE_M
Then I started wondering how long the wise men would have been walking. When would they have to have seen the comet (star) to get to Bethlehem by Epiphany? I picked Najaf, Iraq as a possible starting area (presuming ancient Babylon). Google maps claims it would take 242 hours to go almost 1200 km. At ten hours a day, a little over three weeks would do it, so my non-comet would have timed it about right. It's good to remind oneself of old-style travel. I follow Martha Ballard on twitter (she's been dead for 206 years. The tweets are excerpts from her diary). She really got around, and so did lots of her family and neighbors. She often mentions staying over at someone's house, or other people staying with her. I guess people didn't worry much if a family member didn't turn up by bedtime, presuming that it was too far to go, so they broke up the journey by staying with someone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Ballard
https://twitter.com/Martha_Ballard
Relatedly (?), it looks like it will be too cloudy to see the Geminid shower.
