Night Sky Tracker (Horvitz)

 My husband bought this for me years ago when I was interested in astronomy. I put it on the shelf, under other books (never a good thing). Recently I rearranged all my shelves and decided to go through the book. Half of it is a logbook but the first half is quite informative. Those pages are what I will be narrating from. My goal is half a chapter. We shall see. I have only a short amount of time this morning for reading. So, let's get to it!

A Brief History of Astronomy

From the dawn of time, people have believed that the sky, movement of the planets and stars were of major importance to their livelihood. Astronomy is the oldest science and yet it is still evolving. 

Ancient Astronomy

In the beginning there was no distinction between astrology and astronomy- the belief that the stars and planets impacted lives directly and the scientific study of stars and planets. Comets and such phenomena were taken to mean there would be negative occurrences on the earth (earthquakes, plague, etc.). Even into the Middle Ages, astrologers were also astronomers. 

Astronomy developed independently on various continents, taking on various forms, mythological to scientific. Archaeology backs this by physical findings just about everywhere that people tracked the stars and planets. In China, during the Shang Dynasty, there was a calendar of 360 days that tracked the solar and lunar phases. The Egyptians went one further and devised a 365-day calendar. 

Later in history, observation met philosophy and Aristotle declared the universe was a finite (limited) sphere with Earth at the center. This was a geocentric universe theory. The Greek-Egyptian Ptolemy stated that the Earth was the center of universe, and as such, the Sun and planets revolved around it. He made a list of 48 constellations that are still used today, with some revision.

The Copernican Revolution

In the 15th century Nicolas Copernicus wrote a book titled On the Revolution of Heavenly Bodies. In this work, he refuted the geocentric universe theory and instead advanced a heliocentric theory; that the Sun is the center of the universe and all revolve around it. This meant that the Earth was "just another planet" (third rock from the Sun) and that the stars and other planets appeared to revolve around it because the Earth itself was in motion. In addition, he put forth the idea that the stars and planets seemed to be brighter at different times in direct relation to the distance it was from the Earth. 

Copernicus did not answer all questions, such as if the Earth was in motion, how did objects on the Earth stay put and not fly off? He also understood that his ideas were in contradiction to the Catholic Church, so he was careful to state them as theories, not fact. At first, his theories made little difference but in the late 16th century the observations of others finally overthrew the geocentric theory.

There is an illustration of the Copernican model with the planets orbiting the Sun. 

Tycho Brahe and the Supernova

In the 16th century Tycho Brahe was a mathematician studying to become a diplomat. But he was in a duel (over a mathematical argument) in which he lost part of his nose. His major notable accomplishment was his observations of the constellation of Cassiopeia in 1572, in which there was an explosive birth of a new star. His well documented observations have helped many astronomers searching for evidence of other supernovas. He did however still believe in the geocentric universe theory. 

The Story of the Greeks (Miller)

H. A. Guerber's The Story of the Greeks, edition by Christine Miller. The reading for the week is over pages 186-199, eight chapters, but I will not narrate the entire thing here. 

Death of Demosthenes

When Alexander (the Great) went to the East, the great orator Demosthenes (who wasn't a fan of Alex) tried to persuade the people to rise up against him and take back their freedom. But they didn't heed him. However, when they heard Alexander was dead, then they were more agreeable. There was a man named Phocion who wanted the Athenians to have patience. Phocion argued that they should at least wait until the rumor was confirmed. After all, if he was dead today, he'd still be dead tomorrow and the next day. What was the rush? 

The Athenians were not patient however and, joined by quite a few little cities (except Sparta), they marched to confront the Macedonians at Thermopylae. 

At first the Greeks were successful. They captured a fortress and besieged it. But then the Macedonians were able to defeat the Greeks at another time. That was all there was to the war really because Antipater, the Macedonian general, made peace with each of the cities separately. 

Antipater was so angry at the revolt that he swore to kill any who had had a part in stirring up the people. He learned that Demosthenes was one of them. He ordered his soldiers to take him prisoner. Demosthenes caught wind of this and was able to escape, but only to a temple of Neptune. Although usually temples were holy and weapons were not brought in, the soldiers went in anyway to get him. When Demosthenes saw that he had no choice, he asked if he might take a moment to write a litter to his friends. The soldiers saw no problem with this and watched him take up his parchment and reed. 

Demosthenes would write a bit then bite the tip of the reed, as if he was thinking. But he didn't continue to write, instead he covered his head with his hood and remained quite still. The soldiers waited a bit but then decided to check on him. He didn't answer when they called, so they pulled back the cloak and to their horror, saw that he was clearly about to die! They rushed him out of the temple because it was bad to defile the temple with death. 

Demosthenes had thought it better to kill himself than be a prisoner so he had hidden poison in the reed that he had bitten when pretending to write to his friends. 

The Greeks then thought that they should have listened to Phocion. They realized their mistake and put him at the head of their affairs. But Phocion was not very clever and much too cautious. His cautious nature eventually turned to cowardice. He feared the Macedonians so much that over time, they controlled more and more of Greece until after just a few years later, Antipater, the Macedonian governor, controlled all of it. 

The Last of the Athenians

Antipater was now in control of all of Greece but he was not a cruel ruler because he wanted to make friends so he would have help securing his portion of the realm that had been Alexander's. He soon heard that Perdiccas was on his way back from the East and had the infant king, named after his father, Alexander. Antipater knew that Perdiccas would want to make the infant king and himself regent, but Antipater wanted to be regent. 

Antipater decided to fight rather than give up easily. At this time many of Alexander's generals were also unhappy so they revolted as well. Perdiccas was surrounded by enemies but even so, he fought bravely, and even led an army against Ptolemy in Egypt. There was the Nile river to cross in order to get to Ptolemy, and in doing so many of his soldiers were eaten by crocodiles! Those who survived were so angry with Perdiccas that they fell on him and killed him. 

Around this time, Antipater also died. (So much for all that fighting!) Cassander, his son, was left to quarrel with a general, Polysperchon, over ruling Macedon. They both amassed an army to meet in battle. 

Though the Athenians tried to remain neutral, Polysperchon stormed into the city and accused Phocion and others of siding with Cassander. He condemned them to die by poison from hemlock plant. But there wasn't enough to kill them all! Phocion was forced to give money so that more could be bought. He said "It seems one cannot even die for nothing in Athens."

After Phocion died, it was said he was the last of the Athenians because he was the last notable politician; no one even tried to win back the freedom of Athens or uphold the city's power. 

Roxana and her son (Alexander) were brought to Macedon and placed under the protection of Polysperchon. When the infant Alexander's grandmother saw him, she was determined to secure the throne for him. She killed the "idiot king" Arridaeus and all his family! 

Cassander pretended to want to avenge the crime, captured and killed  Olympias, the grandmother. He also wrested power of Macedon and Greece from Polysperchon. After this, there was no one to fight for the mother and child, so he had them imprisoned, then killed them, too. Twelve years after Alexander the Great's death, all of his family was also dead. His empire fell to quarreling and split into several states.

(The other chapters for this week are titled "Ptolemy in Judea," "The Wonderful Library," "The Colossus of Rhodes," "The Battle of Ipsus," "Demetrius and the Athenians," and "The Achaean League.")

The Secret World of Weather (Gooley)

 Last time I ended with Gooley saying that it used to be that a forecast more than 2 days was crazy to believe (quite unreliable, and that upsets people) but more recently we have 10-day forecasts that aren't too bad (not 100% accurate but way better). I will pick up at the bottom of page 5 today. 

This development of accurate forecasts (with the help of advanced technology) has caused two problems (a disconnect) for us. It has led us to believe the weather itself cannot be its own forecaster and that the weather is detached from the land.

One noticeable thing is that tv and internet forecasts give us an unrealistic image of weather. On tv and the internet we often see large swirls of "weather" covering entire regions, when in reality it could take one many hours to even travel the region. We experience weather on a smaller scale.

When in conversation with a meteorologist, if they speak of showers, Gooley asks pointedly if it will rain in his backyard. The meteorologist will laugh of course because he knows that even with all the technology they have today, they still struggle to pinpoint where a predicted shower will fall. If they don't know the landscape personally or well, they will just kind of give up on that attempt altogether because they understand that even with all the computers put together they still cannot accurately determine exactly where. So, a 48-hour forecast was deemed impossible in the 1800s and yet with our extended forecasts today, the weather man still cannot give precise localized weather forecasts (small scale).

But we don't have this problem. With the use of our senses we are able to determine where rain will fall later, locally. First, the weatherman is trying to cater to thousands of people, in many counties. We only are concerned with our local area, which doesn't generally cover huge tracts of land. Second, the weatherman is looking at the atmosphere whereas we are looking at it as a person on the ground. So by being sensitive to the land a person can definitely learn the secrets of the weather that machines cannot.

The Secret World

The landscape shapes the weather. Machines can detect the factors that will affect the weather over large land masses but not when there is a change in landscape. All aspects of "weather" fluctuates as one walks even a short distance, up or down a hill, from one side of a tree to the other. If you mention this to a meteorologist they may get pedantic and say, no that's microclimate. But whatever they may call it, it is the weather we actually experience. 

The landscape we live in is actively shaped by the weather and the weather in turn is shaped by the landscape. Example: a wooded area is generally known for more rainfall. It allows the trees to grow, which in turn leads to more rain. He even says the rain we feel changes from one tree to another. 

A small flat island has different weather from a larger hilly one. From the air, you can even see the difference in color from one side to the other. One any day you may see sunbathers on the dry coasts of the Canary Islands and then rain-soaked plants on the opposite side. 

He talks next about Swiss Jura where on the two sides of a 2600 foot high ridge the climate is so drastically different it is like what we normally find traveling 625 miles across and/or 3000 feet in altitude in one single step. This proves that weather is and can be very different over very small spaces.

Another example of the extreme differences that can be detected in small areas is the juniper bush of the temperate zones of both the US and Europe. On the north side it can be as different from the south side as if we traveled 3000 miles, but it's just a few yards difference really. 

These are not theoretical or merely academic facts and figures. We can figure the average and probable weather conditions from the microclimate, but it also dictates the weather. These are our clues and with them we can learn to recognize and predict changes in weather. 

On a walk in early December, Gooley stepped into heathland from under some pines, expecting a chill in the air. He experienced just what he expected and saw some iced puddles, whereas in the wooded areas and grasslands it was not as cold. This is because heathland loses heat quickly at night resulting in cooler temperatures than surrounding land. He says we'll learn more about why it loses heat in the next chapter. 

Meteorologists are aware of these vast fluctuations and position their 'meters' at heights that will avoid them. It is ironic that those who forecast the weather go to such measures to avoid the very things that we actually experience when it comes to weather. They have perfected (well, made great strides toward this) predicting and understanding "big weather" and it has definitely proven its worth but they have also shortchanged us into thinking of weather as much bigger than it is where we actually are. 

In this book we will look at our local landscapes, towns and cities, in the hills and trees. Much will overlap with the big weather of the meteorologists but most are nestling in our small, local landscapes. It is the secret world of weather.

I have stopped before the next subheading of The Blocking High on page 9. 

A Meaningful World (Wiker & Witt)

 The book I will be narrating from today I partially* read over 10 years ago so it will be fun to revisit it. I am reading along with others over at the AmblesideOnline forum. This installment is over the Prologue, pages 11-13. 

*partially is a very generous way of saying I skimmed before or during narrations given by my kids while we were homeschooling

O, an alien "park ranger," is making his rounds of the planets. It's been one thousand years since his last visit to planet Earth. Much like the last visit, he sees war, violence, murder, envy, strife, but he encounters a pervasive hopelessness that he hadn't encountered before, as well as prosperity that doesn't normally go along with such an attitude. 

He sets out to find out why there is a hopelessness. He starts at the institutions to talk with professors but none can be bothered; they are busy reading, writing, or they just want to capture him to study him and display their "Exhibit A" to the world. 

Next he goes to the, what I'll call, common folk. These are those shopping, working day-to-day, every day people. (I think the authors are more specific about the kinds of people these are, based on what they are doing or their jobs, but I can't recall those details.) But none seem interested in helping him (or themselves) understand the pervading sense of hopelessness (they don't seem to understand even to what he is referring), instead they would rather plan their next fantasy football team, shop online, or play gory video games. It is suggested that he try one of the fancy coffee shops if he wants to talk philosophy. So he heads downtown and enters the first he comes to. 

There he hears a mixture of complaints: about this or that politician, a war or there. O points out the existence of such things have always been, but the occurrence of such complaints among people at fancy coffee shops was rather new. The last time he'd encountered something similar was in Rome, but even then, it was an exception and not the norm.

A "self-published poet in Birkenstocks" says that it's obvious: we are just dust in the wind; we are nothing, mean nothing. He knows this because Hawkins, Sagan and some other name has said so. O still doesn't understand this and asks for proof. Finally a religion professor states that we don't rely on proof anymore, we all have to make our own meaning from this world and live that out. Those in the coffee shop agree. 

O returns to his own planet and relays what he's found: despair amidst unparalleled prosperity. His fellow beings cannot believe him. He shares his findings, a nicely done powerpoint to prove to them. They are just as confused as he!

They conclude that a poison has entered human culture. Science has proven that life is meaningless and done it so thoroughly that no one ventures to present an argument. 

The aliens are fiction; the poison is real. Wiker and Witt have written this book as an antidote. 

Weekly Reading Plan

 I posted my reading goals in another post and since then I have hardly read a thing! I decided I needed a weekly reading plan. Each day I have decided which books (and sometimes how many pages) I will attempt to read. I am already technically two days behind. 

Best laid plans of mice and men...*

I tried to organize them so that I will be reading a diverse range of books, not all in the same subject matter. I imagine there will be days that I fail at this miserably. I'm okay with that. If I decide that on a particular day I do not wish to read a political science book, I will instead read an "other" book, I absolutely will! 

Key: 

H= History

E= Education

BC= Book Club

M= Math

N/S= Nature/Science

O= Other Reading

PS= Political Science

⌤= Alternate between two titles

Bible gets no designation. It needs none. 💖

Sunday:

Bible reading (Bible app, daily reading is set)

H - Bauer- 7 pages

⌤BC/E - CM Vol 3

⌤BC/E - CM Vol 4

N/S - Lehner 2-3 chapters 

H - GRH reading for week**

H - EEH reading for week**

Monday:

Bible reading

H - Bauer- 7 pages

⌤BC/E - Hicks- scheduled pages

⌤BC/E - Witt & Wiker- scheduled pages

H - ERRH reading for week**

BC - WLC Book club - roughly 1/4 of book

⌤M - Orlin- 15 pages

⌤M - Bellos- 15 pages

Tuesday:

Bible reading

H - Bauer- 7 pages

N/S - Gooley- 2 subheadings min.

O - Substack- 1 article min.

BC/PS - Ellul- scheduled pages

H - EARH reading for week**

Wednesday:

Bible reading

H - Bauer- 7 pages

H - GDCW reading for week**

N/S - Horvitz 1/2 chapter

O - Substack 1 article min.

N/S - Old Farmer's Almanac

Thursday:

Bible reading

H - Bauer- 7 pages

H - Larson

⌤M - Orlin 15 pages

⌤M - Bellos 15 pages

O - Hawke

BC/PS - Propaganda

Friday:

Bible reading

H - Bauer- 7 pages

O - Gooch- 10 pages

⌤BC/E - CM Vol 3

⌤BC/E - CM Vol 4

⌤BC/E - Hicks scheduled pages

⌤BC/E - Witt & Wiker scheduled pages

O - Substack

Saturday:

Bible reading

H - Bauer- 7 pages

O - Fleming

open - catch up

*I believe that is from Grapes of Wrath, which I have never read. Feel free to correct me! 

**These are for my online classes. GRH is Greeks & Romans History (Augustus Caesar's World, Story of the Greeks, Story of the Romans); EEH is Early English History (Birth of Britain); ERRH is English Renaissance & Reformation History (The New World); EARH is Early American & Revolutions History (The Age of Revolution, A History of the American People); GDCW is Great Democracies & US Civil War (Great Democracies, A History of the American People)

History of the Ancient World (Bauer)

 I have wanted to read Bauer's books for years and my husband gifted the volume set to me for Christmas. (We used her The Story of the World, Vol. 4, in our homeschool many years ago.) This is one book that I am doing a written narration for every reading so it is taking a lot more time. I have devised a plan for finishing the first volume by the end of April, the second by the end of August, and the last by year's end. It is a lot of reading, and I have to be consistent every day. 

For this entry, it will be over part of chapter 4, Creation of an Empire (pages 22-24). Near the end of the last chapter she told how there were firsts: first kings by hereditary and then the rise of the aristocracy (ruling class by birth). Both of these ideas (kings and born aristocracy) haven't gone away. But she ended with Kish being the central city because of its strategic location on the rivers and how trade with other cities had strengthened its authority. However, Kish rulers didn't appear to be overly ambition and didn't really conquer other cities. That was to come from another nation. That's where we pick up.

Southwest of Sumer, the Scorpion King was making his move through the Nile river valley. The Scorpion King is somewhere between a myth and history. There isn't much about him other than a carving on a ceremonial dagger. But he made his attempt to conquer the world around 3200 BC. 

The Scorpion King was of African descent of people who lived on either side of the Nile river valley. Centuries before his birth, when Sumer was ruled by Alulim, the Nile river valley was probably uninhabitable. Every year the heavy rains swelled the Nile and flooded the land. The hunter-gatherers rarely hung around. They settled in the lands to the west and east, along the Red Sea. In those years the climate was cooler and wetter and the Sahara was grassy, proven by archaeological finds of trees and plants under the sand.

As the weather got hotter and drier the Nile floods also became less extreme. The people who'd traveled through the Sahara now made their way to the well-watered  Nile valley. They were able to withstand the short duration of flooding and even captured some water for storage to irrigate their fields during the drier months. They settled and planted along the banks where dark silt built up. They hunted the wildlife: ibex, hippopotami, cattle, fish, birds, etc. These, along with some from the Red Sea area, were the first settlers of the Nile valley, or the first Egyptians. 

(She has a footnote here that I haven't read yet.)

Unlike Sumer, the Nile valley had all that it needed, except wood. They had animals for hunting and work, copper, stone, papyrus, flax, etc. The Nile pretty much supplied all their needs. They did trade with the east for ivory and the west for shells, the north for semiprecious stones. 

The Nile river ran through a valley 500 miles long, bordered by cliffs and flatlands. The floodwaters began upstream in what we know now as the Ethiopian highlands, through two cataracts (not sure what that means), and down to a flat plain where it branched off to form the Nile delta. 

Because the Nile flowed from south to the north, it was clear to the Egyptians that every other river ran backwards. They had only one word for north, downstream, and back of the head. There was one word for south, upstream, and face. To orient oneself, an Egyptian always turned toward the south, the flow of the Nile. When they buried the dead, the head pointed south and the feet to the west; south was life (Nile) and death was the Sahara (westward), where they'd come from.

The Egyptians gave their land two names, Kemet meaning Black Land, because black was the color of life and resurrection. The other was Deshret, meaning Red Land. The line was so distinct that a man could bend over and place one hand on the Black Land (fertile earth) and the other on the Red Land (sun baked desert). 

This doubleness was echoed in their civilization. Much like Sumer with its "streaming-in" of people, cities in Egypt had grown by 3200 BC. The city of Nubt was the strongest city in the south due to the gold mines along the east-west route, while the Hierakanopolis was the second strongest. Unlike Kish, Eridu, Ut, Uruttu, and such from last chapter, these two cities were not separate but identified themselves as part of the White Kingdom, under the ruler who wore the White Crown. In the north there was Heliopolis and Buto which banded together under the Red Kingdom. The king of the Red Kingdom wore, wait for it, a red crown. But it had a cobra shape on the front and he had a cobra-goddess who would spit venom at his enemies. The two kingdoms, White and Red, were like the Red and Black Lands; world is made up of balanced and opposing forces. 

(Reminds me of the Red Rose and the White Rose... War of the Roses many many years later in a different place.)

The Secret World of Weather (Gooley)

This narration is over pages 3-5 of The Secret World of Weather by Tristan Gooley.

 

It was Thursday in September in South Downs. There was a breeze and sunshine and the sea was a dark dull band in the distance. Looking at the oak tree, it was clear the weather would hold. How could he tell? There were "several clues and two signs" that told and we can know their secrets. 

Weather forecasts have a bad name and it started with FitzRoy. He was a "weather pioneer" in the Royal navy and coined the term "forecast" but his reward was criticism every time he was wrong. Unfortunately, FitzRoy didn't take that too well; he took his life in 1865.

It is unfortunate and even at the time, no one believed there was enough evidence to suggest someone could predict what the weather would be like for the next 48 hours. But 100 years later we had weather 'forecasts' all the time, even while there were still many doubters. Someone else said that there was very little accuracy for a forecast beyond 24 hours. 

And today? It takes mere seconds to find forecasts worldwide for days on end. How is this? We didn't actually get any better at reading the signs. We do have four advantages however in our time: more accurate and plentiful data, better machines, a better understanding of weather, and faster communication. 

Communication is actually quite important to this. It is of no use to anyone if an accurate forecast be made  for today or tomorrow but it takes two weeks to get to anyone! There had been the practice of hoisting cones up to let people know of gales but it would take entirely too much hoisting to send a message across a vast expanse. 

An example is given of a gale that rose off the coast of Ireland and forty-four sailors died as a result. The storm had been predicted but sadly the news hadn't reached so far as the islands off the mainland. 

Even today with our ten-day forecasts, it is a struggle. They are more reliable at about five or six days but begin to be doubtful after that. Just a couple of decades ago a forecast beyond a couple days would have been unbelievable whereas today, we can fairly trust a five-day forecast. There are improvements! But we still have more to make.