h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Didn't realise you'd added some more, will read it through in the am, as it's on the reccy page and may get picked tomorrow

Re: photo, will do

Carina. Puppis, Vela and Pyxis.

I touched on the story here: A37614125 but I have to admit I haven't studied the now-defunct ancient constellation of Argo Navis. Shall I change that to add Pyxis (the compass?)

If there's four...then A32252348 needs to be tweaked then?

I'd be inclined to leave it as it is.

Only because this is just another of those little anomolies that keep occuring.

Argo was the largest constellation in the sky but the convention existed before La Caille's time to refer to the location of a star as in 'the keel' or 'sail' etc of Argo. La Caille divided it and created Pryxis from stars in the mast/sail, probably along with his other 'scientific wonders' of the time. But Pryxis was disregarded and almost fell into disuse over the years. Hence it wasn't regarded by some astronomers as a seperate constellation until it was included in the classifications of the borders in 1930 by the IAU.

So, although it is officially a seperate constellation in its own right, it isn't generally regarded as a part of Argo. In other words, it's debateable.

Or Pyxis even.

Canis Minor is in PR: F48874?thread=5624363

Do you want to add this to Auriga?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap031124.html

I've been writing about AE Aurigae in my Columba: A37614125 - it was once paired with Mu Columbae before a bit of a fight

It's a pity I missed that. It seems that I'm too late to get anything further into Auriga.

I had a very quick read thro Columba. It seems fine. I'll get back on it for another look as soon as I can.

Are you aware that out of the fifty-six EG entries in 'Coming Up', twelve are constellations?
That's 20% of the total. Amazing.

No, I wasn't aware of that

Re: Auriga, it would be a shame to miss out the Flaming Star. If you want to write a para I'll ask to Eds to add it to the recommended version so it will be subbed to include it, or if you want to take your time I can add it as a Curator logging the insertion at the Curator page after it's gone live. That's if I don't get it to sub.

Auriga
It seems that I can get into it at the moment. I'll put something in over the weekend.

Yesterday's APOD was stupendous.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080704.html

I was so impressed that I put it up as background on my screen at work. At least three people commented on it as it caught their eye in passing. I had to explain what it was and about it three times over, including that it was a composite, but all of them seemed genuinely interested.

One, who has absolutely no interest in such things, spent some time examining and talking about it said

'Jeez, I never knew there were such things up there.'

What do you mean "you can get into it" do you mean the recommended version? A37952724 or the PR version? (it's no good changing that)

It's lovely to teach someone about what they're missing out on, isn't it? I just sent off Lupus last night, so I wish I'd know about that, I could have added the link, but I still will when it's gone live and I have the edit button back

My current desktop is http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080619.html - awesome, I can't stop studying it - love those two bright stars either side of the "Q"

Ah, I see. I went to the ‘What’s coming up’ page and clicked on the link there. It gave me the edit button. I thought that was the recommended version.

I can see now that it’s not the same page. My mistake. I’ll write the bit and keep it to one side. Let me know if you get it to sub.

I saw the star stream one. It’s almost as if it’s airbrushed in. They seem to be finding more and more unusual things every day. Cool though.

I got your recommended version by sticking "Auriga" into the search box

Only the bottom batch *awaiting polish* have the soon-to-be edited number, it's

I love that star trail from the now-cannibalised galaxy. It's ghostly, an echo, almost like a snail trail, that the creature left in the night and now cannot be seen. Except a million times prettier

If you have clear skies, look for Mars and Saturn forming a tiny triangle with the moon tonight

Front Page author
That's #44 edited constellation

Last night and this evening it's been absolutely chucking it down. I didn't get a chance to see anything last night, but it was mainly 10/10 cloud. Tonight the rain stopped a while ago and there's been a magnificent rainbow outside the window, which has just faded as the sun went down.

I'm going on with Vela and Pyxis at the moment with what I've got together. I can't think any further ahead at the moment.