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

CS -- binoculars are not to be sniffed at. Patrick Moore recommended them over small telescopes.

Ed -- Satan does turn up in the Old Testament, most famously in Job. He first appears in Chronicles and his appearance there is a fecund source of debate. Not the place to discuss it here, but compare 2 Samuel 24:1 with 1 Chronicles 21:1. Same story, somewhat different dramatis personae.

Wiki has a good explanation, under Satan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satan

Job was fairly late, obviously. My working theory is that Judaism pinched dualism from Zoroastrianism.

Hmm. I wonder what the astrologers have to say about Venus. Is it a dis-aster?

I'm glad I'm not the only one confused!

I've seen the mysterious // at roughly east south east 3am tuesday morning and roughly south east at 6.30am Thursday morning. I also thought I saw it at around 9pm Tuesday night roughly East.

From looking at a couple of basic constellation charts and the descriptions and links posted here, I think it was Mars, because Orion was to the right and down a bit, if Mars is in Gemini, that does look roughly right. I will be out with my binoculars tonight if it's clear again when I'm out with Fred.

Ta for that, R'man. Looks like I wasn't too wide of the mark. All these religions are so damned syncretic...but as you say, that's a discussion for elsewhere.

But I'm *so* going to have to adapt that page from the Codex Gigas for a t-shirt transfer.

Mina keep a lookout for meteors as well, it's the Geminids meteor shower at the moment, although the expected maxim is tomorrow night, I have a feeling tonight will be well-covered as well.

I do beg your pardon Woodpigeon! (I've just read the backlog)

I'll keep my eye out for those too, although normally when there's something exciting going on it's cloudy.

Told you - cloudy! I had a quick look at around 8, and although it was hard to spot with the binoculars (all that black space looking for one tiny pinprick) and I did think I saw something round, although could have been my imagination. When I tried to adjust the focus I lost the thing, then realised there were loads of kids hanging around so I went to training. No chance of seeing anything there, with all the floodlights, then when I came out again it was cloudy and I couldn't see anything.

It's still cloudy now.

nnnn...It's looking to be a typical, overcast Scottish day here, too. Bill Bryson's description of the British climate:
"It's like living in Tupperware."

Mina, I've checked the times and directions against the star chart. The answer is ambiguous.

Location London.

Tuseday 11th, 3am, ESE: Saturn (Mars was in the SW, Venus not visible)

Tuesday 11th, 9pm, E: Mars (Saturn and Venus not visible)

Thursday 13th, 6:30am SE: Venus (Saturn was SSW)

You should be able to tell the three planets apart:

Venus looks pure white and so bright it is like an aeroplane's landing lights. Venus rises soon before the sun, so you won't see it in the middle of the night. It's still up after the sun comes up but is blotted out by the daylight.

Mars at the moment is like the brightest thing in the sky other than Venus, but nowhere near as bright, and it is a definite beige colour. It doesn't twinkle and noticeably looks like a tiny disc rather than a pinpoint of light. Mars is up all night at the moment, rising at about 8pm.

Saturn is only slightly brighter than the stars around it, and is really only distinguishable from a star because it doesn't flicker or twinkle. If you recognise the constellations, you'll spot Saturn because it is a star where there shouldn't be one.

Mercury is almost never visible and Jupiter isn't around at the moment.

>>is really only distinguishable from a star because it doesn't flicker or twinkle.

You know...that's never worked for me. Stars and planets both seem to twinkle. Maybe I've a natural twinkle in my eyes.

If they're low in the sky they will twinkle even if they are planets.

I think probably I've seen all three in that case. It must have been Venus I saw at one point because I did think that it was a plane until I realised it wasn't moving - we get a lot of planes flying overhead.

Thanks for looking it up for me, I'll keep trying with the binos if the cloud lifts again.

I suppose it's urban living. Planets twinkle in polluted cities.

Reminder: tonight is the maxim of the Geminid meteor shower, although you'll need to look out later than 8pm, and definitely no binoculars

Binoculars don't work through cloud anyway.

And I couldn't find my x-ray specs.

Not too cloudy over Dublin; after my concert (where I shared the stage with Gnomon for about the fourth time) (a triumph naturally) I went out in the garden for five minutes to water the dog and saw one spectacular spark zooming westwards overhead. It lasted a good six or seven seconds but was way too fast to be a plane or anything terrestrial

Right, it was definitely Mars. It was clear and bright last night, and did look round. I'd still say it was sandy coloured, but I guess that's not very far away from beige and I do have a lot of light pollution to put up with.

Binoculars very much a failure. Very hard to focus on something very far away, especially when it keeps jiggling about.

What power binoculars are they? The lower the better, for looking at the sky.