Limit of navigation

Further adventures in my pursuit of the 'limit of navigation' in the southern night sky.

Theoretically, from my back garden at 52 deg N, I should be able to see a star with declination 38 S when it is due South in the sky.

In practice of course, horizon haze, horizon obstructions (houses etc) and tossers with security lights mean that you may not be able to see that far down - in my experience you're doing well to see to within 5-8 degrees of the horizon, which puts the limit of navigation at 30 S - 33 S.

So last night I was pleased not only to see Fomalhaut easily visible at 29 1/2 S, but scanning with binoculars I found delta PsA below it at 32 1/2 S. I've seen that far before, at another site, in Sagittarius, but in fact at 32 deg 32 min South, this star just crosses the previous limit.

I also had a good look for gamma PsA (20 arcmin further south) but sadly it was hidden behind chimney pots.

In my world of binocular back-garden astronomy, spotting a 4th magnitude star less than 6 deg from the horizon is a real triumph.

Update Oct 23rd: Going out a little later last night, could easily see delta and gamma. Gamma takes me to 32 deg 52 S.

One of my favourite books is The Lost Weekend, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone who isn't an addict and wants to know what addiction feels like.

The best chapter describes how the protagonist, Don Birnam, staggers up 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, desperately trying to find a pawnshop at which he can convert his typewriter into whisky money. But they're all closed: and after an epic journey he realises that this is because it's Yom Kippur (presumably it was a given that all pawnshops were run by Jewish people in that time and place).

However, the action of the novel is stated to take place in early October 1936 (either from Thursday 1st-Tuesday 6th, or Thursday 8th-Tuesday 13th). But I have it on good authority that Yom Kippur fell on September 26th in 1936.

(Don manages to stagger back home again down 1st Avenue. In the end he borrows the money from the supermarket manager).

Mixed-up confwhosion

I've been a DW fan for a long time - and indeed it must be 30 years since I first borrowed Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters from the library - but there are some stories which I'll still be mixing up after another 30 years.

The Mind Robber and The Celestial Toymaker - the TARDIS materialises nowhere, and the Doctor has to do stuff while his companions are harassed by fictional characters.

The Reign of Terror and The Massacre. It's France, it's the past and the companions are locked in cells while the Doctor pretends to be one of the chief French guys.

The Ark and The Space Museum. Trying to explain these to me is like Father Ted trying to explain perspective to the stupid priest. 'Do you see Shallow, in this story they have jumped a time track, but in that story they just come back to the same place in the future.' 'Er...'

The Mind of Evil and The Sea Devils. Pert, the Master, Jo and a prison.

The Sunmakers and Underworld. Lots of corridors and tunnels, and both a dramatic decline in quality from the rest of the season.

Thinking about Bilbo's domestic arrangements again: in The Hobbit he appears to do all his own housework. When the dwarves turn up for tea, he has to serve the food (and he's baked the cakes himself too) as well as washing up next day (lighting fires and boiling water in the process), and then he cleans the dining-room into the bargain.

Doesn't he keep any servants? Or were Wednesday and Thursday their days off? In the days before washing machines and vacuum cleaners, housework was a serious business. With a huge hole like Bag End to keep in order, it's a wonder Bilbo had time to go off for walks in the Country Round at all.

Of course, Holman Greenhand (and his apprentice Hamfast Gamgee) did the garden for him. And perhaps Frodo was displeased to find, when Bilbo adopted him as his heir and brought him to Bag End, that he had to pitch in with the housework; certainly when he moved to Crickhollow, Sam went with him 'to do for him', ie to keep house as well as just looking after the garden.

A fine haul of Targets from the second-hand bookshops today - Time and the Rani, Silver Nemesis, Happiness Patrol and Unearthly Child. That gives me, at one stroke, 100% Hart and Slyv coverage, and only 17 more books to go.

And Happiness Patrol completes the McCoy magical realist trilogy, which will be ample compensation for having paid actual money for Silver Nemesis.

Quick as a flash

Thinking today about the infamous pro-war-crimes Afghanistan episode of South Park, with its message that if you aren't cheering for the team you should get out of the stadium.

It occurs to me I know what Butters would say to that. 'Just what team is this anyway?' Team Torture?

So it's come to this 2 - overheard in a corridor

'And the most disturbing thing is, she's got a picture of Ted Heath on the wall, because he was instrumental in getting us into the EU...'