Asterism

Today? I’ve helped program an asterism into the planetarium in tribute to a dead hero.

I’ve also read a fair bit of Almagest, a book written around 150 A.D. by Ptolemy which concerns the cosmological world-view of the time. Arguments for geocentricm, a spherical Earth, fixed stars, and things like that. It’s great stuff.


Those who have been true philosophers, Syrus, seem to me to have very wisely separated the theoretical part of philosophy from the practical. For even if it happens the practical turns out to be theoretical prior to its being practical, nevertheless a great difference would be found in them; not only because some of the moral virtues can belong to the everyday ignorant man and it is impossible to come by the theory of whole sciences without learning, but also because in practical matters the greatest advantage is to be had from a continued and repeated operation upon the things themselves, while in theoretical knowledge it is to be had by a progress onward. We accordingly thought it up to us so to train our actions even in the application of the imagination as not to forget in whatever things we happen upon the consideration of their beautiful and well ordered disposition, and to indulge in meditation mostly for the exposition of many beautiful theorems and especially of those specifically called mathematical.

— Ptolemy (Almagest)

Love and stars,

Winterdragon

Published by Winterdragon

Leave a Reply