[meteorite-list] Vestan Nights (A Midequinoccial Night's Dream)

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

Hola everyone,

As Vesta and Earth accelerate away from each other, and Ron 
posts all these interesting NASA accomplishments, I wanted to 
share a somewhat more modestly priced remote sensing mission 
of my own that also yielded priceless results, and mention a 
little bit of mythology about the constellation Aquarius (And 
Pisces Australis).  And the good part is I was not only 
principal investigator, but this time my collaborating 
investigators were just a noisy bunch of coyotes that confined 
me hermetically sweating projectiles inside the main transport 
vehicle (15 year old Chevy) for a half hour in the solitude of 
(desert) space.

At first I used my binoculars from inside the principal 
vehicle, until life support systems started to fail and the 
windows fogged over and my tee-shirt became heavy with sweat.  
And how fitting it was that the starboard view was gawking 
right at Aquarius, the "Water Bearer" who apparently was to 
busy attending Zeus (technically, Zeus=Jupiter, but it was New 
Moon, and no planets were in sight).

Most know that the most of the Jovian satellites (i.e. 
Jupiter's moons), are named after the philandering King of the 
Gods' secret hot consorts or women who suckled him as a baby.  
They mostly take Greek names from Greek mythology even though 
Jupiter is the Latin version of Zeus.  So what does this have 
to do with Aquarius and my wanting a drink in the command 
module's sauna?

Well, the biggest moon of Jupiter, which is bigger than not 
only Pluto, but also than Mercury, is named Ganymede.  
Ganymede's Latin named counterpart is basically - Aquarius.  
While today's morality is definitely different than that of 
the Greeks, it isn't a secret that Hebe, Zeus' original female 
liquid pourer (I believe it was wine, not water) fell and hurt 
herself, and according to some accounts exposed her most 
private parts.  This caused celebration or consternation 
depending on whom you ask.  Older versions seem to suggest 
that accidentally exposing one's err...genitals was good luck, 
but other versions seem to say it was great chagrin.  Either 
way, asteroid Hebe (a prime candidate "body" for the Ordinary 
Chondrites, according to Harry McSween Jr.'s "Meteorites and 
their Parent Planets") hurt herself in the accident, so Zeus 
sent his Eagle (right above Aquarius is Aquila, the Eagle) to 
fetch the most beautiful and youthful lad on Earth to take her 
place as liquid pourer and Youthful perfection.  Why Zeus 
would worry about beauty seems to indicate he was in the mood 
for a male bedfellow – something considered rather normal at 
the time as most will see portrayed when Alexander the Great 
gets released this fall.  In any case, Zeus’ Golden Eagle 
fetched Ganymede, and Hebe and especially Juno (=Hera the 
wife) were snubbed as Ganymede/Aquarius satisfied Zeus' 
needs.  Back on Earth, Zeus sent an immortal stallion to the 
king of Troy, Ganymede's father, as a gift for the 
kidnapping.  (Ever wonder why Aquarius, Aqua and Aquila 
[=>Aguila => Eagle] and Aurum are similar words, not sure, but 
probably has to do with Ganymede/Aquarius liquid and the 
Golden Eagle).

Well, by midnight the heat inside the command module was 
unbearable, so I summoned up enough courage to get out and the 
first thing I did was throw the odiferous astro-food (chicken 
carcass) as far as I could.  When I heard chomping mandibles, 
I picked up lots of black looking stones (hey it was night) 
and unfortunately a black looking little barrel cactus to 
throw at the noises and I heard my non-value added 
collaborating investigators make their exodus as I removed 
lots of little spines from my fingers.

Fear now tossed aside by thoughts of hurt fingers and Vesta, I 
deployed the remote sensing equipment.  The equipment was my 
landlocked Nikon and and the detector whatever chemical dyes 
are in department store Kodak film these days.  Using a 
variation of Dave Freeman's meteorite hunting kit, I got out a 
protractor and string attached to a cane with a safety pin 
counter weight, used for orienting the main imaging barrel (a 
Nikon 100 mm lens).

But first a view through the pan-bins (5X opera glasses), as 
Fomalhaut glowed brightly in the Southern sky, and my 
equipment magnetically responded.  Time to go star hopping for 
the third night from Fomalhaut to the "reflected curves" to 
the "striking cobra" stars to then get a visual on Omega-2 
Aquarii mag. 4.5 (and Omega-1 and HD8987).

While Fomalhaut is not really in the constellation Aquarius 
according to modern astronomers, it is the eye, head or mouth 
of Pisces Australis (The Southern Fish - not the zodiacal 
fishes), it is the end of the stream of water being poured 
from Aquarius's clay pot.  In the link that will shortly 
follow, Aquarius and Pisces Australis can be seen illustrated 
by the imaging team with actual mission results (Science and 
Nature magazines had a backlog of NASA papers, so I am 
publishing the good stuff here).  Please don't complain if it 
isn't a Hubble image, after all the Principal Investigator had 
to do it, not an imaging specialist coyote with NASA or at 
least an Acme instrument catalog.

After enjoying a beautiful view of Vesta through the pan-bins, 
I got out the has-bins (old 16X heavy astronomical scopes - 
Bushnell binoculars).  Wow was Vesta pretty.  I was sure she 
looked bluish, sitting there in the clock made by the Omega-2 
centered, Omega-1 and HD8987 clock face...with Vesta now at 
the 1:30 position between Ome1 and Ome2.

As I waited until the celestial sphere's surface containing 
Vesta rotated further away from the glowing city light, I 
started to begin imaging.  Since the 100 mm lens was totally 
dark that is where engineering came in with the elementary 
school protractor, cane, string and pin.  No light could be 
seen through the camera lens, but analysis today showed that 
every picture in the 10 degree field was successfully 
oriented.  Accolades to the team...

After hearing an occasional coyote munching, or with night 
vision now able to see the bats when they swooped nearby, and 
an occasion chirping night bird, it was about time to abort 
the mission as I wondered if the mission commander would have 
enough energy reserves to make the perilous journey home.

So very quickly as a finale, I switched to the wam-cam (wide-
angled monsterview camera) to try to record images of the 
principal investigator, command module and centered the lens 
near the Southern Fish's eye as the guide star.

After a few quick images, I again had ignition of the main 
liquid-gas phase internal combustion propulsion system, and 
left the solitude to the glutinous coyotes inhabiting that 
region of (desert) space, under an occasional yucca tree.

After the outsourced image processing team in the local food 
store processed the images, and ran them through an economical 
printer which is really not optical but digital, and then the 
Principal investigator scanned a print for posterity, with an 
ancient Taiwanese 6-year old US$60 scanner, I was able to 
prepare the image and explanations at the following link:
http://www.diogenite.com/vestad.JPG
It illustrates the constellations, stars and Vesta, all in the 
same picture with the principal investigator (I am sitting on 
the hood, but only a faint circle is visible down the 
mountainside recognizable where the stars are blocked, and 
command module which blend in with the mountainous horizon.  
But such a large, dark swath of pretty night sky, almost clear 
(clouds to the right) is always a pleasure, especially when 
one of the little dots is Vesta and you know which one, as 
well as who else is in the neighborhood (all are labeled)! 
(the script "w" in the photo is Omega, i.e., Omega-1 is shown 
as w1).

Enjoy, Vesta-fiesta is still not over...until the Harvest Moon 
heavily materializes.
I’ll put up an image of Vesta with the 100 mm lens at this 
link shortly:
http://www.diogenite.com/Vesta100.JPG
These are all garden-variety cameras that by day take the 
pictures of some ugly mugs I know.  That is what is so special 
about Vesta for earthlings, besides the wonderful meteorites 
she provides (Of course I brought some along)!  Hope she 
doesn’t stay too long in the sea (the part of the sky of 
Aquarius, fishes, etc.
Saludos,
Doug