Re: VMs: The Star Chart on f68r3

["Robert Teague" <rteague@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> In addition, I'm fascinated by Robert's suggestions about f68r3, most
> specifically about the difference between six-point stars (fake stars,
> background) and seven-point stars (real stars, foreground). By itself,
this
> observation (if verifiable) points to the diagrams in the VMS as
containing
> *diagrammatic information*.

The first rough estimates of star magnitudes were made by Ptolemy around
10 AD. He called the brightest first magnitude, and the ones barely visible
sixth magnitude. This system was made scientific and adopted by
astronomers in the mid-1800s.

> This isn't a trivial point - everyone here has examined the diagrams and
> "seen" patterns, but proving that the modes of representation in there
(ie,
> number of points on a star, colour of a star, etc) are actually being used
> to carry meaningful information would be a very big step forward in
> positing signal over noise, code rather than gull. :-)

The finding of astronomically-accurate information in the VMs would
tend to support the idea that other charts are as accurate; if they can
only be interpreted correctly.

> Cheers, .....Nick Pelling.....
>
> PS: a further possibility is that, on other diagrams (such as f67v1), the
> number of points on a star could instead be representing its magnitude
(ie,
> a primitive measure of "foregroundness"). Going clockwise from 12 o'clock
> (inside outwards), the number of points on f67v1 are (from the CopyFlo):-
>          7 7
>          6 7
>          7 6
>          8 8 7
>          7 7
>          7
>          7 7
>          7 6
>          7 6
>          6 7
>          7 7 7
>          6 7 7 7
>          7 7
>          7 7
>          6 6 6
>          6 6 7
>          7 7

I find this most intriguing. It may be of interest to see how many different
points there are on stars; like 3 point is 1st mag, 4 point 2nd, and so on
to 8 point is 6th. That would help in identifying the stars.

I'll check my astronomy books and see what I can find about methods
of representing stars within the period we're concerned with.

Robert

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