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Robert:
I just want to thank you for your excellent work and time. I think
you are doing a great service here. The cooincidences in the dates are
striking, to say the least. And the identification of events/star
groupings could be the key to the whole thing.
If you are correct in the dates/events then it shows that the text is more
related to the drawings than some people thought. In fact, I was about to
admit the whole thing was a hoax and move on to less interesting (but less
frustrating) things. You have re-sparked my interest! (but taken
away all the free time I was about to gain! <grin>)
****************************** Larry Roux Syracuse University lroux@xxxxxxx ******************************* >>> rteague@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 01/24/03 10:02AM >>> First, a minor correction: In the list of numbers in my last post, I accidentally used EVA < t > instead of < k > for the number 6. I think it's likely that < f > will turn out to be 0, but I'm looking to find it used as such first. And the letter for 8 may turn out to be < 8 >. I'm trying to reserve all judgement as to the language or encoding scheme, but I will point out that a proper name could still be recognized, and would give letter values. I'm thinking in particular of f67v1. In the short line of text (4 letters.5 letters) to the left of the face between the dark stars, the first word is 1572, which for me confirms that it depicts Tycho's Star. (Granted that Tycho's face is iffy; it needs a much clearer picture to tell for sure.) The second word could be "Tycho", or "Brahe". Possible words to look for: Tycho Brahe, Tycho de Brahe, Tyge Brahe, Tychonis Brahe, De Nova Stella (the book he wrote on it), Cassiope, Cassiopeia, Cassieopeia I could still be barking up the wrong tree, and it depicts Kepler's Star-- the supernova of 1604 in Ophiuchus. One astronomical event that is conspicuous by its absence is the Great Comet of 1577. I've seen on several websites a woodcut of the comet as seen over Prague. It may be that the "galaxy" on f68r is actually the nucleus of the comet, and f68r2 is its position in the sky. And f68v3 may be the eclipse of the Moon 8 December 1573. The female face is the Earth; the rays are from the Sun, which is covered. I think the idea that the number of points of a star is a rough estimate of its magnitude should be abandoned, as it's just not working out. In Tycho's book, there is a picture showing where the nova was, and all the stars are eight-point, just different sizes for magnitude. I had forgotten about the change in calendar in the mid-16th Century. Starry Night does not seem to take it into account. Maybe that's why I'm having trouble identifying dates with the year. Robert ______________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send mail to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxx with a body saying: unsubscribe vms-list |