VMs: Pleiades Occultation Date Refinement

["Robert Teague" <rteague@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Further analysis of f68r3 has narrowed the possible dates the event
depicted occured.

Besides Aldebaran and the Pleiades shown in the NW section, the
two stars in the NE section are Algol (closest to the Moon) and Mirfak.
They point at the Moon.  This is enough to give a precise position, and
the Moon occults the Pleiades the next night.

On nearly every folio where the Moon is drawn, it is shown in a 
waxing gibbous (approaching full) phase, and this folio is no exception. 
It appears that way in Taurus only at the end of the year.

No planets intrude in the diagram. It is late at night, so Mercury and
Venus are eliminated as possibilities.

The following dates meet the conditions above, grouped by
occultation period:

04 Dec 1413
22 Dec 1414

22 Dec 1433

28 Dec 1503
25 Dec 1506

28 Dec 1522
18 Dec 1523
07 Dec 1524
14 Dec 1526

10 Dec 1540
30 Nov 1541

20 Dec 1577
10 Dec 1578
07 Dec 1582

27 Dec 1599

Additional information:  west is at the bottom of the diagram,
and the SE section may be Triangulum.


Robert

"Drop the hot sauce, and step away from the nose!"  --Shego

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