Re: VMs: Pleiades Occultation Date Refinement

[KenW <ken@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Teague wrote:

> 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
>
>  
Robert,
I took a look through a few of your dates.  Did you run the dates with a 
European location?  On the first three dates the occultation occurs well 
below the horizon for a test location of Berlin.  The 1503 and 1506 
occultations were visible from a central European location just before 
the moon and Pleiades set below the horizon.  I haven't checked the rest...

Ken Walczak

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