A Brief Egyptian Module

Themed Module 1 - Under Egyptian Skies

It is a leap of many years from our own backyard skies to those of the ancients, yet here is a time machine like no other available to us. Though the skies change slowly, we can still see the stars mostly as our ancient human ancestors saw them, linking us to them. And among those who left monuments and writings behind so that we may see what they saw, none may be better than the ancient Egyptians. For what monuments have stood the test of time like the Great Pyramids? Behold the pyramid of Khufu, largest of the three outside Cairo that hold so many mysteries of the ages. Mysteries of burial customs yes, for the pyramids were tombs, burial chambers for Egyptian royalty .. The pyramids were engineering marvels - we find evidence of whole towns housing laborers, who may have been slaves but may have been paid workers.. who seemingly somehow built these enormous lasting structures. But prolonged study of the pyramids provide many clues of the skywatching practices of the ancient Egyptians, who literally merged earth with sky for all eternity/

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is part of a three pyramid chain of lesser tombs on the plain of Giza, guarded by the famous Sphinx. The resemblance of their layout to the three belt stars of Orion is well documented, Orion represented one of Egypts most powerful gods, Osiris, god of death, rebirth and the afterlife. It is easy to see why, since Orion is such an imposing celestial figure then and now. But there is more ... two thin shafts connect Khufu's actual burial chamber with the outside of the structure ... originally thought to be airholes, they roughly align with Orions belt, and the then pole star Thuban in the Constellation Draco. In 2550 BC when Khufu ruled, the earths skies appeared to revolve around Thuban as they do today around Polaris, our own North Star. The building of these shafts is an engineering marvel in itself given the huge size of the stones .. how they were aligned so precisely to important stars compounds the wonder!

The most famous star in ancient Egyptian skies was Sirius, the dog star, brightest still in our heavens of today. Sirius would rise in the dawn at the beginning of the Nile River flooding season - the Nile was vitally important to Egyptian life, agriculture, and trade. Egptian priests who learned to site Sirius first appearance in the dawn sky could predict the flooding, giving them considerable power and influence. Sirius follows Orion in the sky, and first appears at dawn during late summer. When we view our sun rising with Sirius gleaming fitfully on the horizon, think back about what it must have meant to these ancient, intelligent people.

The Egyptians had many star myths and legends just as we do today. In addition to Orion being Osiris, the Milky Way represented the sky goddess Nut, giving birth to the sun god Re. The stars were represented by the goddess of writing, Seshat, and the moon by Thoth, the god of wisdom. Even the horizon, something we today never think of, had significance to the ancient Egyptian skywatchers. The rising sun was associated with Horus, child of Osiris and Isis. Re was the strong noontide sun - think of the incredible heat and light of the noonday sun in the Egyptian desert and its easy to see why this was their most powerful god. The setting sun however was named Atum, the creator god. It was he that lifted the pharohs from their Pyramid tombs into the stars - the redness of the setting sun was his blood as he died. Egyptian immortality was tied together with this daily birth and rebirth of the sun and sky.

They Egyptians called the northern circumpolar stars 'the Imperishable Ones', for they never set .. but in truth their entire culture is Imperishable for us since they preserved so much legacy and history. Like the stars, their monuments, writings, and memory seem to linger on into eternity.

A Cakebox Full of Stars

Its Built .. On With The Show

It strikes me as odd that most endeavors in life are not like this .. we fly the airplane as we built it mostly, jobs dont stop as we train .. if we switch jobs/careers there is urgent pressure to get back in the game .. some game... any game like I had to .. I didnt grow up wanting to sell cell phones... most things the signposts come hot and heavy .. exit one mile! college in September! the baby is here in December .... you'll be 70 in X year s...

so into the midst of this built it as you fly it world we seem to live in .. comes this leisurely thing called home planetariums ... and look at me.... i need another year to get my power cords organized ... give me another 3 years and i'll write a show ..

NO MORE! March 1st .. Its BUILT. its refreshing really ... i wonder if broadway productions are like that .. still painting scenery opening night . oh well

somewhere in the back musty corner of whats left of my mind I keep hearing this description of the universe that may fit this pursuit .. maybe it was carl sagan in cosmos who said it

somebody said it .. the universe is finite, but unbounded ...

ive been living in an infinite, unbounded illusion .. time to come to grips with the finite part. Ive still got unbounded to built gegenschien projectors .. but at least I'll have something concrete at last ..

We need markers in our lives, some are given to us .. birthdays, anniverseries.. milestones .. last weekend I visited my son away at college and was stopped in my tracks .. in his dorm room was MY SIGN .. dream big ... I liked that so I stole it! said he .. and then I realized some kind of torch had been passed .. my kid is showing the dream big sign to the future while I sit here on my farm ..

i dug up this picture .. the future, and the past .. the little starbox not only the museum inspired, but that cakebox that started me when I was his age.. the past and the future, taken root in today .. a cakebox full of stars.

The Art of Being Subtle - (and Bulb Busting)

I've noticed in my own planetarium a few things .. actually everytime I sojourn in there I notice more things. Im at the years long tweaking stage now .. its all about being subtle (or is it suttle). And this is first taught when we note once again (I think I mention this in It is a Feeble Light) .. that a real tendency for home planetarians is to bust bulbs regularly. Because we go in there and look at our stars not for an hour at a time .. but in and out .. and this does not allow our eyes sufficient time to dark adapt . therefore, we tend to forget how subtle starlight is .. and turn it up! Turn it up to 11. Thats better, innit. If we were but to wait the proper time, we'd see that the stars arent supposed to BLAZE. And blazing stars lead to busted bulbs.

Where have subtle pleasures gone? I find myself overlooking so much beauty because I dont look. I wait to be hit over the head. I do this constantly in my little woods out back. Instead of walking round wishing it was 20 acres instead of 5, I determine I havent looked at any of the trees I DO have .. looked at the immeasurably subtle bark on any given tree .. subtle pleasures overlooked waiting for the next bigger and bigger bang.

I do not believe people have lost the art of subtle. I believe it merely sleeps, and can easily be reawoken. Ah what pleasures then await.

Astronomy used to be about self-managing expectations. I was always happy with whatever I could see. The past 20 years brought so much innovation however, it seems easy NOT to be happy anymore with those subtle pleasures.

But we still can be.

Why Atmospherium?

Atmospherium is a term that never took off, but if one wishes to build the sky, why do it only half way? A planetarium depicts (or used to) the night .. the starry realm, and wondrously effectively. This is of course back when planetariums majored in stars. They've long since relegated the stars to the background - we can see black holes revolve, we can go to alpha centauri or see the Earth being born. But no child anymore will strain to recognize that star pattern rising over the coop .. is that Cepheus or Cassieopiea? But we look up in the daylight too . the sky is never idle .. I thought and thought and decided, I liked my sky busy

Pristine darkness - the deep blue of that rare cloudless day were appealing yes. but most of my life there were other things happening .. overlooked .. the moon .. airplanes .. clouds .. glows on the horizon .. rainbows . who's even heard of zodiacal light and the gegenshein . no two snowflakes alike? try no two sunsets are alike .

So an atmospherium shows everything in the atmosphere or above it.. satellites .. vapor trails.. meteors . raindrops .. thunder and lightning

Much more difficult to reproduce? In some ways, but in some ways easier -

but just as universal to the human experience.

So why Atmospherium?

Because thats whats really UP there.

What No One Else Is Doing (Between the Cracks)

I long struggled with WHY.. WHY I like to build and show home planetariums, in fact this was the subject of my very first essay, Issue 1, of the HPA (where 'wanting it, we turn it on', just like our stars. The only answer I could come up with at the time was 'because it will be fun', and that resonates still today 16 years later. This internalizes as I age, for now two mothers have been lost, and when one sifts through the lifetime belongings of someone so close, many of the things were personal in nature, and one can only conclude 'mom had this collection of plates, or this ballroom jewlry from the 30s, because IT MADE HER HAPPY. Nobody else. But her.

So home planetariums make me happy. And others too, or potentially so. But theres another reason behind all of this. Im a Beatles freak - and I was reading George Martin, their famous producer, got started and got where he was because in the beginning, he couldnt make it in regular music producing. Those bases were all covered. He decided he wanted to do something 'between the cracks' .. something NO ONE ELSE WAS DOING .. so he began to produce comedy records (Peter Sellers, the Goon Squad) which no one thought would sell. And eventually they did.

Im not thinking eventually Home Planetariums will sell like the Beatles! No, but I like them even more because at least HPA's brand of build everything and tie in every passion imaginable fits with this - nobody else is doing it like we do.

And it makes us happy. So if you are bored, if the paths seem too well trodden, find something no one else is doing that makes you happy. Something between the cracks. You wont regret it.

As my son entered college, we sat in the schools theater and the President strode among us, nervous freshmen and parents alike and said two words ... over and over

He looked at all of us and said .. no regrets .. no regrets.

GO for it.

The New Day

As the planetarium chamber slowly darkened, lecturer Stanley Gardner glanced resignedly around the room. Fifty eager fight-grade chins were already upturned in restless anticipation of the show to begin. It would be Stanley's fourth and final show of the day to be exact, and it had been an unusually busy Saturday at the Science Museum. 'Oh well, better get to it', he thought grimly. 'Maybe one of THESE is the next Newton, you never really know.

With that, Stanley plunged the chamber into complete darkness, resulting in a gasp from the neophyte crowd. 'I see a star!', yelled one junior Kepler, as one by one the children began to note the faintly gleaming points of light in the dark vault overhead. 'Somebody pushed me!', squealed a high pitched voice over to the left - whether it was female or male Stanley didn't know or care. To silence the usual brouhaha that almost always erupted at this point, in the most authoritiative voice he could muster after the long day he began his lecture. And things went well through most of the show. He was quite aware that only a handful of kids were making any real effort to follow the various stars and other sky phenomena he was patiently explaining. But if the rest gained even an iota of curiosity about the universe, Stanley figured he'd done his job. And there was always that elusive 'fun' factor, which might lead a young person to come back if nothing else. Such was the life of the planetarium professional who dealt with student audiences on a regular basis.

Stanley was not quite through this particular lecture however when things began to go wrong. After briefly mentioning the annual Perseid meteor shower, he had turned to the southern Milky Way, where he always wrapped things up with the galactic grandeur. Suddenly a 'whoop' went up from somewhere behind his back. 'Mr Gardner - I saw one!' yelled a boy's voice from the back row. 'There's another BIG one!', it cried out again. Stanley slowly turned around in the darkness. 'Yes?' There's another big WHAT young man?', he asked impatiently - this wasn't supposed to happen, and his dinner was being delayed. 'A PERSEID METEOR sir. I saw it!', came the shrill reply. 'Now that will be enough young ..', Stanley began in a stern voice, but he cut off when he caught something out of the corner of his own eye. Was it a flash of light? Before he could react, a loud 'oooh' suddenly erupted on the other side of the room. This time Stanley whirled in time to see it too. A long graceful meteor could be seen arching down through the Great Square of Pegasus, leaving a softly glowing trail.

The increasingly roudy young crowd began applauding and gasping as suddenly, meteor after meteor began streaming across the planetarium sky. Mr. Gardner stood stunned, his lighted arrow pointer dangling where he had obliviously dropped it. Stunned, because unlike the wildly entertained children, Stanley knew that the Science Museum owned no meteor projector. Indeed, no projector existed that could reproduce the raining meteor spectacle unfolding above their wondering, upturned faces. As Stanley stood transfixed , he slowly became aware that the excited kids had now begun whispering about something else.

Then he saw it too, the streaming meteors had begun fading into a subtly growing light in the dome's eastern sky. By this time his mind had begun reeling, and a dizziness was overtaking him. The kids giggled as a cool, fragrant breeze began blowing into their faces. A chorus of crickets chirping could now be heard, giving way to the faint but unmistakable sound of a distant cock crowing. All at once a blinding ray of light pierced the eastern horizon, brighter than a thousand simulated planetarium suns. A few fluffy white clouds appeared, floating lazily into the rapidly bluing sky.

And as the children happily burbled on, Mr Stanley Gardner, planetarium professional, settled down at last into a comfortable empty chair and waited breathlessly to see what the New Day would bring.

The Night Before Christmas!

Twas the night before Christmas
And under the dome
Not one star was shining
Not even at home

The stockings were hung
Hoping someone would send
A replacement star bulb
So that darkness would end!

But in my kerchief
So regretful you see
Finally settled in bed
Without one L E D

When up on the dometop
There arose such an OOOF
I stumbled outside
There's some guy on the roof!

The crest of the dome
Slowly groaned neath his weight
And the new fallen snow
Soon gave way - not so great!

But he slid down the sides
And went straight to his work
My projector he opened
Wait, who is this jerk?!

But he laughed and assured me
That he was no ringer
And then Stars, how they stiired me
He'd put in a Stinger!!

After stockings were filled
Then he fingered his nose
And he knew I was thrilled
As up the domeside he rose!

But I heard him exclaim
Now believe me, ol gare
Merry Christmas, and look!
Yes, he left me some spares