NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2024 Feb 1, 18:08 -0800
The image below is from a recent dramatization of the revolt of the British Celts against Roman rule under Queen Boudicca in 60 AD. We can in this image that the Moon was different back then. Two little puzzles to figure out...
First, the easy one, since I've written about images like this in movies and tv shows before: where would you have to be to see the Moon looking like this? Where and when was this photo of the Moon taken?
Second, more directly related to navigation, could you estimate your latitude on the Earth from this image? I'll give you a hint ...it may not be in Britain! You can do this by identifying the approximate lunar north pole in this image. Where is it around the limb of the Moon? Then, since the Moon orbits within 5° of the ecliptic, you know that its axis points toward the poles of the ecliptic. Where are they on the sky (near what stars would you find the north and south ecliptic poles)? And given that orientation, what are the possible ranges of latitude on the Earth?
The second image below with the young warrior waving a sword is from the same dramatization. Can you name that vid (*)?
The third image is for my fellow Americans (and other nationalities) who may not have heard of Boudicca or Boadicea. I know I had not ever heard of her when I first visited London years ago...
Boudicca is a central component of the British national legend, one of the earliest historical heroes. This third image is a statue of her on her chariot heading into battle. The chariot has sword blades projecting out from the wheel hubs. It's a war chariot! This statue is in a place of high honor, located in London right across the street from Big Ben and Parliament. Notice in the background you can see the famous "London Eye" observation wheel. Each of the passenger capsules on the "Eye" is about 25 feet long. You can see that there is a seagull perched atop one of the pods. That's a big seagull. :)
Frank Reed
* The film from which the first two images are captured is not the bit of a hoot vid that was the subject of this bit of a hoot review a few months ago.
