NavList:

Tonight I saw stars... and though of you, NavList. :) Ha ha.

There's a little comedy tv series currently running that includes a very brief scene where a character looks out a window and sees some recognizable stars. As it happens there are clues in the episode that allow us to pin down the location and the date. The location is halfway between Boston and Worcester, Massachusetts. Let's say 42.3°N, 71.4°W. The date is 19 December 1993, described in the episode as the "last Sunday before Christmas", and the time is late evening.

Our stellar observer in this scene is played by an actor who has had parts in "Oppenheimer" (which also had a scene of stars ...around Arcturus, which I posted about recently). He also played a role in the WW2 drama "Band of Brothers" (which is closely linked to the dramatic series "Masters of the Air" which I also wrote about recently). Thie actor has a key role in a space opera, too, as the helmsman of a starship. But in this scene, his character is 'just a dad' and kind of a jerk...

In the attached screen capture, you can see some stars. Given the date and location, can you estimate the local time? Maybe you need a nocturnal [NOTE: not a sales recommendation; just an interesting example]?? Or you could use Stellarium... The zone time would be EST, Eastern Standard Time. There are many ways to do this. How would you do it? Show your work! ...By which I mean, tell us a good story about how you figured it out. :)

Frank Reed
PS: I have a bunch of posts to reply to from the past three or four days. I plan to devote a couple of hours to that tomorrow morning.

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