BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Titanic blunder or beside the point-your thoughts?

You're adrift on a piece of driftwood in the middle of the Atlantic after the ship has sunk. If you're Rose in James Cameron's Titanic, apparently you are lying there staring at the stars. The wrong stars!

American astrophysicist, broadcaster, author and Director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, Neil de Grasse Tyson, pointed out to Cameron that the stars Rose was looking at were not correct for the time of the sinking. So for the 3D version Cameron reshot it.

OK, I kinda go with Tyson on this. After all, if you make sure the clothing, the furnishings, etc. are authentic, why any old sky?

And yet, even I might not be paying much attention to the stars if I were floating around on the Atlantic after a shipwreck. I might be thinking . . . well, what would *you* be thinking about?

They were not only the wrong stars, but the picture was of half a sky view, doubled.
And I hope I never have to find out what I'd be thinking of in that situation!

Claybird, I hadn't realized that they couldn't even be bothered to do the whole sky, but just mirrored half of it.

Could be that trying to figure that out might take my mind off thoughts of freezing to death, drowning, wondering about other people etc. But I have to admit that when I saw the film, my thoughts were only tending towards wondering whether it was ever going to end. At some point my husband whispered desperately, "This ship is a long time sinking."

This video is very funny. It shows Neil de Grasse Tyson telling the story. Besides being a very clever man, he is a great raconteur. The story of the wrong sky

I've just noticed that Fred Olsen Line's ship the MS Balmoral will be leaving Southampton soon with 1309 passengers (the same number the Titanic had on her maiden - and only - voyage) to recreate the voyage. Except this one should have a happy ending.

It will go first to Cherbourg in France and then on to County Cork before heading out into the Atlantic.

Oh my everyone, now there's a trip I would love to take! I have never travelled on these liners and would not choose to do so on the monstrous ones available these days. But a trip such as this one that will likely mirror those days on board where POSH was in (Port out Starboard Home) would be a gracious and fine experience. Ah well. In another life perhaps!

Cheers