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Posted By: Mona - Astronomy Bode and Bode's Law - 01/20/18 07:54 PM
Johann Elert Bode, the author of the greatest star atlas of the Golden Age of star atlases, is better known today for Bode's Law. Strangely, Bode's Law is neither a law nor original to Bode. So what was it? How did it inspire the Celestial Police? How did Neptune ruin it all?

Bode and Bode's Law
Posted By: Mona - Astronomy Re: Bode and Bode's Law - 01/21/18 01:23 PM
Astronomy writer Ian Ridpath writes of Bode
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In Germany, Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826), director of the Berlin Observatory and an indefatigable popularizer of astronomy, [published] Vorstellung der Gestirne in 1782. A second edition with additional constellations, some of them invented by Bode himself, appeared in 1805.

Here is Bode's star chart featuring Cygnus the Swan (Schwan) with Deneb and Lyra the Harp (Leyer) with Vega.


Posted By: Mona - Astronomy Re: Bode and Bode's Law - 01/22/18 06:17 PM
I've come across a little goody that might appeal to teachers, educators and parents - a Bode coloring book.

It's a downloadable pdf with black and white drawings based on the plates from Bode's 1801 Uranographia.
Posted By: Mona - Astronomy Re: Bode and Bode's Law - 01/24/18 09:39 AM
Bode commemorated Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press with Officina Typographica in his Uranographia atlas.

Ian Ridpath explainss:
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As depicted by Bode (above), Officina Typographica consisted of a case of movable type with composing stick; the frisket, a frame with four windows that folded over the printing paper; the tympan, on which the paper was placed; two inking pads to ink the type; and stacks of paper in the background. Oddly, the printing press itself, which pressed the inked type against the paper, was not shown by Bode.

It looks impressive in the drawing. However it was composed of faint stars tucked between Canis Major (Greater Dog) and the hind legs of Monoceros (the Unicorn). Bode's creation didn't really catch on.
Posted By: Lisa LowCarb Re: Bode and Bode's Law - 01/24/18 10:47 AM
The coloring book is cool!
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