Disappointed.

[AlexN]

So I have a great little star chart app on my mobile phone that isvreally powerful as a planetarium and has lots of great info as well as push notifications of important/significant events in the past present and future.

Untill today I was really impressed with this app.

Then, today. A notification.

"On this day in 1822 William Herchel died. He was the astronomer known for discovering Uranus."

That's the best they could do? Really???

Sure. He discovered Uranus. And IR radiation, and completed in depth sky surveys, and observed orbital motion in binary star systems...

Surely they could have done a better job of that.

I'm waiting for Christmas day now "on this day Isaac Newton was born. He used a prism to split the spectra of light"

[deanm]

Don't be too harsh - it's just a one-liner that associates an individual with a single, specific event.

It isn't intended to diminish other important events.

Think of Neil Armstrong: he did many remarkable things in his life, but ask any bloke on the street, and he'll invariably only be associated with one event.

No harm done!

Dean

[julianh72]

On 14 March:

"On this day in 1879 Albert Einstein was born. He was the physicist known for dating Marilyn Monroe."

[firstlight]

Really?!!

Cool!

[Eratosthenes]

.....indeed, very disappointing

"Herschel was sure that he had found ample evidence of life on the Moon and compared it to the English countryside....."

"....Herschel went so far to speculate that the interior of the sun was populated"


Civilized Life in the Universe : Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials: Scientists on Intelligent Extraterrestrials, George Basalla (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Basalla&action=edit&redlink=1), Professor of History University of Delaware (Emeritus), Oxford University Press, 20.12.2005, p.52 ff