Quote:
Originally Posted by seeker372011
But if you were to sacrifice something of value say..like a telescope, by setting it on fire... Or something equally dramatic.. The cloud gods are appeased and will withdraw leaving clear skies
Works as long as your faith holds and you are steadfast in your sacrifice
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Hi Narayan,
Regular attendees of the South Pacific Star Party (SPSP) may recollect that this
ritual was shown to be flawed.
The "Telescope Sacrifice" was a regular fixture on the SPSP event line-up
where an effigy of an astronomical instrument was burnt on a bonfire on the
Friday afternoon. My memory goes back to starting around 1996 where every year
that the ritual took place, at some point during the star party it would rain or
be overcast.
This went on for several years.
The very first year that the ritual stopped was the first year that there were
clear skies for the entire event.
I don't believe the ritual has been repeated since.
Rather than buying new equipment equating to cloud and rain, I am
sometimes apprehensive about major astronomical events, being away from
home in summer to see them and the chance of bush fires.
The ancients use to claim that the appearance of a comet foretold disaster.
Few will forget the spectacular sight of Comet McNaught with its giant
fan-tail from the top of the hill overlooking the IISAC 2007 event.
We had only arrived back from that event on the Sunday afternoon with those views
of McNaught still fresh in our heads, had not completely unpacked and
were challenged by a bush fire that broke out in the neighboring
national park. When seven fire trucks rolled out the front and the fire chief
knocked on the door and said, "We would like to begin a major backburn
and we would like to start it from your backyard", I told them to "knock themselves
out."
In the link below, I snapped the shots of the fire from the roof
of our house that Sunday evening -
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com....2007/fire.html
After a weekend of little sleep at an event like ISAAC, there is nothing like the
threat of a bushfire to get the adrenalin up and to become wide awake again.
Likewise, the morning after observing the solar eclipse north of Woomera in
December 2004, we were re-fueling the vehicle to head north to Cooper Pedy
when the news came over ABC Radio National that a bushfire had broken out
in the Kuring-Gai Chase National Park here in Sydney with advice that residents
should prepare their homes. We turned around and started the two day drive
back to Sydney but thankfully a friend came and prepared our house for us
and stayed here until the threat passed.
Thus when we were in Cairns last November for the eclipse I was somewhat
apprehensive about the possibility of another fire.
The saddest news of all was that Rob McNaught himself lost his house to the
fire at Coonabarabran last month.
It gives them more clewd (cloud) power. Starve them and we all are no worse off.
