[ExI] the vortices of Jupiter

Damien Broderick thespike at satx.rr.com
Wed Jul 2 22:40:59 UTC 2008


At 09:46 PM 7/2/2008 +0000, BillK wrote:

>You probably need
>to go to a big library that has old astronomy books from before 1930
>to see drawings and photos from that time.

A consummation devoutly to be wished, but unlikely of occurrence.

Thanks for the urls, Bill. I agree about the N/S inversion, but 
considered it perhaps a conceit of the artist, who knew that such 
perspectives are entirely arbitrary. I'd be more confident of this 
interpretation if the Red Spot had been shown headed up or down the 
page, say, or diagonally; there are certainly covers with the rings 
of Saturn displayed vertically.

It is surprising, though, that Clarke--who was a lad at the time 
keenly interested in the topic--would not have know all this. 
Perhaps, though, in his dotage he'd simply forgotten what he knew then.

What was I saying?

Damien Broderick





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