Re: BSG+ Centauri A, B, C and Cally (was Re: Anyone else notice...)

"Brad Templeton" <btm@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:9fSdndqrdNFyX5bVnZ2dnUVZ_jydnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> It's hardly an assumption that somebody was moving her around.
> Do you propose something else?

I think it's probably a fair assumption, but it could also be that her
subconscious mind was guiding her as I said later in the post.  The
main point is that you can't set the rules for whatever was guiding
her, or what it let her do or bring back in terms of information.

> The Zodiac map check is in the script, it's not something I made
> up.   Starbuck says she did it.

They've known since the temple what the sky on Earth looks like.
When they all get there again they can do that zodiac map check
and confirm "Yep, we're here."

Starbuck doesn't know the path she used to get there or back.
She doesn't have two reference stars for example, that she was
able to follow on her way back.  She got back remembering little.
She couldn't mark where Earth was on a star chart.  Her main
clue is the triple star system she's now searching for.

> She described a "fla****ng triple star" not a "triple star with one
> extremely dim component which would not be seen without
> very careful telescopic analysis which is prone to flares you
> can see in the X-ray band"

She obviously wasn't using Our Chandra to see them.  She just
jumped to the Centauri system and saw the "fla****ng" star close
up.  I don't have the transcript but it'd be ridiculous to interpret
the triple star system as three blinking Christmas tree lights in
sequence.  The visual also didn't sup****t that.  She saw one of
the three stars being variable or emitting flares -- that's what she
meant by "fla****ng".

>    a) Alpha Centauri is not obviously a triple star.  We live 4
>       light years from it and we didn't figure that out until
>       relatively recently.   People living around A or B wouldn't
>       figure it out from the ****d eye, either.

Again, Starbuck's perspective was not confined to ours or the
A or B systems.  She saw it from the Proxima Centauri system
close up, on her way back.

>    b) The "fla****ng" is largely in X-rays and not something you
> would see in the few moments of observation you might do
> during a few-hour visit to Earth

The fla****ng is only in X-rays because that's the way Chandra
sees it.  Close up, the flashes would be seen in visible light as
well.  It's just that A & B are a bit further back in the field of
view from here, and much brighter than C (Proxima Centauri)
is in visible light.  From here, with an optical telescope, it's a
bit like trying to analyze a dim penlight's brightness with two
massive spotlights almost directly behind it.  In the X-ray band
Chandra can capture the higher-energy emissions of Proxima
Centauri that the two other stars don't have.

Even if it was only viewable in X-rays though, Starbuck could
have had instrumentation that allowed her to witness or perhaps
even "see" it through the cockpit window.  If you step back to
think about it, this is why most if not all nitpicks like this fail.
You're trying to prohibit many possible explanations for any-
thing you can come up with.

>    c) Long before you could observe Alpha C, you would
>       know where Earth was based on the Zodiac.

No, the sky (constellations, zodiac) can look very different
from different perspectives.  For example we see Centauri
as a constellation from here. From Centauri, they wouldn't
see that.  Other nearby stars to both our systems would not
be in the same place or part of the same constellations for
them. There'd be some similarities but less so as you get
dozens and hundreds of light years out.  The brightest stars
in the sky tend to be the closer ones, so constellations will
change noticeably.

If they knew where Earth was, they could project what the
sky might look like from there.  They already know what it
looks like, but *finding* the place in the galaxy where the
visible sky looks a certain way, with few if any clues and
no 100% certain reference points, would be very difficult.

The binary stars in Centauri (A and B) are bright enough to
be detected thousands of light years away.  They'd be very
ordinary though, since some estimates are that 75% of all
star systems are binary.  Proxima Centauri would be more
difficult to detect from even hundreds of light years away,
which is why Starbuck is having some trouble perhaps.  It
might also explain her freaking out as Galactica went in the
wrong direction.  Maybe they'll find Earth when they re-do
a search of binary stars and look for a third star in the X-
ray spectrum.