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

In article <672a7rF2mvf1dU1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
KalElFan <kalelfan@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>"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.

Not an assumption.  Unless the Leoben creature was just her imagination
too.   No, Starbuck had a destiny set long ago, and known to the oracles
and the lords of Kobol and the first Hybrid and to Leoben, and to the
Leoben-like creature that guided her into the maelstrom, and took her to
Earth,
showed her signposts and gave her a brand new viper.

I find anything else, like the idea she did all this on her own with
her own mystical powers and all the other parties were figments of her
imagination pretty unlikley.
>
>> 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."

Right.  From that set of stars, and their own scans of the stars,
they should be able to figure out "where is a star from which we would
see this set of constellations?" as soon as the get within a few
thousand light years of Earth.   In fact, now with Starbuck's photos
of the earth sky, they can get very accurate maps with star brightnesses
etc.   Especially if they can get spectra out of those photos, in which
case they could identify individual bright stars and be able to find
Earth fast fast fast.

In fact, since she photographed Taurus, that means she photographed
the Pleiades, which are 440 light years from Earth.  They are a great
signpost.  If they spot those in the photo, all they need to do is scan
the sky for them and boom -- they will know where Earth is.    It is
hard to photograph Taurus and not get  them (and the hyades.)  If she
had a good enough camera to get the Crab.

If she happened to catch some of the really distant items like the
Andromeda galaxy, magellanic clouds or of course M8, they will be
able to find Earth very quickly.
>
>> 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"
>
>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.

Quite possibly, but as far as I know it doesn't "flash" in the
context of visible light on a 10 minute visit to the system.

>
>>    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

Of course, that's what computers are for.  You take your own
3-D map of the stars and their absolute magnitudes, and you
search asking, "From which of the stars in our scans would you
see these patterns with the ****d eye?"    This doesn't just mean
that you see those stars, but also that there are no other bright
stars.   You are not searching all of space, just stars in your
scans.   As soon as you are close enough to Sol to resolve it
in your telescopes (about the same time you can see Rigel Kent)
you then can plot what its sky will be like, and match it to
the zodiac you are looking for.

>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.

If you get some distinctive objects, such as pleiades, m8,
any globular clusters, galaxies like m31, you can find where it
is easily.   If Starbuck had any interstellar navigation training,
even the most basic recon training, the first thing she should do
to help the fleet find earth would be to take pictures of any
open star clusters, galaxies, obvious binaries she can see.

With her ****d eye in outer space, she would spot M31, the
two magelenic clouds, the plane of the milky way, M13 etc.
If she photographs the zodiac, she will pick up Pleiades,
Hyades, all the galactic core stuff of Saggitarius and
Scorpius, the red Antares (very distinctive, very bright star).

If she thought to do the galactic plane (a good choice and
the first place to look for such tasks) she would catch stars
like Deneb which is so bright it would also be known to the
colonials.    If she shot Orion it has so many distinctive
things -- superbright stars, and the nebula.

Of course, we don't know she shot Cygnus, but she did shoot
the zodiac, and that means Antares, which is 
visible to telescopes many thousands of LY from here.  She
would also have shot Spica, also visible out 1,000 LY.

But I think that M45 would be the big winner.

Now of course, funny thing is from the Tomb of Athena they
already knew where M8 is in our sky, and she would have
photographed it again when she photographed Saggitarius.
Once you have M8 and M45 and the angle between them and
one other point, you will know where Earth is.   Far, far,
far before you would detect Rigel Kent.


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