A Different Tune

Lunar Eclipse 2007: 8.57.42pm. Photo by PJ Rosenberger.

I was hoping to catch a glimpse of last night's total lunar eclipse, but unfortunately the rain and thick cloud made it pretty much a "no show". For those of us in the Western Australia, the promise was for a "blood moon" rising. Rising moons are often red due to differential scattering of light in the atmosphere, but with the eclipse we were expecting a "copper" moon. This great photo was taken on the night in Newcastle. The kids and I did manage to catch a couple of fleeting glimpses through the clouds so it wasn't a complete disappointment.

I was interested to hear a recent talk by Johnaton Nally about the eclipse. Johnathon relates the story of Christopher Columbus who, while stranded in Jamaica, used foreknowledge of a coming eclipse to his advantage. The natives initially helped Columbus and his crew, but they eventually tired of the treatment they received from the sailors and stopped supplying them with food. Columbus announced the the Almighty was unhappy and would show his displeasure by making the moon disappear. Of course, when the moon actually did disappear the natives were terrified and quickly changed their tune.

Whether or not this is true, its an interesting story and one that is repeated in other places in literature. In Mark Twain's 1889 novel "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court", Hank Morgan is sentenced to death by King Arthur's court but manages to save himself by predicting the coming eclipse at the precise moment he is about to be burnt at the stake. Fortunately, the events at the court coincided exactly with the historical solar eclipse of AD 528:

the monk raised his hands above my head, and his eyes toward the blue sky, and began some words in Latin; in this attitude he droned on and on, a little while, and then stopped. I waited two or three moments; then looked up; he was standing there petrified. With a common impulse the multitude rose slowly up and stared into the sky. I followed their eyes, as sure as guns, there was my eclipse beginning!

The life went boiling through my veins; I was a new man! The rim of black spread slowly into the sun's disk, my heart beat higher and higher, and still the assemblage and the priest stared into the sky, motionless. I knew that this gaze would be turned upon me, next. When it was, l was ready. I was in one of the most grand attitudes I ever struck, with my arm stretched up pointing to the sun. It was a noble effect.

A remarkably similar storyline is found in Herge's "Prisoners of the Sun". Tintin and Captain Haddock are captured by an "Inca" cult and sentenced to death for trespassing in a sacred temple. Fortunately, they are allowed to choose the time of their death. Even more fortunately, Tintin discovers a scrap of newspaper which reports on an upcoming expedition to study a solar eclipse. So in the end they manage to escape in the classic style as the eclipse saves the day.

Herge (1949), "Prisoners of the Sun", Mammoth Edition (2002) p58.

Last week saw the 25th anniversary the compact disc. The first commercially released CD was made by Philips on August 17, 1982.

That disc was "The Visitors", the eighth and final studio album of Swedish pop group ABBA. Probably the best known of the included tracks are "One Of Us", and (appropriately) "When All Is Said And Done", which was the lead single. Later ABBA recorded a number of singles which were included in a reissue of the album in 2001. These included the epic "The Day Before You Came", complete with a day of triviality and a majestic classical synth-orchestral chorus.

While 1982 saw the first commercially released disc, CDs had been under development for several years. Philips started researching digital audio laser discs in 1977. Then in 1979 Philips and Sony joined forces, each contributing innovations that became part of the "Red Book" compact disc standard. The manufacturing process was based on the LaserDisc (remember those big guys?) which Philips developed in 1969, and publically demonstrated in 1972.

Now a confession: I bought my first CD player in 2002, which I guess means I missed about 20 years of CD opportunity. I still have stacks of cassettes from those "lost years", but have never really been a big music collector. I've bought a dozen or so tracks from iTunes, but must admit that I was not impressed with the quality of the sound. To my ear AAC at 128Kbps sounds noticably distorted, particularly at the top end of the spectrum (eg. sibilant lyrics, and percussive sounds like cymbals). Perhaps when someone comes up with a DRM-free MP3s at a reasonable bit-rate I'll give it another go, but for the moment its back to the good old CD.