An Investigation of the ‘Chronometer’ Factor in Bird Navigation

1955 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-58
Author(s):  
G. V. T. MATTHEWS
Keyword(s):  
Local Time ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Orientation Data ◽  
Regular Sequences

1. An investigation was made of that part of the sun navigation hypothesis which proposes that birds detect longitude displacement by comparing home time (provided by an internal ‘chronometer’) with local time (estimated from the highest point of the sun arc). 2. Shearwaters were exposed for 4 days, and pigeons for ten days, to an artificial day 3 hr. in advance of normal. This did not result in any confusion of their orientation when released to the east. 3. More drastic treatment was then used, pigeons being subjected to 4-5 days of irregular light/dark sequences, followed by 5-11 days of regular sequences, advanced or retarded with respect to normal. 4. In tests from the west (2), east and north after this treatment, the ‘chronometers’ had apparantly been affected and the birds showed a definite tendency to fly in the predicted false direction--east after an advanced day, west after a retarded one. 5. Variations in the time-in-sight, and in the proportion of the more rapid returns supported the conclusions drawn from the orientation data. In a minority (25%) of the birds, the evidence suggests that the ‘chronometers’ were not affected. 6. It is concluded that these new results, taken with those produced previously, strongly support the suggestion that a form of complete, bico-ordinate sun navigation is used by birds.

A Pleasing Odour for Yahweh

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-24
Author(s):  
Anne Katrine De Hemmer Gudme
Keyword(s):  
Hebrew Bible ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Hellenistic Period ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Sense Of Smell ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Crucial Part

This article investigates the importance of smell in the sacrificial cults of the ancient Mediterranean, using the Yahweh temple on Mount Gerizim and the Hebrew Bible as a case-study. The material shows that smell was an important factor in delineating sacred space in the ancient world and that the sense of smell was a crucial part of the conceptualization of the meeting between the human and the divine.  In the Hebrew Bible, the temple cult is pervaded by smell. There is the sacred oil laced with spices and aromatics with which the sanctuary and the priests are anointed. There is the fragrant and luxurious incense, which is burnt every day in front of Yahweh and finally there are the sacrifices and offerings that are burnt on the altar as ‘gifts of fire’ and as ‘pleasing odors’ to Yahweh. The gifts that are given to Yahweh are explicitly described as pleasing to the deity’s sense of smell. On Mount Gerizim, which is close to present-day Nablus on the west bank, there once stood a temple dedicated to the god Yahweh, whom we also know from the Hebrew Bible. The temple was in use from the Persian to the Hellenistic period (ca. 450 – 110 BCE) and during this time thousands of animals (mostly goats, sheep, pigeons and cows) were slaughtered and burnt on the altar as gifts to Yahweh. The worshippers who came to the sanctuary – and we know some of them by name because they left inscriptions commemorating their visit to the temple – would have experienced an overwhelming combination of smells: the smell of spicy herbs baked by the sun that is carried by the wind, the smell of humans standing close together and the smell of animals, of dung and blood, and behind it all as a backdrop of scent the constant smell of the sacrificial smoke that rises to the sky.

The Sun Life sets in the west

1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (10) ◽  
pp. 284-286
Author(s):  
Lynda King‐Taylor
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The West

scholarly journals Inclusion of a time-dependent, non-local convection theory in a stellar evolution code

2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (S239) ◽  
pp. 314-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Achim Weiss ◽  
Martin Flaskamp
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Field ◽  
Local Time ◽  
Stellar Evolution ◽  
Time Dependent ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Specific Test ◽  
Non Local ◽  
Convective Boundaries

AbstractThe non-local, time-dependent convection theory of Kuhfuß (1986) in both its one- and three-equation form has been implemented in the Garching stellar evolution code. We present details of the implementation and the difficulties encountered. Specific test cases have been calculated, among them a 5 M⊙ star and the Sun. These cases point out deficits of the theory. In particular, the assumption of an isotropic velocity field leads to too extensive overshooting and has to be modified at convective boundaries. Some encouraging aspects are indicated as well.

Observations on the First Book of Lucan

1936 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Robert J. Getty
Keyword(s):  
Fifteenth Century ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
East And West

The mistranslation by Mr. J. D. Duff of nox ubi sidera condit as ‘where night hides the stars’ is also the interpretation of many commentators from Sulpitius in the last decade of the fifteenth century to Lejay in the last decade of the nineteenth. Lucan is clearly speaking of East and West in 15, of South in 16, and of North in 17–18. How can night be said to hide the stars in the West? Burman saw the difficulty and expressed himself thus: ‘…dubito, an recte dicatur, nox condere sidera, id est, Stellas, quae sole cadente prodeunt, et se spectanda praebent, obscurare et occulere: neque nunc occurrit alius ex veteribus locus, unde ita locutos fuisse Poetas appareat. Nox enim adveniens prodit sidera, praecipitans uero, aurora adveniente, potest recte dici condere, et quasi auferre ex oculis hominum sidera.’ Burman then was tempted to understand sidera as the sun, but could not parallel this use of the plural, although he admitted the use of sidera solis. He cited Ouid. Met. 14, 172–3 caelumque et sidera solis / respicio, as did Haskins, who took the same view with hesitation. Ezra de Clerq van Jever in his Specimen Selectarum Observationum, which he published at Leiden in 1772, definitely understood sidera as the sun, though he could parallel only sidus in the singular from Ouid. A.A. 1, 723–4 aequoris unda / debet et a radiis sideris esse niger. But, it may be said, these Ovidian passages are such that no ambiguity is possible, and are not quite relevant to Lucan's phrase.

The Koshi’s Revenge

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Colopy
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Nepal Himalaya ◽  
Great Range ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Great Rivers ◽  
Past Half

The Koshi spoke during the monsoon of 2008. She opened a new path, just as Dinesh Mishra predicted. The river breached an apparently ill-constructed and certainly ill-maintained embankment. A photo taken as the flood began shows the ridge of sand dissolving as water poured through a widening gap in the embankment and flowed southeast. In both Nepal and Bihar, villages and farms that had not seen a flood for the past half century were devastated. The embankments on the Koshi had already breached seven times at various spots downriver. This time the entire river below the Siwalik range in Nepal, where the land flattens, had essentially jumped out of its straitjacket and returned to one of its old channels—one it had flowed down two centuries ago. In Nepal the Koshi River is known as the Saptakoshi, or “seven Koshis,” because seven Himalayan rivers merge to create it. The Tamur flows down from Kanchenjunga in eastern Nepal near its border with Bhutan and India; the Arun comes down from Tibet. Out of the Khumbu comes the Dudh Koshi, the milky blue river that entranced me on the way up to Gokyo. The Dudh Koshi joins the Sun Koshi, which is also fed by the Tama Koshi, which in turn receives water from the Rolwaling Khola and Tsho Rolpa, the threatening glacial lake I visited during the monsoon of 2006. From farther west, toward Kathmandu, come the Likhu and the Indrawati. The latter receives the as yet undiverted waters of the Melamchi Khola. These seven tributaries of the Saptakoshi drain more than a third of the Nepal Himalaya, the wettest and highest of the great range, which includes the Khumbu and Ngozumpa glaciers. The Koshi drains almost thirty thousand square miles. It is Nepal’s largest river and one of the largest tributaries of the Ganga. Less than ten miles above the plains, three of these great rivers come together in a final merging: the Sun Koshi from the west, the Arun from the north, the Tamur from the east.

scholarly journals 6,480 MW Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project Six Vital Issues on Pancheshwar to be Addressed before Cashing Modi’s One Billion US Dollars

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 7-15
Author(s):  
Santa Bahadur Pun
Keyword(s):  
Water Resources ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Good Faith ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The West ◽  
Us Dollar ◽  
Equal Sharing ◽  
The One ◽  
Opposing Camp

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Nepal in August 2014 was instrumental in reinvigorating the stalled 6,480 MW Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project. In particular, the one billion US Dollar soft loan for infrastructures that Modi offered to Nepal has generated much enthusiasm. As the Mahakali Treaty was ratified in September 1996, and as public memory is short, this article reverts back 18 years ago into the heady days when the Water Resources Minister, Pashupati SJB Rana, publicly claimed that the sun would now begin to ‘rise from the west’! At that time, even the leaders in the opposing camp (the CPN-UML), started to count their chickens in billions and billions of rupees accruing from the sale of electricity to India. Today, that ‘Som Sharma euphoria’ has again started to percolate among our political leaders. The article, hence, poses six vital issues that need to be ‘fixed’ before the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project can begin to taxi along the runway: i) validity of Rashtriya Sankalpas/national strictures; ii) re-constituting the all-party Parliamentary Monitoring Joint Committee; iii) export of energy and its pricing principle; iv) formation of Mahakali River Commission; v) equal sharing of Mahakali waters after the completion of the Pancheshwar Project; and vi) determining the origin of Mahakali River. The author believes that until these vital issues are fixed in an amicable and good faith manner, the viability of the Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project will again be in doubt !DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/hn.v15i0.11284HYDRO Nepal JournalJournal of Water Energy and EnvironmentVolume: 15, 2014, JulyPage: 7-15

Origin Time of the 1854 Ansei–Tokai Tsunami Estimated from Tide Gauge Records on the West Coast of North America

2020 ◽  
Vol 91 (5) ◽  
pp. 2624-2630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kusumoto ◽  
Kentaro Imai ◽  
Ryoko Obayashi ◽  
Takane Hori ◽  
Narumi Takahashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Local Time ◽  
West Coast ◽  
San Diego ◽  
Arrival Time ◽  
Tide Gauge ◽  
The West ◽  
Origin Time ◽  
Tsunami Signal

Abstract We estimated the origin time of the 1854 Ansei–Tokai tsunami from the tsunami waveforms recorded at three tide gauge stations (Astoria, San Francisco, and San Diego) on the west coast of North America. The tsunami signal is apparent in the San Francisco and San Diego records, and the arrival time was 0–1 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on 23 December 1854, whereas the tsunami signal of Astoria is ambiguous, and the arrival time could not be determined from the waveform. The simulated waveforms on the basis of nonlinear dispersive wave theory by assuming an origin time of 0 a.m. GMT on 23 December arrived earlier than the observations. Cross-correlation functions between the observed and simulated waveforms recorded at San Francisco and San Diego showed a time gap between them of approximately 30 min. Based on these results, we concluded that the origin time of the 1854 Ansei–Tokai tsunami was approximately 00:30 a.m. GMT or 09:46 local time on 23 December. Our result is roughly consistent with reports by a Russian frigate anchored in Shimoda Bay, ranging the earthquake between 09:00 and 09:45 and the tsunami between 09:30 and 10:00. The earthquake was also reported in historical Japanese documents ranging from 8 and 10 o’clock in local time.

scholarly journals XLVII. Observations of the transit of Venus over the Sun, and the eclipse of the Sun, on June 3, 1769; made at the Royal Observatory

1768 ◽  
Vol 58 ◽  
pp. 355-365 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Internal Contact ◽  
Royal Observatory

The weather, which had been cloudy or rainy here, with a south wind, for the greatest part of the day, began to clear up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, the wind having returned to the west, the same quarter in which it had been the afternoon before, which was remarkably fine and serene, though it changed early in the morning preceding the transit. Towards the approach of Venus's ingress on the Sun, the sky was become again very serene, and so continued all the evening, which afforded as favourable an observation of the transit here as could well be expected, considering that the Sun was only 7° 3' high at the external, and 4° 33' at the internal contact. I observed the external contact of Venus at 7h 10' 58" apparent time, with an uncertainty seemingly not exceeding 5"; and the internal contact, by which I mean the completion of the thread of light between the circumferences of the Sun and Venus, at 7h 29' 23" apparent time, with a seeming uncertainty of only 3"; for so long was the thread of light in forming, or the Sun's light in flowing round and filling up that part of his circumference which was obscured by Venus's exterior limb.

scholarly journals The social and ritual context of horizon astronomical observations at Chankillo

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S278) ◽  
pp. 144-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Ghezzi ◽  
Clive L. N. Ruggles
Keyword(s):  
Solar Observation ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
Native Form ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ritual Context

AbstractThe authors have shown previously that, as viewed from an evident observing point to the west, and a plausible observing point to the east, the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo formed an artificial ‘toothed’ horizon that spanned the annual rising and setting arcs of the sun and provided a means to identify each day in the seasonal year by observing the position of sunrise or sunset against them. The Thirteen Towers thus constitute a unique solar observation device that is still functioning, and a remarkable example of a native form of landscape timekeeping that preceded similar facilities in imperial Cusco by almost two millennia. Yet the social, political, and ritual contexts in which Chankillo's astronomical alignments operated deserve further exploration. In this paper, we present new archaeoastronomical evidence that not only clarifies some aspects of the solar observation device but suggests a wider range of alignments visible from more publicly accessible parts of the ceremonial complex, and also suggests a possible interest in marking lunar alignments as well as solar ones. We also bring together archaeological evidence to suggest that the society that built Chankillo was differentiated. The Thirteen Towers may have served to regulate the calendar, solar and ritual, while the solar cult centred on them may have lent legitimacy and authority to a rising warrior elite through ceremony in an impressive sacred setting that brought society together while reproducing its growing inequality.

VI. Account of some recent observation on Sun-spots, made at the Kew Observatory

1868 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 447-447
Keyword(s):  
Recent Observation ◽  
Solar Physics ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The West ◽  
West Limb ◽  
Sun Spots

The authors, after reviewing briefly the two theories on the nature of sun-spots, which are still subjects of dispute, refer to the stereoscopic views obtained and the results published in their ‘Researches on Solar Physics,’ and state the reasons which have led them to believe that sun-spots are cavities and at a lower level than the sun s photosphere. Their opinion has been recently strengthened by observations of a sun-spot on the 7th of May, which in disappearing produced in two successive photograms indentations in the west limb. After proving by the measurements made, which, with the calculations, are appended to their paper, that there can be no doubt about the identity of the heliographical elements of the previously observed spot and the successive indentations, they prove from the established details of the phenomena of sun-spots that such indentations must under all circumstances be very rare occurrences, and state fully the conditions favourable to the recurrence of similar observations, inviting observers to give their particular attention to them.

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