Tag Archives: Andromeda

Francophone science blogging

Québec’s Agence Science-Presse (ASP) has published a list of francophone science blog postings that will be featured in an April 2013 anthology that they will publishing. From the Jan. 14, 2013 posting by Antoine Bonvoisin on the ASP blog,

Et voici enfin la liste des billets sélectionnés pour l’anthologie des blogues scientifiques ! Cette édition 2013, qui sera une première avec des textes publiés entre le 1er novembre 2011 et le 31 octobre 2012, a donné lieu à 173 propositions provenant de 98 blogueurs.

Le livre paraîtra en avril [2013], tenez-vous prêt ! Cette première expérience donnera lieu dorénavant à la publication d’un recueil chaque année. Blogueurs, si vous avez manqué le coche, ne ratez pas la prochaine édition et faites-nous parvenir votre contact à cette adresse (courriel et adresse du blogue). Vous pouvez aussi suivre l’actualité de ce projet sur ce blogue ou sur les réseaux sociaux (Facebook et Twitter).

The listings are largely organized by the institution with which the bloggers are associated, e.g. C@fé des sciences, Radio-Canada, Fondation David-Suzuki, l’Université de Liège, as well as,  a listing for independent bloggers all of whom are drawn from ‘le monde de la francophonie’ (francophone world or french-speaking world).

Here are a couple of the postings I found particularly amusing/interesting,

Karel Mayrand – Monsieur Harper : mon pays c’est l’hiver

This is from the David Suzuki Foundation (Québec) and I loved the reference to Gilles Vigneault’s anthemic song, “Mon Pays,” a song that has been strongly associated with nationalistic feelings in Québec. From the Canadian Encyclopedia’s “Mon Pays” entry,

This chanson has assumed a political character. Benoît L’Herbier, for example, describes it as “a Quebec anthem if there is one at all, hummed with self-respect and pride” (La Chanson québécoise, Montreal 1974). In an interview with Pierre Nadeau, Vigneault denied having intended to compose a national anthem (L’Actualité, September 1979).

Given the post is addressed to Stephen Harper (Canada’s Prime Minister) and is written by someone from an organization that has long campaigned over environmental awareness and climate change issues, it seems the song is being returned to its original metaphorical roots while evoking its ‘assumed political character’ (from the Canadian Encyclopedia; Note: Some links have been removed),

“Mon Pays.” Song commissioned from Gilles Vigneault by the National Film Board for Arthur Lamothe’s 1965 film La Neige a fondu sur la Manicouagan. Vigneault wrote both the words and the music and completed the song in 1964. The opening phrase – “Mon pays, ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver” (“My country is not a country, it’s winter”) – provides a good illustration of the metaphoric character of the song, in which Vigneault speaks above all of winds, cold, snow, and ice. The weather of northern Quebec can be viewed as a metaphor for its cultural isolation. But “in this land of snowstorms” the author still vows to remain faithful and hospitable like his father before him, who built a home there: “the guestroom will be such that people from the other seasons will come and build next door to it.” He also evokes in the second verse the solitude of wide open spaces and the ideal of brotherhood.

Here’s the 2nd and final post I’m highlighting,

Riadh Ben Nessib – La Galaxie d’As Sufi (Andromède)

Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi was a great Persian astronomer who amongst many other accomplishment made the first recorded observations of the Andromeda Galaxy. The posting, written March 28, 2012) recounts a session at an astronomy conference where a strong case is made for petitioning the International Astronomy Union to affix a second name to the Andromeda Galaxy and have it also known as ‘As Sufi’s Galaxy’. Here’s more about As Sufi from Wikipedia’s Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi essay (Note: Links and footnotes have been removed),

He was one of the famous nine Muslim astronomers. His name implies that he was a Sufi Muslim. He lived at the court of Emir Adud ad-Daula in Isfahan, Persia, and worked on translating and expanding Greek astronomical works, especially the Almagest of Ptolemy. He contributed several corrections to Ptolemy’s star list and did his own brightness and magnitude estimates which frequently deviated from those in Ptolemy’s work.

He identified the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is visible from Yemen, though not from Isfahan; it was not seen by Europeans until Magellan’s voyage in the 16th century. He also made the earliest recorded observation of the Andromeda Galaxy in 964 AD; describing it as a “small cloud”. These were the first galaxies other than the Milky Way to be observed from Earth.

He observed that the ecliptic plane is inclined with respect to the celestial equator and more accurately calculated the length of the tropical year. He observed and described the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their colour, setting out his results constellation by constellation. For each constellation, he provided two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside (as seen from the earth).

The writer, Riadh Ben Nessib, is an independent blogger and I believe he’s associated with the Tunisian Astronomy Society amongst many other organizations including the Association of British Science Writers (as per this Facebook page).