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The constellations:part one.
This is the list of the first forty-four constellations, the last forty-four will come tomorrow.

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The constellations: intro.
Before I give you the list of the actual constellations, it should be noted that not all stars in the sky are named, hence the need for the Greek alphabet, some constellations don't even have one named star in them, unlike Canis Major with the Sirius. It should also be noted that some constellations have more than twenty-four stars, hence some have Arabic numbers or letters from the Roman alphabet, or numbers in the professional circles, 61 cygni, and b Vulpeculae for example. The nameless stars can be noted through their position, color or their brightness, although caution should be used when applying the letters as the brightness equals a Greek letter was based on "inaccurate naked eye- observations"(page 13) , along with the fact that the brightness of the stars has also changed over time.

Also, the brightest star is not always the alpha. Which is indeed a complete contradiction to the previous statement that the the alpha is the name for the brightest star but when is understanding something nice and simple? The term 'lucida', Latin for "bright" or "shining", is coined to describe a star that is of the "exalted status". Basically. The best example is that the lucida of Canis Major is Sirius, which is coincidentally the alpha star also. But the lucida of Orion, the hunter, is Rigel, which is the Beta star.

The thing that should be brought to attention, is the term 'magnitude'. Which is used as a measure for the brightness of a star. The heart of it is this chap Hipparchus, divided the stars into six classes; 1st magnitude for the brightest, the betas were the 2nd magnitude, all the way down to the 6th magnitude which were the dimmest. The problem with the system is that there is no room for the brighter stars, when accurately measured these days, hence there are some stars that are zero magnitude, or indeed below in the minuses.
An exmaple would be of Sirius at -1.5, and the brightest planet is Venus, at -4, sometimes. (depending on its position in correlation to the sun and the distance it is from the earth at the time.)

The same can be said for the other end of the scale; that he didn't have a class for the stars that were to dim to be seen by the naked eye, hence the scale has gone up to the largest at 31 for objects that seen with the Hubble Space telescope. (7 and 8 are easily seen through a normal pair of binoculars, 10 and 11 are easy to see with a good telescope, and 21 is for the faint stars that can be seen in the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey.)

The technicallity of the magnitude scale, is down to the fact that the 1st magnitude stars are 'about' 2.512 times brighter than the 2nd magnitude stars. This is a geometric progression, where each magnitude is the 5th root of 100, 2.512 times by itelf 4 times. Meaning that a star of the 1st magnitude, when in comparison to one of the 6th magnitude, they differ by 2.512 to the power of 5, generally 100 times brighter.

Whereas if two stars are six magnitudes apart, one is around 250 times brighter, as there are six magnitudes the equation becomes 2.512 to the power of 6. Just as when calculating two stars that are 12 magnitudes apart, the equation becomes 2.512 to the power of 12.

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Well, today I found out how officially my local libary sucks. The total count of books it could supply me with on the subject of astronomy? one. A "Astronomy for Dummies", which whilst useful, i still feel like they were laughing at me.

Anywho, Onto the actual subject...

According to "Astronomy for Dummies" the first thing to really understand is what you are actually seeing, Light. Light which actually doesn't take "1000 lightyears" to reach earth, as lightyears is a term for distance, not time. The light from a star was noted for its brightness and position in the sky to be used for travelling. Then they made tales about them, they didn't wonder why they were there, what they really were, they weren't fearful of them, they sang about them. The Great Bear, The Demon Star , The dragon eating the sun, and the Man in the Moon, etc. These were then processed through the centuries, throught cultures, as the recognised the patterns in the stars.

Where before the dividing of the stars was simple, they cut up the sky by using; Ursa Major, the Great Bear; Cygnus, the Swan; Andromeda, the Chained Lady; and Perceus, the hero. Until now, where it is divided into 88 constellations, which includes all the stars up there. Although it is safe to assume that these constellations that we have created, actually have no relation in real life.

It should be noted that within each constellation the brightest star would be assigned the 'alpha' letter, which continued throughout the constellation; the second brightest being the 'beta', etc. The example i was given is that of Sirius, the dog star, within the constellation Canis Major, which means that Sirius is called the Alpha Canis Majoris. (the ending is changed to fit the latin.)

The following letters are the greek that should be used to signify the stars in order of brightness;



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I figured i would start with Moon Phases; as the light given by the Moon can disrupt the vision of some of the constallations. The Moon can be as useful as the stars for finding out your location and for timing, depending on how you use it. The different phases can notify you on the general day you're on, whilst it can be used as a reference point to find stars that can tell you were you are.

I found this awesome site, moonconnection.com, which is this calender of what the moon will look like over a month, depending on what month you put in. (You can also change which hemisphere you look at and the year.)

Obviously the Moon phases change depending on the amount of light is reflected, the phases are as follows;
A Blue Moon, which is the second Full Moon of a single month, although sometimes it is defined as being the third Full Moon, as each season only has three Full Moons, whereas an added one would make a grand total of four in a season.
A Crescent Moon, a moon that is part way between a half moon and a new moon, or visa versa.
A Full Moon, a moon that appears in it's entirity, and depending on the time of the year and its arrival, it is given differing names;
January Moon After Yule, Wolf Moon, or Old Moon
February Snow Moon or Hunger Moon
March Sap Moon, Crow Moon, or Lenten Moon
April Grass Moon or Egg Moon
May Milk Moon or Planting Moon
June Rose Moon, Flower Moon, or Strawberry Moon
July Thunder Moon or Hay Moon
August Grain Moon or Green Corn Moon
September Fruit Moon or Harvest Moon
October Harvest Moon or Hunter's Moon
November Hunter's Moon, Frosty Moon, or Beaver Moon
December Moon Before Yule or Long Night Moon.
(Lifted from www.enchantedlearning.com.)
A Gibbous Moon, a moon that is changing from a Half Moon and a Full Moon, or visa versa.
A Half Moon, the obvious half circle, and due to the fact that the Moon, at this point, has completed a full quarter turn around the earth from the first position of a Full Moon. (Hence it is sometimes called a quarter moon.)
A New Moon is the name for when the moon is not visible.

The moon rises in the East and sets in the West just as the sun does, although the timing depends on the phase of the moon at that particular night. It will take up seventy extra minutes to rise than the night before it, hence sometimes the moon is visible when the sun is still up.

When the moon is a New Moon, it will rise with the sun and set with it, although after a few days where in waxes to become a Cresent Moon, then a Half Moon, etc, until it becomes a Full Moon. At which point it will rise during the day, continuing to rise later as each day pases, whilst it sets later into the night. Until, when at a Full Moon, the times have increased so the moon rises when the sun sets, and sets when the sun rises. At which point the moon will wane, essencially in reverse order as it rises during the night and sets in the day, later every day; until it will rise so late it will be rising with the sun. When it becomes the New Moon again.

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as·tron·o·my

/əˈstrɒnəmi/ Show Spelled [uh-stron-uh-mee]   

noun; 

the science that deals with the material universe beyond the earth's atmosphere.

The word originates from 1175-1225 of middle English "astronomie"

Origin:
1175–1225; From the Middle English/Old french 'astrenomie', which can be derived from the Latin 'astronomia', which is seen in the Greek language also, which literally means "star arrangement", when divided into 'astron' for "star and 'nomos' meaning "arranging" or "regulating".

 

According to a Michael E. Bakich, whose article in learning how to observe the sky i found in “the world’s best-selling astronomy magazine” – Astronomy, that before you begin to look at the stars, you should know the sky in a “general sense.”

I’m not quite sure what he means either but he states that he means general as in that the “Earth rotates once a day and orbits the Sun once each year.” However that doesn’t really help. He asks that you “learn why the sky is the celestial sphere”, and that you read up on the moon phases.

However within another article by Alan M. MacRobert, “How to start right in Astronomy”, the same recommendation of learning the sky is offered. Although he claims that an “unaided eye” is required, which i believe requests you go outside and look up, just try to map out the stars generally without knowing them, then proceed to take a few star charts out and try to match them up.

I find this appeals to me more, however after my expedition into some close fields i find that with the light pollution i am unable to see anything in the clear ten o’clock sky, hence i sort of just skipped ahead to ransacking my local library for anything.

I took a quick scan through the internet on pages that recommended some interesting books that could be of use; The guardian, Goodreads, About.com, and asking just about any search engine for any recommendations of starting to learn astronomy.

Most pointed me either outdoors or to books, some to videos of ridiculously awesome stuff happening; like the red moon, others to stars signs and superstitious stuff, and others to how to begin guides of a random persons idea of how to start up which includes; using binoculars instead of getting a microscope outright, getting your own copies of star maps and visit a planetarium.

I've ordered some books and hopefully they will get here soon because the internet is lacking in truth for me to sift through.

11

To avoid confusion in writing a word that may look the same as another, whilst context is usually the greatest helper to remove confusion, tricks of the trade can also be used. For example with the words 'these' and 'this' and 'those', which would be written the exact same way, however by by editing them so they lean in the direction of the vowel which is missing, a distintion may be achieved without any extra letters nor context.

this 




these


those


This is the point in which the very basics of Teeline shorthand has been achieved, hence all that follows is going to only get harder and more confusing, meaning this would either be a good time to panic and give up or to practise writing and reading shorthand before you continue. I will be taking the next week or so to do just that, as whilst i am writing this i know these same basics but i lack any confidence or speed at the time being. What am i going to write about on here? Well i'm going to take a look at some astronomy i think, before returning, just a general idea what the topic is actually about and how its used; not much and probably not interesting to any of the people who have viewed this at any point. Whether they got lost in the depths of the internet, or they were intending to look for something on shorthand and stumbled into a mad being talking to themselves. I hope the people who have viewed this are kind enough to understand the reasons for which this is being put on hold for and are willing to read this again when i return to the topic, or even better they stay and carry on reading as i indulge my curiousities.

10

I should apologise for the lateness of this one, however i am fairly sure it wasn't my fault; i blame spacetime for being so slow and gridlocked today. (also that to avoid cavaties you should not eat 3 bags of cotton candy followed by two packets of haribos... it's not fun.)Special outlines; (again.. theres alot of these, however they are not really necessary, and are usually only used to increase the speed of writing by a few seconds.)

When writing the 'a' indicator, in the 't' position removes the need to write 't' at all, just as with 'sometimes' in .

- at



Another example is 'with' when written as 'wi' in the 't' position which omits the 'th'.

 - with



This can be applied to any character position, such as with the 'o' indicator in the 'f' area, to acknowledge the omission of the 'l' character in 'of'. (NOTE: 'off' is written 'of'.)

 - of



By changing the direction the 'h' slopes, to the left a little, it indicates the missing 'a', while also including the first line in the 'v' character into the line of the 'h'.

 - have


The word 'company' is reduced to 'co' as with longhand, which is to say that longhand slang can be translated and used in shorthand.

 - company

_____________________________________

- or


It should be noted that 'or' is or rather can be written with a single stroke, by using the complete 'o' vowel and curling the 'r' character from the top at the appropriate angle.

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Double Vowels:
If the situation occurs when two vowels begin a word, the use of only one, usually the strongest sounding or the first vowel is needed. However when a double vowel ends a word, only the strongest is
written.                                                                                                                (eager)
(unless)

Unless the double vowel alters the main sound of the word, they are treated as usual characters to keep the alteration complete.
(idea)

Medial Vowels:
The vowels in the middle of a word, aside from those who are usually omitted, the 'medial vowels' may be used to join two consonants easier. For example,

-Between two 's', (rises, classes[left to right])


-A 'b' followed by 'g' or 'n', (big, [underneath] band)




- Letter 'r' followed by 'm'.(remain, remove [l-r])


NOTE: Dipthong 'OY';
While being a consonant, the character 'y' can be used to represent the 'OY' sound at the end or middle of words.

8

'Vowel indicators';
These are reduced forms of the full vowels, they are small-sized, and should be carefully written to be kept that way. Also the direction of the slant of the indicator should be correct else reading back will be difficult. (I was recommended to, at the beginning of writing with Teeline, to write the vowels at the top of each page.) It should also be noted that the vowel indicators should be written downwards, unless situation requires otherwise.

- A indicator

Generally written downwards, it is used for words with 'a', it is also used for words ending in 'ay' as 'y' is never used for an ending.

 The upwards form of the indicator is used with characters 'v', 'w' and 'x' in particular to provide a clear outline.

Whereas the full vowel 'a' is used before 'r' to remove any chance of confusing it with 'vr' combination, although it may also be used at the beginning of a word that starts with 'au' which will make it easier for reading back.

- E indicator
The second part of the full vowel 'e', the horizontal part, is used for making a clearer join with a downwards stroke,
and it is necessary to write the full vowel 'e' before the downstroke of another character for a clear outline.

It is also used for words ending in 'EY', however when 'v' follows 'e' the 'e' indicator is written disjoined above the 'v'.

- I indicator
It is written ypwards after ''h','m','n','p' and 'sh', and after an upwards 'l', which makes it clearer.
But the upwards 'I' is never used at the beginning of a word as that is used for 'a' also. This indicator may be used for the 'v' at the end of a word.

 - O indicator
Which is comprised of merely the bottom half of the 'o' character; described as being "shallower than a 'u' and only half the width of a 'w'". If the 'o' indicator is placed before or after an 'm' it is turned on its side, to be added to curve of the 'm'.

 - U indicator
Usually used at the beginning of a word, although the same as the 'e' indicator, they can rarely be confused. The 'u' character is used before 'p' and 's' to make a clearer outline, and usually when 'u' comes last in a word.

7

Here we go, I apologise for yesterday, but anywho, these are the promised Teeline Vowels;

To begin with there are two types of vowels in Teeline; a 'full vowel' and a 'vowel indicator'. A 'Vowel indicator' is a note that is used at the start or end of a word(s), they are the reduced froms of full vowels.

The 'Full Vowels' have limited but particular uses, as vowels are generally removed from words when written in Teeline, however one of these uses are special outlines, they are written with their most common.

- A = able(to)/ability
It should be noted that the 't' for 'to' is included with the 'a' character, the confusion of 'able' or ability will be cleared up with context.

 - E = electric
This is a small-sized letter and should be carefully written so as not to confuse with the combinantion of 'HD'.

 - I = i/eye
This is another that should be carefully written, with its sloped lines and with an acute angle to avoid being mistaken for the 'v' character.

 - O = [there is no special outline for 'o', due to 's' being a special outline for 'south'.]
It is the same as ther character for 's', but dispite this it works, since 'o' is never used in words, as a vowels.

- U= you
This character should be narrow to avoid looking like a 'w'.

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I'm afraid I haven't much time today, hence how short it is, but i will make up for it with the promise of starting the Vowels tomorrow.

Digression -
The blending of characters;

- 'f' which can be blended like 's' as they follow the same sort of rules.




 'f' and 'r' are also a blending character although the 'f' becomes misshapen at the base, the opposite is also true;

 an 'r' and 'f' blend where the 'r' is written first and loops at the top to reverse and join halfway through the length of the 'r'. The use of a blend should depend on the situation, as sometimes it is easier or rather easier to read back when they are written as seperate characters.

The 'f' and 'l' blend where the 'f' is tucked into the curve of the 'l' just like the Teeline 's'. Hence keeping the proper shape of the characters is important to seperate them when reading back. The Teeline 'f' can also be merged with 'b', 'h', 'm', 'p' and 'w' to create quicker characters to write. They are not necessary to use, it's fine to write them seperately aswell.