30

And... new topic; Knots.

Admittedly not the grandest, nor most interesting topic, but a curiosity nonetheless.

Depending on what you will use the knot for, each knot must be tied differently; basic ties, camping knots, fishing, boating, climbing, scouting, decorative, and splicing. For now I'm going to stick to the basic knots for now.

There are generally eight basic knots, here are the first four;

The overhand knot,
is used most commonly, for strand-stopping, that is to stop a piece of rope from fraying or unraveling. It is also one of the few stopper knots that can be tied tightly or tied against something. It is achieved by forming a tie like the one beginning a tie in a shoe lace. That is by forming a lope in one end of a length of rope before crossing the end over itself, then pulling it under and through the loop formed and pulling tight.

The Half Hitch,
is used around an object; although it is not a secure knot alone, hence it is usually followed by another half hitch, or more. (This is generally causes a clove hitch, which is made by forming a loop by coiling the rope on itself, then pulling the loop tight around an object, then forming another loop with the left-hand side of the remaining rope and pulling that over the object too. [Although if you reverse the second half hitch, you achieve a cow hitch; a loop, with the remaining length ontop of the loop, and another formed in the same way opposing it, before tucking both around an object and pulling tight with the remaining legth.])A half hitch is created by, generally forming a overhand knot around an object, forming a loop with the middle of the rope, then pulling an end through the loop around the object, using the remaining length to pull tight.

The Half knot,
again is generally used with two of the same, causing a square reef, when the second is tied left over right, if it is right over left it is a granny knot. This should not be used for larger loads as it has a reputation of slipping that precedes it. To create this knot you must use two ends of a length, and cross the right under the left, and pull the left underneath the right over it, forming a figure of eight on its side, then add another, repeating the tie, depending on which know you wish as an outcome.

The Square knot,
is made by using the ends of the rope, laying a suffeicent length of end end parrell, but seperate, lift the right end over the left and pull the end of the left upwards at an angle but still flat. Then pull the right down underneath the left, before raising it up opposite the left at an angle, the ends are then crossed the end that was the right at the beginning over the top of the left, then tuck the right underneath the left again and pull tightly. This is the average square knot, which if there are more than two can fall undone, hence although it is possible to add another half knot or more it is not adviseable. There is another variation called the surgical knot, which is made by wrapping two ends together, left side leading, before pulling the two ends up, then each end to the opposing side with the beginning right side underneath and through the left coil. There is also the granny, that is two crossed ends or a double knot, and the theif, made by using two ends; pulling the right side over the left and coiling back, then underneath the left to join back to itself. Then pull the left underneath the two right lengths and through the loop formed and back on itself, then pull tightly by the ends.

29

Here we go, I know this is a little silly but I've always wanted to know how to juggle, so...

After looking through a few webpages, I complied the following instructions that show how to juggle;

To begin with, you should just throw one ball between your two hands, throwing it high enough to be at eye level with your hands positioned at mid waist/hip. After you can throw the ball and catch it without looking at it, move onto throwing two balls. Throw from your weaker hand to your stronger, but before you catch it, throw the one from your stronger hand into weaker one. Remember to try to throw the balls to eye level, and if you ever need to move your feet, you need to weaken your throws a little.

Finally, when throwing three balls, start with two balls in your weaker hand and the other one in your stronger one. As before throw one ball from your weaker to your stronger hand, but before you catch it throw the ball in your stronger hand to your weaker one, then when you catch the ball in your weaker hand throw the second ball that you left there from your start position to your stronger and repeat.

You may throw the first ball from your weaker to your stronger straight across rather than up, that alright but try to keep it even. The balls may also start leaning away from your body; but adjusting your body position and keeping your hands near your torso that will be resolved.

28

So, me being an expert procrastinator, I'm going to do a few of the simple things from a list of stuff that I've wondered how to do for an age, but never got round to finding out, so I'm going to do something  of that before finding another curiosity to look into.

How to spin a pencil,  which is ridiculously awkward, I found a bunch of youtube videos that helped just by typing in "how to spin a pencil." Although actually spinning the pencil is awkward at first, practise does help, as annoying as it is. Anyway, to spina pencil you hole the pen with your forefinger and your middle finger on the outside and your thumb resting gently on top, don't hold it too tightly, just enough to keep it in your hand.

Then push gently but quickly on the bottom half to spin the pencil around your thumb. Be careful, spin too quickly and the pencil will fly off, not enough and it won't complete the spin.

When I was looking for instructions on how to do it, I found information about how to spin a drum stick,which works just as well; the first method was by slotting the pencil between your forefinger and your middle finger and both rotating and shaking the pencil side to side for the "fake spin", for an actual "spin" you slot the pencil between your forefinger and you middle finger, using your ring finger you pull it over your middle finger, then using your little finger you pull it over your ring finger. Before finally, using your forefinger pull the pen back to the starting position, using your thumb to help it. It's illustrating but you will gradually get faster when you don't have to think about what you have to do to get it to spin.

How to knot a cherry stem,
Which Is ridiculously easy once you know how to to do it;  that is first you retrieve a cherry stem, long and flexible, fold it over your tongue with one half on top the other below, then grip the fold in you teeth and bite down until the stem form a loop with the ends as an x shape, then push one end through the loop with your tongue.

27

I did plan on introducing information I've found on multiple stars, variable and pulsating stars however the details are increadibly physics heavy and my own understanding is awkward hence I'd rather not try to explain it to someone else.

So after concluding the constellation curiousity, and before I find something else to look into;
Dark matter,
Which serves as gravitational glue of the universe. At first was presumed that the stars orbited th  galaxy like the planet  orbit the sun; however, that was debunked by Vera Rubin and Kent Ford, that the stars, outlying and inner, moved at the same speed. The conclusion they found was that the visible matter makes up only a small portion of the galaxy.
Each spiral galaxy has a "halo" surrounding it made of dark matter, this controls via gravity, stars in the visible outskirts. The dark matter [must] exceed visible matter by 10 in mass.
NASAs fermi Gamma-ray space telescope webpage.
This helped understand and I highly doubt I could  do a better job of explaining, although dark matter was explained to me that "if galaxies are sea foam, dark matter is the ocean in which it floats."
ANTI- matter, predicted by Paul Dirae in 1929. He found that, for every subatomic particle, identical in mass, but with an opposite electrical charge. When a particle and its nanoparticles meet, they annihilate each other. Their electrical charges are cancelled out and their mass is converted to pure energy.

26

 I'm not going to write about all the constellations, that would be idiotic and take far too much time but this is just help understand when reading a star map, that the stars in the sky don't appear up there with little labels, hence you need to actually need to look for them; preferably in the right direction.

For an example; Andromeda, all of the stars included within said constellation, are shown to the left. Andromeda is found north of the celestial equator, and due to this Andromeda is only visible above 40°  south latitude. For those who want to view it from the southern area it lies below the hoizon.

It is one of the largest constellations at 722 square degrees, over 1,400 times the size of a full moon and ten times that of crux, the smallest constellation.

To the right is an image showing Andromeda in reality, the difference is clear between the map and the photograph.

25

Finally on to reading the stars, you need to be careful as stars are in motion, they rise and set as the sun and moon do. (but they set in formation.) Although some different costellations rise seperately at differing times, differening dates.

Admittedly the stars do move, however due to how far away they are precise measurements are detected with only the proper equipement. However, for now, the stars are cataloged and mapped out using a system called 'right esension and declination', also known as RA and Dec. RA is the position of a star from east-west in the sky, like longitude and Dec is the position measured in the nourth-south direction, like latitude. Ra is in units of hours, minutes and seconds; Dec is in units of degrees, minutes and seconds of arc. There are ninety degrees for a right angle, sixty minutes of an arc for a degree and sity seconds equals a minute of arc. (known as an "arc minute" or "arc second".)

To understand the system are; the first being the North Celestial Pole is axis of earth that pointing North, the second point being that the South Celestial Pole is where the axis of earth points South, obvious but necessary; also it should be noted that on most star maps the lines of RA and Dec are written on them, RA are semicircles that are based around the center of the earth. (Nearly all maps have these written on them hence you don't need to find them yourself.)

To find the NCP in your garden, face North and look at the altitude of x degrees, where x is your geographic latitude. (Do the same for the SCP, if you live in the South hemisphere.)

NOTE: the sign "is used for seconds of arc not inches.

Star maps are avalible online, or you can buy hard copies of them or even full map books of them, some recommended websites are; skyandtelescope, astronomy, astronomynow, skynews.

24

Charles Messier, 1730 - 1817, a french astronomer who listed around 100 objects in the sky, now its around 110. It's known as the Messier Catalog, sometimes items are referenced by their number within the catalog, M13 for example. This is the complete catalog up-to-date, here, as i figured that it would be simpler than to type them all up myself, besides this site is awesome, take a gander.

Although not particularly needed to look at the constellations, its facinating if you have something fall in your lap, to know what it is.