6 February 2006

Observing Location	New York City
Observational Period
Atmospheric Conditions	It has turned cold again. It really isn't any colder than it should be in the winter, it is just very cold in comparison to the weather we have been having lately. It was cloudy when I came home and I never even thought of observing. CSC says it is supposed to be nearly cloudless and fairly transparent but poor seeing so I guess windy. AccuWeather says 10 MPH winds gusting to 22 MPH. It doesn't sound like good observing weather. Anyway, I am supposed to be studying for my ham radio license this week although I couldn't get into it today after finishing up updating my occultation maps.
Instruments
Observing Party

I received this in the email a while back and just ran across it while cleaning out the mailbox.

Can you raed tihs? I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed tihs psas it on!!

I didn't have much of a problem reading the message. The faster I read the fewer problems I had. Occasionally I would get stopped by a letter combination that is just to alien to what we see in the English language, but it didn't take long to get past it.

If I applied this principle to astronomy I should be able to read the right word if I spell it wrong, which I often do, as long as I had the right beginning and ending letters and the word was about the right length.

So looking at the constellation names I should be able to use them interchangeably and get my meaning across:

Antila	Aquila	Auriga
Cygnus	Corvus
Equuleus	Eridanus
Lepus	Lupus
Mensa	Musca
Pegasus	Perseus
Pisces	Puppis
Serpens	Sextans

Somehow I don't think it is going to work.

I remember reading long ago that we don't read the letters in words but rather the shapes of the whole words. That is why it is easier to read lower case text, there are ascenders and descenders mixed in with the lower case letter bodies that give lower case text more variability that solid uppercase. And serif on the letters are supposed to contribute to character recognition as well.