Cosmos Quilt
Mar. 13th, 2014 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoySo about five years ago I got this quilt kit for Xmas. I've been poking at it off and on ever since, and a few weeks ago I finally poked at enough that it turned into an actual quilt!
BEHOLD
This is not my bed; I sleep on a hobbity little twin bed. But the lighting on this one is much better.
That right there is an awesome space-themed quilt. It was billed as a wall hanging, but I added enough exra fabric to it to make it into an actual people-sized (well, hobbit-sized) blanket. It's got a blue flannel back to it and is wonderfully comfortable.
What the hell happened to the lighting in this photo? I don't know how to camera.
Plus, it's got rocketships all up on it.
The center panel is a rather haphazardly-arranged collection of constellations whose placement would probably appall Neil DeGrasse Tyson. But hey, at least the constellations themselves look right. And it's got both Northern- and Southern-hemisphere patterns, so I can learn some unusual ones, like "The Toucan," "The Telescope," and "The Poop."*
To quilt it, among other things I traced the constellations. I have no idea if I managed to learn them better, but it was kind of fun tracing them.
But of course, you're all just dying to know the big question, the most important thing about this quilt. You will not be satisfied until I answer the burning demand: Does it glow in the dark? And I am here to tell you that yes. Yes, it does.
The stars and the planet outlines do. I have yet to get a good photo of it because, again, I am bad at camera, but it's a lot of fun. I'e taken to turning on my big overhead fluorescent lights before going to sleep, just so I'll have the constellations glowing happily at me when I do. It's glorious.
I should really make quilts more often than every seven or eight years, But at least I feel super special when I do get them made.
*Yes, really. A lot of the Southern constellations were officially named during the Age of Exploration, and so explorers gave them more modern names, defined as "whatever junk was lying around in their immediate view at the time." So you have a lot of constellations named after navigation instruments. There were also a lot of ship parts--including the "poop deck." Which leads me to a follow-up. Dear Astronomers: please quit coming up with names that make it incredibly difficult to have conversations about astronomy without having to at least acknowledge awkward double-meanings. It's just getting ridiculous now.
BEHOLD
This is not my bed; I sleep on a hobbity little twin bed. But the lighting on this one is much better.
That right there is an awesome space-themed quilt. It was billed as a wall hanging, but I added enough exra fabric to it to make it into an actual people-sized (well, hobbit-sized) blanket. It's got a blue flannel back to it and is wonderfully comfortable.
What the hell happened to the lighting in this photo? I don't know how to camera.
Plus, it's got rocketships all up on it.
The center panel is a rather haphazardly-arranged collection of constellations whose placement would probably appall Neil DeGrasse Tyson. But hey, at least the constellations themselves look right. And it's got both Northern- and Southern-hemisphere patterns, so I can learn some unusual ones, like "The Toucan," "The Telescope," and "The Poop."*
To quilt it, among other things I traced the constellations. I have no idea if I managed to learn them better, but it was kind of fun tracing them.
But of course, you're all just dying to know the big question, the most important thing about this quilt. You will not be satisfied until I answer the burning demand: Does it glow in the dark? And I am here to tell you that yes. Yes, it does.
The stars and the planet outlines do. I have yet to get a good photo of it because, again, I am bad at camera, but it's a lot of fun. I'e taken to turning on my big overhead fluorescent lights before going to sleep, just so I'll have the constellations glowing happily at me when I do. It's glorious.
I should really make quilts more often than every seven or eight years, But at least I feel super special when I do get them made.
*Yes, really. A lot of the Southern constellations were officially named during the Age of Exploration, and so explorers gave them more modern names, defined as "whatever junk was lying around in their immediate view at the time." So you have a lot of constellations named after navigation instruments. There were also a lot of ship parts--including the "poop deck." Which leads me to a follow-up. Dear Astronomers: please quit coming up with names that make it incredibly difficult to have conversations about astronomy without having to at least acknowledge awkward double-meanings. It's just getting ridiculous now.
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no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 02:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 03:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 02:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 02:29 am (UTC)The Greeks had a constellation called Argo Navis (the ship Argo). It was in the southern sky, and precession of the equinoxes carried it more into view from the Mediterranean as the years passed. So, it got bigger. By the time modern astronomers were formalizing constellation boundaries it was fricken HUGE, so they decided they had to divide it up. So you end up with the Sails, the Keel/Hull, and the Poop/Stern. (Some say Pyxis used to be Argo's mast.) Maybe it would have been better to name Puppis 'the Stern': the word poop deck comes from the French word for 'stern'.
It was after Johann Bayer made up the alpha-beta-gamma etc. designations for stars in constellations so Vela and Puppis don't have an 'alpha' star.
Note: I knew about Argo Navis's division, but most of the rest was learned by reading Wikipedia to confirm spellings.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 03:20 am (UTC)I still think that Nicolas Louis de La Caille just made up the constellations he named after the junk in his own cabin, even if he says later it was in honor of modern inventions. ;)
I did know about the etymology of "poop deck," since I looked it up wondering what the hell after reading the term in one of the Chronicles of Narnia long ago. But I stand by its being a silly name. "The Stern" makes more sense, or just stick with "Puppis."
no subject
Date: 2014-03-15 01:26 am (UTC)Should I ever need to mention Puppis, it will be The Ship's Stern.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 03:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 04:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 08:06 am (UTC)...Did no one bother to ask any local people what they called the Southern constellations? Oh who am I kidding of coure they didn't.
Though, no reason to believe it'd be any more dignified than Poop Deck, really. Best to avoid the noble savage trope.
no subject
Date: 2014-03-14 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-15 02:49 am (UTC)