Michael Tunk, The Wild West Guide To The Galaxy # 185, 2016, Analog Collage, 10.5" X 10".

Happy birthday to Christopher Clavius (March 25, 1538-February 6, 1612), the German Jesuit mathematician and astronomer. And now, ladies and gents, here are some fun facts:

History doesn’t know his actual German name. It could be Christoph Clau or Klau. It might be Schlüssel, which is German for “key”, which in turn is “clavis” in Latin. But really, it’s all speculation.

At the age of 17, Clavius joined the Jesuit Order, which was founded when he was a child.

While studying at a Jesuit college in Portugal, he excelled in math. Upon observing a total solar eclipse in 1560, he decided that astronomy would be his life’s work.

As a professor at the Collegio Romano in (you guessed it!) Rome, Clavius taught mathematics and wrote textbooks, including works on algebra, the astrolabe, and practical arithmetic and geometry. He also did his own version of Euclid’s Elements; that probably contributed to him being called “the Euclid of the sixteenth century.”

Clavius was the senior math guy on the commission that reformed the calendar in 1582. This gave us the Gregorian calendar that most of the Western world uses to this day. Check out my previous post on this subject.

In his astronomical works, Clavius was geocentric in his opposition to the Copernican model of the universe for reasons both scientific and scriptural. He remained an everything-rotates-around-the-Earth guy until near the end of his life.

He budged on the matter. A little. Well, not quite, maybe. Clavius and Galileo had a mutually respectful relationship, and Clavius was rather thrilled (in his cautiously Jesuit way) with Galileo’s groundbreaking observations of Jupiter’s moons and other wonders. In 1610, during Galileo’s visit to Rome, Clavius and other scientists confirmed the existence of Jovian satellites and the phases of Venus, which contradicted the Ptolemaic view of the cosmos. But the geocentrism-vs-heliocentrism debate raged on.

Clavius also seemed to take this skeptical-but-delighted approach to Galileo’s telescopic observations of the Moon’s rough surface. He wrote that “when the Moon is a crescent or half full, it appears so remarkably fractured and rough that I cannot marvel enough that there is such unevenness in the lunar body.”

Speaking of the lunar body, Clavius was honored with his own crater formation on the Moon, as you can see above. Largest to smallest, the craters are designated Clavius D, C, N, J, and JA. Fans of 2001: A Space Odyssey might recognize this lunar location as the setting for Clavius Base, a human colony featured in both the film and book.

Feel free to contact me if I’m getting any of this wrong. I’m no Clavius.

(Rice University/Wikipedia)

me: only deep and meaningful lyrics get to me

rammstein: you’ve got a pussy, i have a dick-ah, so what’s the problem, let’s do it quick

me:

NASA’S NEW SPACE TOURISM POSTERS ARE OUT OF THIS WORLD

A New Era: Conquering The Crossroads of Technology

“Flying cars. Transparent gadgets. 3D-printed replacement organs. Virtual reality. Nanobots.

On the surface, it seems like we’re finally entering the futuristic world that our parents say they were promised at the World’s Fair. Upon LIGO’s discovery of Einstein’s century-old proposal of the existence of gravitational waves, many are calling this a “new era” ofscience, astronomy, andspace exploration.

Every day, we’re bombarded with a LOT of news, including news about the latest and greatest in science and technology. Whether it’s a reusable rocket or the World’s Smallest 4K Camera, cancer-killing nanobots or Solar Roadways, the hyperloop or real hoverboards, it seems like we’re on the verge of achieving utopia.

So…

Where is all of this great stuff and why aren’t we there yet?” More at thedailycosmos.com.

Everyone gets everything he wants. I wanted a mission, and for my sins, they gave me one. Brought it up to me like room service. It was a real choice mission, and when it was over, I never wanted another.

Captain Benjamin L. Willard

Million-mile high club, nice!

Major Rick Martinez, Andy Weir's The Martian

Approaching Pluto Date: 13 Jul 2015

One of the final sequence of images before closest approach to Pluto.

Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

You love your wife! I love your wife! Aren't we both on the same side?

Giacomo Casnova (portrayed by David Tennant), BBC 3′s Casanova (2005)