I just read an article on CBS news about dating events in "The Odyssey" in they classified the Pleiades as a constellation.  Anyone with basic knowlege of astronomy knows that the Pleiades is an open cluster.  Has anyone elese seen similar ignorance?

  I run across stuff like that ALL the time!! Every day!  Sometimes it is far more glaring than that, and not just science but history, geography, art and literature...!

  One of my favorite 'no-brainer' things to do is read the ticker tape headlines run at the bottom of the screen.. It's amazing how many mistakes are in these things!!  My wife is an editor, so she often enjoys this pursuit as well.  Most of the time, it is more interesting than anything else on T.V...

I haven't read the article, and don't know the context, but to the ancient Greeks the Pleiades were considered a constellation to them selves.  Only later were they added to Taurus.

AHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!

 Who's ignorant now!!!  Oops!

  Way to "drop some science" on us Zachsdad!!

Our local news was having a story about the last lunar eclipse and the reporter was using a Newtonian reflector telescope as a prop for his report.  Of course he had the wrong end up.  This channel has an e-mail connection and I told them what they had done wrong and that such a position could damage the mirror if it slips from the cell.

Needless to say I got no response.

L

  Every now and again I wake up from a terrible nightmare where I realize that all of the so-called "experts" are really a bunch of morons parading around as experts, slowly destroying our world.

   The I get jacked up on caffeine and vitamins and its all o.k. again...

  Right?  It's all o.k., isn't it?

  Isn't it?

I must say I disagree completely!  I don't think think they are destroying our world slowly at all.

Was that a sincere statement Terry, or was the emphasis suppose to be on  slowly ?

I probably should have used the italics. 

I've heard a common myth that the North Star is the brightest. And a math textbook I once had said that Sirius, at 8 point something lightyears away, was 'very far away' from Earth. Of course, we all know that Sirius is right on our doorstep.

And an old newspaper advertisement on www.philharrington.net talked about telescopes that could let you see '100 billion miles' away. Well, the closest star is 26 trillion miles away, so...

Red1530:

I just read an article on CBS news about dating events in "The Odyssey" in they classified the Pleiades as a constellation.  Anyone with basic knowlege of astronomy knows that the Pleiades is an open cluster.  Has anyone elese seen similar ignorance?

The media often do mangle scientific matters.  I know; I spent most of my working life in the news media.  But this particular example is not an egregious one, and as zachsdad points out it’s not really an error.  The roots of the word constellation mean a set of stars.  In different countries over many centuries a great many patterns of stars were referred to as constellations, including the Pleiades.  That was certainly true in Greece at the time of Homer.  Then in 1930 the International Astronomical Union drew up “official” boundaries for 88 constellations.   Just because in the IAU’s jargon any “unofficial” star pattern is an asterism, that doesn’t make fools of those who use the word constellation in a more generic sense.  

Kyle:

I've heard a common myth that the North Star is the brightest. And a math textbook I once had said that Sirius, at 8 point something lightyears away, was 'very far away' from Earth. Of course, we all know that Sirius is right on our doorstep.

And an old newspaper advertisement on www.philharrington.net talked about telescopes that could let you see '100 billion miles' away. Well, the closest star is 26 trillion miles away, so...

Ah I see your getting a little confused and narrow minded. Sirius may indeed be only 8 Ly Away but that is a far distance. If the local neighbourhood were a large city with the Sun at the Centre, It would be one building. Sirius would be in the middle of the suburbs as a supermarket. It would take you a while to walk those miles.

Also you're getting confused with american and british billions and trillions. Your Trillion is only one of our Billions. Even though the media is starting to use your style. Check the source before you laugh... 

The best is when the media suggests (or USED to suggest) putting a box on your head and peeking through a pinhole to watch a solar eclipse. Awesome. Now you look like a dork AND go blind.....SWEET!!! 

You' weren't supposed to look through the pinhole.  You were supposed to look at the projected image of the Sun on the side of the box opposite the pinhole.  It’s called a camera obscura, and is an excellent method for not hurting your eyes while observing a solar eclipse.

zachsdad:

I haven't read the article, and don't know the context, but to the ancient Greeks the Pleiades were considered a constellation to them selves.  Only later were they added to Taurus.

That doesn't surprise me.  Fast news is more important than factual news these days.

This is really a trivial matter regarding the use of the word constellation, as I noted in my earlier post.  Sometimes young students get a little too caught up in what their teachers have taught them by rote, rather than considering the reasoning and history behind their studies. 

I was planning to wait until this minor issue died down before writing an essay here about the really stretched correlation that the subjects of the article were trying to make between a mythical story and astronomical calculations.  True, it’s possible that some of the myth might have been inspired by facts.  But most of the happenings in the Odyssey were outlandish.  Rather than write more about it, I’ll give you a link to another thread.  In it Chris Hillman does such a fine job rebutting the researchers that there is no point in my trying to follow up:  http://www.bautforum.com/astronomy/75854-astronomical-clues-point-eclipse-homers-odyssey.html

Starwolf:

The best is when the media suggests (or USED to suggest) putting a box on your head and peeking through a pinhole to watch a solar eclipse. Awesome. Now you look like a dork AND go blind.....SWEET!!! 

No, you get a friend to sit inside the box so you don't look like a dork:

... No, wait, what you do is take a picture of two friends looking like dorks ...

... OK, okay, I got it, what you do is ...

Thanks for waking me up with the picture of a box camera obscura in use with the fine captions.

L

Oh no, thanks for bringing up those media dolts, a major pet peeve of mine. How about when the nightly news leads with an American Idol scoop or some other drivel? I'm sorry, is the war in Iraq over? Election year? who cares, tell us more about who Paris was seen making out with. or those stupid teasers, "What everyday household item will kill you while you sleep? Tune in tonight at 10 to find out." AAARRGH!! No wonder we'd rather be outside staring into an eyepiece.