March 18, 2012
Forgotten No More
image from Bob Crelin
Earth's southern hemisphere is mostly ocean with parts of Africa and the Americas hanging down, their pole-fleeing not yet complete. Australia is moving northeast toward the middle of the Pacific, but at least it is a full southern hemisphere continent. Since most people live in the northern hemisphere most products are designed for the north is up perspective. For ballpoint pens, shoes and even cars that doesn't matter, but in looking up (or down as we northerners would think of it) at the sky most maps and charts don't match what southerners see. Bob Crelin has had enough of this northern chauvinism and has made a version of his useful Moon Gazer's Wheel for observers down under. It is nearly identical to his original northern hemisphere wheel - with necessary changes to actually match the way the Moon looks from southern lands. The give away is that the drawing of the Earth at the middle of the wheel is centered over Antarctica, rather than the Arctic on the northern version. I don't know if Bob has distributors in the southern hemisphere, so that might be an opportunity for astronomical societies to bring understanding of the Moon and its phases to their citizens.
Chuck Wood
Related Links
Bob's websites
Yesterday's LPOD: Do Rilles Flow Downslope?
Tomorrow's LPOD: An Inconvenient Beauty
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