Friday 21 June 2019

Toomas Karmo: XXVII, ehk 1869.a. suurjuubeli, üldlaulupeo tuli jõuab Tartu Observatooriumisse - Tartu Observatory Receives the XXVII National Song Festival Flame, Marking the Sesquicentennial of the Inaugural (1869) Festival

Nii jõudis XXVII Üldlaulupeo tuli täna hommikul Tartu Observatooriumisse. Minu foto, pildistamise hetkeks UTC=20190621T0808Z; litsensitingimuste ehk taaskasutamise juhtnööriks võtta tavaline, paljulubav, Creative Commons. Nagu on normaalne blogspoti kirjastamise juures, saab fotot tavalises brauseris suurendada  hiireklõpsuga. - This morning the XXVII National Song Festival flame arrived at Tartu Observatory. My photo, from UTC=20190621T0808Z; for licensing terms, in other words for guidance on reproduction, take the duly permissive and liberal terms of Creative Commons. As is normal in blogspot publishing, the photo can be enlarged in a normal browser, through a mouse-click. [NOTE ADDED: This particular National Song Festival marks the 150th anniversary of the first (1869) Song Festival, which has long served historians as a milestone within the 1860s National Awakening. The process which the Awakening launched, and which went through its ups and downs over ensuing decades, was to culminate in a pair of legal instruments - on the one hand in the 1918-02-24 Declaration of Independence, and on the other hand in the 1920-02-02 Treaty of Tartu (Traité de Paix, with signatories "Esthonie" and "Republique des Soviets de Russie"), a little after the ceasefire which ended the 1918-1919 War of Indepedence. The XXVII Festival, scheduled for 2019-07-04 through 2019-07-07 in Tallinn,  as a sesquicentennial, is currently being promoted with a procession of the Festival flame through various Estonian centres, both urban and (as in our case) rural. I guess that our local procedure, as I observed it this morning, is typical, with police escort, choirs, ladies in folk costumes (as visible in my photo), and a flag-waving, shutter-happy, crowd.]

Monday 17 June 2019

Toomas Karmo: Postscriptum 2018.a. esseele ladina keele õppimise teemal / Postscript to 2018 Essay on the Studying of Latin

Kvaliteedihinnang: - Quality assessment:

Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis pole nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 2/5. Põhjendus: Teema ei võimaldanud filosoofiliselt sügavat käsitlemist. -  On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his  grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: The chosen theme did not offer scope for philosophical depth.  


Variandikroonika: - Revision history:

Kõik kalendrip
äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 4 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 3 tundi taga. - All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné,  a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 4 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 3 hours. 
 
 
  • 20190620T0841/variant 1.1.0: Kmo kergelt timmis üht "proovikivi" ladinakeelse-anlüüsi harjutust. Ta tegi ka pisikesi grammatilisi või puhtstiililisi parandusi, ehkki enam kui 48 pärast variandi 1.0.0 koostamist. Üldise kontrolli juures ta märkas, et pakutud  UTC seletused (siit mõni rida ülespoole) paraku vastasid Eesti ning Kanada talvekelladele, mitte Eesti ning Kanada suvekelladele. Seegi punkt on nüüd korda pandud. Kmo jättis endale õigust teha veelgi pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 200 tunni jooksul, kui siin protokollimata variandid 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... . - Kmo fine-tuned one of his "touchstone" Latin-analysis exercises. He also make some tiny grammatical and stylistic repairs, even though more than 48 hours had passed since his writing of version 1.0.0. In the course of his general checking, Kmo noticed that his offered acount of UTC (a few lines above this present sentence) was unfortunately fitted to Estonian and Canadian civil winter time, rather than to Estonian and Canadian civil summer time. This fault he likewise corrected.  Kmo reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 200 hours, as here-undocumented version 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... . 
  • 20190617T1851Z/variant 1.0.0: Kmo laadis piisavalt  lihtivud tööd blogspoti serverile. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ...   - Kmo uploaded an adequately  polished version to the blogspot server. He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... . 
[FILOLOOGILINE TEAVE: Lahkel lugejal palun andestada minu eestikeelseid kirjavigu. Kui pensionieas Välis-Eestist Eestisse ümberasuja, läinud aastakümnete pagulusolude sunnil ilma kodukeelse koolihariduseta, pean ma oma kirjakeelt nüüd parandama peamiselt praktilise harjutamise teel. Sellega ongi siinsamas blogspotis vahetevahelt algusi tehtud, ehkki kohmakalt. Keelelised parandusettepankud oleksid teretulnud, aadressil Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com. - LINGUISTIC NOTE: I ask the Gentle Reader to forgive my blemishes in Estonian prose. As a pension-aged resettler from the Estonian diaspora to Estonia, obliged by exile-diaspora circumstances over the past decades to forego formal Estonian schooling, I must now improve my Estonian prose composition for the most part simply through practice. I have made such a practical-prose beginning here and there in blogspot, albeit clumsily. Linguistic corrections would be welcome, at the address Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com.] 

Taustakirjeldus - Background 


2018.a. talve lõpul, minu viimasel Kanadas asumise aasta alguses, ma kirjutasin ladina keele pedagoogikast  siinses blogspotis inglise keeles, rubriigil "Studying Latin: Some Theoretical Whys, Some Practical Hows" (URL-il http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html).  Nüüd on aeg käes mullu Kanadas alustatud teemal pisut Eestis jätkata, ühe teatud esilekerkinud isiku julgustamiseks.  - At the end of 2018 winter, at the start of my final year of living in Canada, I wrote on the subject of Latin studies here in blogspot in English, under the heading "Studying Latin: Some Theoretical Whys, Some Practical hows" (at the URL http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html). The time has now come for me to continue, here in Estonia, with the theme that I started in Canada, so as to encourage a certain recently emerging individual. 

Nimelt on üks noorevõitu tudeng, prl või hr "ABC", astunud skaibiühendusse välismaalt, paludes minu nõu tema algavas ladinakeele õppimises. "ABC" on ülikooli lõpetanud. Seega pole ta hetkel kursustel, ja seega vajaks ta veel eriti kellegi nõu. Nõu ma pakun talle rõõmsalt ning tasutult. Ma leian, et sobiv on neid nõuandeid ka laiema Interneti üldsusega jagada, kuna nad võiksid tulevikus teistelegi kasulikuks osutuda. -  Specifically, a rather youthful student, Miss or Mr "ABC", has recently started Skype communication from abroad, asking my advice in her or his just-launched Latin studies. "ABC" has finished university. He or she is consequently not at the moment enrolled in courses, and consequently is in particular need of advice. I give her or him my help cheerfully and for free. I find it additionally appropriate to share my tips with the general Internet readership, since my advice may in future prove useful to persons other than ABC.  

Siinjuures on vaid üks hoiatus ehk "caveat" ("Cave canem" = "Hoia koera eeset", "Caveat emptor" = "Ostja olgu valvel"). Ehkki ma saan ABC-d aidata tasutult, ei ole mul tulevikus võimalik säärast abi mitmele kinkida. Seega caveant omnes! Juhul, kui mõnel ilusal päeval pöördub minu poole mõni teine ning kolmas isik "BCD" ning "CDE" analoogsete vajadustega, oleksin ma sunnitud suhtuma jõudsalt kasvavasse asjasse mitte täiesti eitavalt, kuid siiski kui ettevõtja ehk teenustemüüja. Kui, ütleme hüpoteetiliselt, kaugema tuleviku prl BCD osutub välismaalaseks nagu ABC, peaksin ma temaga koos uurima PayPal'i tasuvõimalusi. Ja kui, ütleme jälle hüpoteetiliselt, kaugema tuleviku hr CDE osutub eestimaalaseks, peaksin ma temalt paluma mingisugust sobivat tasu kas sularaha või pangaülekande või õunapuudepügamistööde näol, või - mis veelgi parem - minu eesti kirjakeele parandamises. - A reservation or "caveat" arises here. ("Cave canem" = "Look out for the dog", "Caveat emptor" = "Let the purchaser beware.") Although I can help ABC for free, it will not be feasible for me in future to offer this type of help to many people. So caveant omnes! If it should one fine day happen that some second and third individuals "Miss BCD" and "Mr CDE" turn to me with needs similar to those of ABC, I would be obliged to adopt, toward the vigorously expanding situation, an attitude not altogether negative, and yet nevertheless entrpreneurial, as appropriate in the selling of a service. If (let us hypothetically suppose) the BCD of the remoter future proves to be a foreigner, as ABC is, then I would have to explore PayPal financial-transfer possibilities with her. And if (let us again hypothetically suppose) the CDE of the more remote future turns out to be Estonian, I would have to ask him for appropriate compensation in cash or by bank transfer or by way of apple-tree pruning - or, what would be still better, through his tutoring me in Estonian prose composition. 

Et ABC privaatsust kaitsta, ma siin ei seleta, millest soost on ABC, ega milles konkreetses välisriigis ta asub (ja veel ammugi mitte, milles linnas). Ma näiteks ei kinnita ega lükka ümber oletust, et ABC asub kusagil Aasias. Siin tuletaksin vaid meelde hea ameerika vanasõna, Las Vegase kohta, mis sobiiks iga linna-küla-aleviku kohta, asugu see kas Ameerikas või (näiteks) Aasias, Aafrikas või Austraalias: Mis sünnib Vegases jäägu Vegasesse. - To protect ABC's privacy, I will not here divulge ABC's gender or in what particular foreign country ABC is living (and much less in what foreign city). I for example neither confirm nor deny the supposition that ABC lives somewhere in Asia. Here I would simply call to mind the good American proverb, concerning Las Vegas, applicable to any city-town-village-hamlet anywhere, be it in America or (e.g.) in Asia, Africa, or Australia: What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. 


Konkreetseid soovitusi ABC-le ning teistele (1): Seadke sisse ajaregister - Concrete advice for ABC and others (1): Set up  a timelog



Peab kindlaks tegema, et vajalik aeg saab vajalikus mahus investeeritud. Nagu ma eelpoolmainitud essees (http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html) 2018.a. nentisin, grammatika aluste õppimise puhul sobivalt kompaktsest ja asjalikust raamatust (isiklikult eelistaksin ma seal-mainitud Bettsi Teach Yourself Latin), tuleks investeerida paarsada tundi. ("...thanks to almost two millennia of systematized teaching, we know just how long it takes to master Latin declensions and conjugations, for the pupil of average intelligence at or beyond late adolescence. With decently brisk instruction books, such a pupil does not need six hundred desk hours. Three hundred, perhaps even two hundred, or in the case of a really gifted pupil under two hundred, are known to suffice." - "...tänu ligi kahe aastatuhande süstemaatiseeritule õpetamisele, me teame küllaltki täpselt, kui kaua aega läheb ladinakeele käändkondade ja pöördkondade omaksvõtmiseks, keskpäraste võimetega tudengi puhul kas teismelise ea lõpu poole või veel kõrgemas elueas. Viisakalt kiiretempoliste õpikute juures niisugune õpilane ei vajaks kuutsada õppelaua tundi. On teada, et piisab kolmestsajast, võimalikult isegi paaristsajast, ja erakordselt andeka õpilase puhul koguni alla kahesajast tunnist.") - It is necessary to make check that time has been duly invested. As I mentioned in the above-cited 2018 essay (http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/02/toomas-karmo-studying-latin-some.html), for the learning of foundational grammar from a suitable compact and businesslike book (personally I prefer the there-mentioned book by Betts, Teach Yourself Latin), it would be appropriate to invest a couple of hundred hours. ("...thanks to almost two millennia of systematized teaching, we know just how long it takes to master Latin declensions and conjugations, for the pupil of average intelligence at or beyond late adolescence. With decently brisk instruction books, such a pupil does not need six hundred desk hours. Three hundred, perhaps even two hundred, or in the case of a really gifted pupil under two hundred, are known to suffice.") 

Siinjuures ma soovitaksin oma enda harjumust, kus ka olen läbi mõnegi aasta pidanud oma iga olulise õppeaine juures ajaregistri, arvutis, lameda-ASCII ehk *.txt formaadis. - Here I would recommend my own routine, under which I have for quite a few years been keeping a timelog for each of my significant study subjects, on computer, in flat-ASCII (*.txt) format. 

Näitena toon siin, osaliselt, üks minu mitmest registrist - nimelt see, mis aitas mul valvata minu privaatset ladina keele õppimist, kui ma võtsin ladina keele uuesti käsile alatest 2007.a. (Ma olin küll veel kaugemas minevikus, aastail 1982-1983, olnud kursustel Austraalias, osaliselt Bettsi enda auditooriumis. Järelikult ei ole ma õpilase ABC raskemas seisundis. Tema praegune algus, vastandina minu 2007-09-29 algusele, on puhtalt nullist.) Antud näitest on näha, et ma hilisemates faasides olin oluliste autorite juures: "regula s. Benedicti" on vihje Nursia Benektiinuse munkade Reeglile, "Latin Prose" aga vihje Ontario (Kanada) gümnaasiumitele mõeldud umbes 1960.a.-st kogumikule, kus on pikki lõiki Caesarist ning Cicerost, lühemaid lõiki veel teistest autoritest.   - In illustration, I reproduce here, in part, one of my many timelogs - namely the one which helped me monitor my private Latin study, when I took up Latin again, as a refresher, from 2007 onward. (I indeed had in the more remote past, in the years 1982 and 1983, taken courses in Australia, in part in Betts's own classroom. Consequently my position is easier than ABC's. Her or his own beginning, in contrast to my 2007-09-29 beginning, is a beginning from zero.) From this illustration it can be seen that in the later phases of my work I have been using appropriate authors: "regula s. Benedicti" in the timelog is a reference to the monastic Rule from Benedict of Nursia, and "Latin Prose" a reference to a 1960-era Ontario (Canada) high-school anthology, offering long extracts from Caesar and Cicero, as well as shorter extracts from other authors.) 



20070929=02h02->0002h02 (HEBD 0000)
..............................
20070930=01h13->0003h15 (HEBD 0001)
20071001=01h00->0004h15
..............................
20071007=01h33->0005h48 (HEBD 0002)
20071008=00h47->0006h35
20071010=00h48->0007h23
..............................
20071014=00h46->0008h09 (HEBD 0003)
20071018=02h15->0010h24
......................................................................
20071024=00h14->0010h38 (HEBD 0004)
20071025=01h32->0012h10
20071026=01h21->0013h31
......................................................................
20071031=03h04->0016h35 (HEBD 0005)
......................................................................
20071105=01h43->0018h18 (HEBD 0006)
20071109=00h25->0018h43
20071110=00h05->0018h48
......................................................................
20071111=01h36->0020h24 (HEBD 0007)
20071112=00h30->0020h54
20071113=00h34->0021h28
20071117=01h05->0022h33
......................................................................
20071119=00h50->0023h23 (HEBD 0008)
20071120=01h02->0024h25
20071121=00h55->0025h20
......................................................................
20071126=00h58->0026h18 (HEBD 0009)
20071127=00h24->0026h42
20071130=00h48->0027h30
......................................................................
20071203=00h20->0027h50 (HEBD 0010)
20071204=00h17->0028h07
20071206=01h23->0029h30
20071207=01h11->0030h41
......................................................................
20071209=00h46->0031h27 (HEBD 0011)
20071210=00h12->0031h39
20071211=01h04->0032h43
20071215=00h55->0033h38
20071216=01h03->0034h41
......................................................................
20071219=01h11->0035h52 (HEBD 0012)
20071222=00h37->0036h29
......................................................................
20071226=01h26->0037h55 (HEBD 0013)
20071227=01h18->0039h13
......................................................................
20080101=03h22->0042h35 (HEBD 0014)

((/.../))

20090702=00h27->0218h04
20090928=00h14->0218h18__regula s. Benedicti
20091005=00h09->0218h27
20091009=00h16->0218h43
20100521=00h06->0218h49__regula s. Benedicti

((/.../))

20150622=01h17->0330h48
20150624=02h16->0333h04
20150625=01h18->0334h22
20150626=02h38->0337h00

((/.../))
20170728=01h21->0402h31__legebam in antologia "Latin Prose",
                         in parte secundaria
20170729=01h27->0403h58__itaqe
* HEBDOMA_PERDITA
* HEBDOMA_PERDITA
20170817=00h23->0404h21__itaque

((/.../))

20180306=00h02->0511h12
20180307=00h03->0511h15
20180310=00h10->0511h25

((/.../))

Konkreetseid soovitusi ABC-le ning teistele (2): Kontrollige oma oskusi minu pisikeste "proovikividega" - Concrete advice for ABC and others (2): Check your skills with my small "touchstone" exercises


ABC saab kontrollida oma ladina analüüsimisoskusi paariminutilse vestluse juures, kui me järgmisel korral skaibime. Tal on hetkel Bettsi esimene peatükk vist läbi võetud. Seega siis pakuksin pisikesi proovikive, millega saab juba ülilühikese vestluse jooksul kontrollida, et tema esimese-peatüki asi on korras. Õpilane ABC tõlkigu mulle järgmisi proovikive inglise keelde, oma skaibimikrofoni juures: - ABC can check her or his Latin analysis skills in the course of a two-minute chat, when we next Skype. She or he has now perhaps finished the first chapter in Betts. I would consequently offer some tiny touchstones, through which we can confirm, in a brief chat, that ABC's first-chapter affairs are in good shape. Let student ABC translate the following touchstones into English, at his or her Skype microphone:  

* (a) insulae puellarum
* (b) puellae insularum
* (c) Nauta puellam amat.
* (d) Puellam nauta amat.
* (e) Nautam puella amat.
* (f) Puella nautam amat.
* (g) Puellae nautas amant.
* (h) Puellas nautae amant.
* (i) Nauta insulam puellae amat.
* (j) Nauta puellam agricolae amat.
* (k) Nautae puellas insularum amant.
* (l) Agricola est in insula cum puella.
* (m) Agricola est in insula cum puellis. 
* (n) Agricolae in insula cum puella sunt.
* (o) Agricolae in insulis cum puellis sunt.   

[See on praeguse blogspoti pala lõpp. - This is the end of the current blogspot posting.]

Saturday 19 January 2019

Toomas Karmo: More Work on the Visually Brightest Stars (Upgrade in RASC Publishing)

Kvaliteedihinnang: - Quality assessment:

Selle viiepallilise skaala kohaselt, mis kehtib praegu Eestis, ja kindlasti ka naaberriikides, ja on tuttav kadunud, mitte tagantjärele leinatud, NSVL-i akadeemilise elu vaatlejatele (siin rakendades neid kergeid, lõtvu, kriteeriume, mida Kmo rakendab oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimelises sangarliku raadio instituudis" ja oma nõgises fantaseeritud "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevki nimelises sotsialistliku matemaatika instituudis" - kus, fantaasias ette kujutatud kaksikinstituutide lõdva ja vähenõudliku hindamisreeglite kohaselt 1/5 on "eepiline läbikukkukmine", 2/5 "läbikukkumine, mis poli nii katastrofaalne, et eepilusust saavutada", 3/5 on "kehvavõitu läbipääsemine", 4/5 on "hea" ja 5/5 on "eeskujulik": 2/5. Põhjendus: Teema ei võimaldanud filosoofiliselt sügavat käsitlemist. -  On the 5-point scale current in Estonia, and surely in nearby nations, and familiar to observers of the academic arrangements of the late, unlamented, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (applying the easy and lax standards Kmo deploys in his grubby imaginary "Aleksandr Stepanovitsh Popovi nimeline sangarliku raadio instituut" (the "Alexandr Stepanovitch Popov Institute of Heroic Radio") and his  grubby imaginary "Nikolai Ivanovitsh Lobatshevski nimeline sotsalitsliku matemaatika instituut" (the "Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky Institute of Socialist Mathematics") - where, on the lax and easy grading philosophy of the twin Institutes, 1/5 is "epic fail", 2/5 is "failure not so disastrous as to be epic", 3/5 is "mediocre pass", 4/5 is "good", and 5/5 is "excellent"): 2/5. Justification: The chosen theme did not offer scope for philosophical depth.  


Variandikroonika: - Revision history:

Kõik kalendrip
äevad-kellaajad variandikroonikas on ära toodud UTC-s. UTC, ehk "Maailmakell", on vana GMT-i, ehk "Greenwich Mean Time"-i, täpsustus. Tarvitusel on ISO ettekirjutatud YYYYMMDDThhmmZ ajastembi formaat (kusjuures YYYY on UTC aasta, MM UTC kuu, DD UTC kuupäev, hh UTC tunniarv, mm UTC minutiarv). UTC praegu jookseb Toronto tsiviilkellast 5 tundi ette, Tallinna tsiviilkellast 2 tundi taga. - All times in these blog "revision histories" are stated in UTC (Universal Coordinated Time/ Temps Universel Coordoné,  a precisification of the old GMT, or "Greenwich Mean Time"), in the ISO-prescribed YYYYMMDDThhmmZ timestamping format. UTC currently leads Toronto civil time by 5 hours and currently lags Tallinn civil time by 2 hours. 
 
  • 20190131T0943Z/variant 1.1.0: Kmo muutis kvaliteedihinnangut allapoole (varem 3/5, nüüd aga 2/5). Ta veel täiendas pakutud Tartu-Tõravere meteoroloogiajaama andmeid. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ...   - Kmo revised his quality assessment downward, from  3/5 to 2/5. He also supplemented the information he had been offering on the Tartu-Tõravere meteorology station. He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, ... . 
  • 20190119T2026Z/variant 1.0.0: Kmo laadis piisavalt  lihtivud tööd blogspoti serverile. Ta jättis enda kätte õiguse teha veel pisikesi, sisusliselt tähtsusetuid, puhtkosmeetilisi õiendusi, järgmise 48 tunni jooksul, kui siin protkollimata variandid 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ...   - Kmo uploaded an adequately  polished version to the blogspot server. He reserved the right to make further tiny, nonsubstantive, purely cosmetic, tweaks, over the coming 48 hours, as here-undocumented versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, ... . 
[HOIATAV TEAVE: Tunduvalt vigane bloggeri-nimeline serveri tarkvara on viimaste kuude jooksul näidanud kalduvusi paigutada soovimatut valgevahet niimõnesse siia laaditud esseesse. Kui tundub, et ekraan lõpeb tühja ruumiga, tuleb veel allapoole liikuda, hiire abil. Essee lõpp ei ole käes enne, kui esineb tavaline bloggeri sõnum "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at". - Bloggeri tarkvara on ka näidanud kalduvusi, vähemalt kui rakendatud minu varema, aegunud, veebi esseedekirjutamise brauseri kaudu, toota HTML-i, mida eri allalaadivad brauserid formaadivad erinevatel viisidel. Mõned allalaadivad brauserid on võimalikult vahest mitte korralikult sisse lugenud kõik need "Cascading Style Sheets'e" (CSS-e), mis igas tavalises veebibrausers juhivad lehekülje servade, kõrvalparagrahvide jms. paigutamist. Kui Te oletate, et Teie kasutuselevõetud brauseris esineb CSS-e probleeme, olge kannatlikud: tõenäone on, et ehkki osa sisust on paigutatud mõnda veidrasse kohta (näiteks, brauseri alumise serva vastu, kui ta pidanuks minema parema serva vastu), siiski kõik serveri sisu on lükatud Teie brauserisse ühte või teisse kätteleitavasse paika. - Viimaseks, on võimalik et on bloggeri iseärasusi-eksitusi, väljaspool minu kontrolli, tähtede suuruse määramises, ridade vahemaa määramises või trükiploki parema serva õgvendamisstiili määramises. - Kes soovib aidata sääraste veebivigade parandamisega, või kes soovib ka teisigi tehnilisi nõuandeid pakkuda, võiks julgesti mulle kirjutada aadressil Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com. - CAUTION: A bug in the blogger server-side software has in some past months shown a propensity to insert inappropriate whitespace at some points in some of my posted essays. If a screen seems to end in empty space, keep scrolling down. The end of the posting is not reached until the usual blogger "Posted by Toomas (Tom) Karmo at" appears. - The bloggersoftware has also shown a propensity, at any rate when coupled with my erstwhile, out-of-date, Web-authoring uploading browser, to generate HTML that gets formatted in different ways on different downloading browsers. Some downloading browsers have sometimes perhaps not correctly read in the entirety of the "Cascading Style Sheets" (CSS) which on all ordinary Web servers control the browser placement of margins, sidebars, and the like. If you suspect CSS problems in your particular browser, be patient: it is probable that while some content has been shoved into some odd place (for instance, down to the bottom of your browser, where it ought to appear in the right-hand margin), all the server content has been pushed down into your browser in some place or other. - Finally, there may be bloggervagaries, outside my control, in font sizing or interlinear spacing or right-margin justification. - Anyone inclined to help with trouble-shooting, or to offer other kinds of technical advice, is welcome to write me via Toomas.Karmo@gmail.com.]




On 2018-01-01, I uploaded a blogspot posting, as http://toomaskarmo.blogspot.com/2018/01/toomas-karmo-visually-brightest-stars.html, on a publishing initiative at the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC). At the time, RASC had just undertaken the simultaneous issuing of 2018 Canadian and 2018 USA editions of its venerable annual Observer's Handbook

Now, at the start of 2019, it is appropriate to upload an update. This update I write no longer from the vicinity of the David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, but from my new quarters in the dark-sky hamlet, Tõravere, of Tartu Observatory in Estonia. 

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The 2018 RASC initiative has succeeded, with the debut USA edition generating sufficient interest to justify RASC in issuing a 2019 USA successor. We may now hope that in 2020 and later years,  RASC proves able to follow the precedents it successfully set in 2018 and 2019. Further, I privately hope that over the coming years the USA edition will attract at least a few readers over here in Europe. 


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As RASC moves forward, I try to move forward too, from Estonia, in my continuing capacity as lead author of the Handbook visually-brightest-stars article. 

The Handbook printed edition does not offer much scope for change, apart from the systematic updating of celestial coordinates in the brightest-stars table and the opportunistic updating of miscellaneous other tabulated data. The online brightest-stars work, on the other hand, can and should get overhauled from one year to the next. 

For 2019, I have made only minor amplifications in my three-author collegium's online essay (now incorporating, however, all the substance from the printed-edition essay, so as to make the online version intelligible to those readers who lack the printed Handbook).  My main online overhaul for 2019 has been not in the essay, but in the long star-by-star table that follows it. For present blogspot purposes, it suffices to reproduce what I write in the 2019 online essay regarding the 2019 online table: 

[Here is] an extended version of the printed-edition table, (a) with extra stars (the brightest 313, allowing for variability, where the printed edition has almost 30 fewer, allowing for variability), and (b) with additional remarks for most of the duplicated stars. The online essay and table try to address the needs of three kinds of serious amateur: amateurs who are also astrophysics students (whether or not enrolled formally at some campus); amateurs who, like many in RASC, assist in public outreach, through some form of lecturing; and amateurs who are planning their own private citizen-science observing runs, in the spirit of such “pro-am” organizations as AAVSO [the American Association of Variable Star Observers; https://www.aavso.org/]. 

Our online project, now a couple of years old, must be considered still in its early stages. We cannot claim to have fully satisfied the needs of our three constituencies. Above all, we cannot claim to have covered all the appropriate points from stellar astronomy news in our “Remarks” column, important though news is to amateurs of all three types. We would hope in coming years to remedy our deficiencies in several ways, above all by relying more in our writing on recent primary-literature journal articles, and by making appropriate citations of the primary literature.

Already at this early stage, we have tried to pick out a few tens of the more important recent journal articles. /.../ 

The online essay and table may be downloaded for free by anyone, whether or not a member of RASC, from https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/Brightest%20Stars_2019.pdf. Particulars on the printed-edition Handbook can be had from https://www.rasc.ca/handbook.

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As an appendix to today's posting, I upload photos from my smartphone. As the last in my trio of Yuletide blogspot photos, from 2018-12-23, I selected the snowy road from the Tõravere rail platform to the Tõravere hamlet. Today I continue on that same wintry theme. 

The Administration Building in Tõravere could barely be glimpsed in my Yuletide photo, at the far end of a straight tree-lined approach. Here is how it looked close up a few days ago, under a fresh snowfall, in the rather dim light characteristic of early afternoon in January at a latitude just nine or so arcseconds S of  58°16´ N:  






And here is the internal astronomy-compound road leading westward from the Administration Building, to the various telescope domes, at the same time of day, under the same snowfall:




The little brick shed in the foreground (a left mouse-click yields an enlargement in the browser) has a mural of an antlered buck against a starry sky. To see the mural painter's conception of E.T., on the other hand, against a similarly starry sky, you have to walk around the corner of the shed, viewing it from the north rather than from the east.

The columns on the south side of the road are part of the rather large Tõravere astronomical park, illustrating the cosmic distance scale in a powers-of-ten style. 

The building glimpsed in the rear, where the road turns, is not a telescope dome, but the support building for the instrument plaza of the Tartu-Tõravere meteorological station. This is a part of the Estonian Environment Agency network, as mapped at https://www.ilmateenistus.ee/ilmateenistus/vaatlusvork/. The Tartu-Tõravere weather instrumentation is denoted on the Environment Agency's map by a green square lying 20 km east of the principal fully Estonian lake, Võrtsjärv.  Tartu-Tõravere is one of just three continuously manned stations in the Estonia's network of roughly 20 meteorological posts. (All but two of the others, likewise denoted by green squares, are roboticized, and operated remotely. The many coloured disks on the map denote not meteorology, but posts for the aquatic monitoring of the sea-land edge (yellow), of  bog-or-swamp (red),  and of rivers or lakes (blue).). Lightning strikes are monitored at Tartu-Tõravere in radio. Special attention is given, in a longstanding pair of local meteorological traditions,  to actinometry and to cloud taxonomy. Apart from meteorology, the Tartu-Tõravere station operates a magetometry hut - a facility of some special significance at present, with the North magnetic pole now moving rapidly, and with the next outright reversal in the Earth's magnetic poles now coming due. 

[This is the end of the current blogspot posting.]