Mars is Bright Tonight

[erisedstraeh2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 42450

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Shaun Hately" <drednort at a...> wrote:

Shaun responded to my post by saying:

> I've seen a couple of astronomical discussions relating to this -
> here's an offer for anyone who wants it. I can easily generate 
> basic star and planet location maps for any date, and put them on a 
> website for people (it's not hard, I just have the software to do 
> it).

Now me:

Such good fortune to have an astronomer respond to my post (wonder if 
I could have anticipated it from looking at the night sky <grin>?)! A 
most generous offer, thank you! Some dates that come to mind include 
the night Lily and James died (October 31, 1981) and the night of the 
detentions in the Forbidden Forest (May 26, 1992).  But looking at 
such a map would be meaningless to me - would you be able to do some 
interpretation as well?

Shaun also wrote:

> I can give Opposition Dates for Mars, and there isn't one around 
> May 1992 - late November 1990 and early January 1993 are the 
> closest dates. Of course, that doesn't mean that in JKRs universe, 
> that necessarily applies.

Now me again:

Is there any other way to explain the centaurs' focus on the 
brightness of Mars that night other than that Mars was in opposition 
at the time?  If not, then it could be that JKR wasn't trying to 
reconcile the dates to actual events (as the Lexicon points out, 
there are other time discrepancies, so perhaps JKR doesn't feel the 
need to make all of the dates make sense).  So if this is the case, 
we might not be able to glean much from looking at maps of the night 
sky when certain key events happen.  But then again, it could show 
something <you never know>!

Cheers and thanks,
Phyllis