[HPforGrownups] JKR's Single Smallest Error

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 124022

On 5 Feb 2005 at 16:49, eggplant9998 wrote:

> I don't think it's a big deal and I admit I'm nitpicking but there are
> 2 astronomy errors in Order of the Phoenix. In the final exam Harry is
> looking at Venus and Orion, but Venus can only be seen near sunrise or
> sunset and this was about midnight, and Orion is a winter
> constellation and it was June.

Actually I've done some considerable astronomical analysis of this, 
and it's just *very* marginally possible to make this work - but it 
is very marginal indeed. We know the exam is on a Wednesday in June 
- as far as I have been able to work out we can't pin it to a 
precise date in June.

If the Astronomy Owl takes place on June 25th 1996, the last date 
consistent with the information in the book, both Venus and a *few* 
faint stars of Orion are visible before sunrise. That far north in 
summer, sunrise comes quite early, so it really depends on 
precisely how long the exam went for - it would have had to have 
gone for some hours. But it's just inside the realms of possibility 
for that date.

I don't think JKR pays much attention to such issues - but it you 
want to get technical it can *just* work.



Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
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