Monday 27 July 2009

Twinkle Twinkle little star







Well I just had to complete the trio by tatting a star, especially after such an eventful week for those who are interested in the sky above. It has been said that counting all the stars in the Universe would be like trying to count all the grains of sand on all the beaches in the world, an impossible task. Instead scientists can only estimate how many stars there are in a galaxy. Apparently most of the stars we see in the sky are 250 light years away, I can tell you that this star felt like it was going to take me light years to make, and it travelled 250 land miles or more in the attempt! But thats another story.

This year the world celebrates the International Year of Astronomy, marking the 400th anniversary of the first drawings of celestial objects through a telescope. This first has long been attributed to Galileo Galilei, the Italian who went on to play a leading role in the 17th century scientific revolution. But astronomers and historians in the UK are keen to promote a lesser-known figure, English polymath Thomas Harriot, who made the first drawing of the Moon through a telescope several months earlier in July 1609. Above is one of his drawings, yesterday 26th July he was remembered for this achievement. But in England the sky last night was covered in dark clouds and rain so no stars could be seen, not even the moon and we are still awaiting the sun!

Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.

13 comments:

  1. I love the star! I'm always fascinated by the night sky, but know very little about it. Thanks for teaching me something I didn't know!

    I took four years of Latin in high school. It didn't do me much good (I wasn't a good student), but I do remember Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in Latin! I teach it to the kindergartners every year!

    Mica mica parva stella
    Mirror quaenam sis tambella
    Splendens eminus in illo
    Alba vella gemma caelo.

    The spelling's probably wrong... it has been 40 years since I studied Latin!

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  2. That star is absolutely beautiful! Nice work. Yes, I agree with that famous poem from childhood..."how we DO wonder what you are" when it comes to stars! Mankind has wondered that from the beginning of time. How fitting for the 400th year of Astronomy. Such a fascinating subject! I should try to make it up to an observatory this year.

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  3. Love the star! After wanting to be an archaeologist at the age of six, I wanted to be an astronomer! I didn't know it was the International Year of...... Thanks for the post!

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  4. Very pretty. Glad you got it finished - I only saw it half way. LOVE the bugle beads too.

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  5. oooh...you're making me all starry-eyed! I had to enlarge it to see what those gold points were. And then I saw they were bugle beads and thought ....duh...shoulda known that. LOL!

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  6. Thanks for all your comments. Diane I would love to hear you say Twinkle Twinkle little star in Latin, how clever.
    I think we all should do a little more star gazing, a bit difficult though when you are walking along the street at the same time, too much looking up means that you don't see what you are about to run into!!!!

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  7. what a nice set you have made and all of them very well done.
    have you future plans for the set? a mobile? wall hanging? sun catcher?

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  8. this is a cute star with the tube beads (?) at the points!

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  9. Hi Ladytats, thanks for your comment, no I haven't got any future ideas for the set, that's until you mentioned it!
    Hi Valerie, they are bugle beads, for a long time I could not see how they could be used in tatting and now I use them whenever possible!

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  10. What a lovely star and what a wonderful write up...Bravo
    Happy tatting

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  11. I love your illustrated History lessons. Now you have to keep it up.

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  12. Very pretty !!! I love your blog ...
    thank you for your visit on my blog.
    Have a nice day
    ancolie from france

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