Word: halley
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...Astronomer Edmund Halley of comet fame showed that Sirius, Procyon and Arcturus had changed positions−relative to other stars−since Greek times, establishing for the first time that the stars were not fixed in the heavens. By the early 1900s, astronomers had learned that the sun was merely one of billions of stars in a disc-shaped galaxy, or island of stars, then believed by many to constitute the entire universe. In 1920 Harlow Shapley calculated that the galaxy, called the Milky Way, was some 300,000 light years* in diameter, a distance too stupendous for most people...
...Such stellar catastrophes are far too spectacular to escape general notice, and with the exception of Matthew, none of the Apostles or King Herod mentions such a brilliant star near the time that Jesus was born. Nor does a comet seem likely to have been the Christmas star. True. Halley's comet, which was first seen in 240 B.C., reappeared in 12 B.C. But that was several years before the earliest date on which Jesus could have been born. In any case, neither Halley's nor any lesser comets that appeared in succeeding years would have been regarded...
There are three solo parts in the Brandenburg, two for flutes and one for violin. Both flutists, Halley Schefler and Ann Hoffner, were in tune with each other and the orchestra. They played the andante with great delicacy. Their care and concentration were not duplicated by Lynn Chang, the violin soloist. Chang has an excellent reputation and has often carried the Bach Society violin section. While his playing in the first movement was controlled and understated, in the fugue he appeared hurried and ill at ease with the complex solo figurations. This was surprising since his technique far exceeds...
...violins followed concertmaster Lynn Chang's example, sawing into their strings with a vigorous attack which was missing in the first concerts of the season. Chang, who is one of the Music 180 graduates, was joined in the Concertino (solo group) of the fifth Brandenburg by a capable Halley Sheffler on the flute and David Schulenberg at the Harpsichord. Schulenberg's rendition of the show-stopping harpsichord cadenza was textured like the score of a Broadway musical, and it evoked a ripple of whispered enthusiasm from the audience...
...early discovery meant that Kohoutek was not only intrinsically brighter than Halley's comet but probably quite large. Astronomer Elizabeth Roemer, of the University of Arizona, estimates that Kohoutek's nucleus is about 25 miles in diameter, far larger than most comets, probably including Halley's. Other astronomers calculate that Kohoutek weighs about 1 trillion tons. But size is not Kohoutek's only distinction. It will pass within 13 million miles of the sun. That close flyby, well within the orbit of Mercury, should make for a dazzling interaction between sun and comet. Perhaps most important...