Rhonda Bracey: At Random

The things you learn… The other day I walked past the TV and heard someone say that the “V” in Morse code was the same as the opening bar in Beethoven’s 5th symphony! ta-ta-ta-daaaaa (dot, dot, dot, dash)

Well, who’da thought?? So I checked it out on the internet, and sure enough it’s correct. Seems it was used a lot in WWII after victory.

So why did this ‘fact’ take my attention? Well, V in Roman numerals is five, and Beethoven’s symphony is the fifth. And the Morse code sequence is the same as the opening bar of the 5th! I thought that was pretty clever. I’m assuming someone (Samuel Morse?) made a conscious decision to use that sequence. But if they didn’t, I’d call it a serendipitous moment!!

Well, not exactly stars, but ‘planet light, planet bright’ just doesn’t sound right!

The past few mornings have been stunning. When I’ve gone out to get the newspaper just before dawn, low in the eastern sky has been a fingernail sliver of the moon, with two bright planets close to it.

One I knew was Venus, but I wasn’t sure what the other was until I checked out the weekly astronomy column in the paper earlier this week and found out it was Jupiter! So bright for reflected light from such a long way away.

Update (26 Feb 2008): At 5.45am this morning, when dawn was just a very faint light in the sky, the early morning ‘stars’ where shining very brightly in the east near the horizon. Venus was the brightest, and close to it was Mercury. Higher up was Jupiter, and Saturn (I think) was high in the north. There was about a half moon as well. Amazing. All those people who sleep through until the sun is well up miss out on a sense of their place in the universe… (Oh, and thanks to The West Australian‘s “Night Sky” column on Monday for alerting me to these—and telling me which planet was which!)