1 post tagged “bbc”
So, here's a remarkable thing.
On the left there, you can see White House at Night (June 1890), by Vincent Willem van Gogh. Not one of his most famous paintings, but nice in its way.
While poking about the Wikipedia entry for Van Gogh, I learned something: the BBC reports they've been able to work out just about when Vincent had to have painted this picture. I mean, to within an hour or so. Because that's not the sun in the upper right -- it's Venus.
"Astronomers have pinpointed the day when Vincent van Gogh painted one of his canvases thanks to the position of the planet Venus in the tableau.
Mind you, reading the story from the Beeb, I think it entirely possible the whole quest started because the professors were stuck in Texas, and looking for a way to justify a "research" trip.
Still. Very cool, indeed.
On the left there, you can see White House at Night (June 1890), by Vincent Willem van Gogh. Not one of his most famous paintings, but nice in its way.
While poking about the Wikipedia entry for Van Gogh, I learned something: the BBC reports they've been able to work out just about when Vincent had to have painted this picture. I mean, to within an hour or so. Because that's not the sun in the upper right -- it's Venus.
"Astronomers have pinpointed the day when Vincent van Gogh painted one of his canvases thanks to the position of the planet Venus in the tableau.
The White House at Night, which hangs in St Petersburg's Hermitage Museum, shows a house at twilight with a prominent star with a yellow halo in the sky.
Astronomers at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos calculated that the star is Venus, which was bright in the evening sky in June 1890 when Van Gogh is believed to have painted the picture."
Mind you, reading the story from the Beeb, I think it entirely possible the whole quest started because the professors were stuck in Texas, and looking for a way to justify a "research" trip.
Still. Very cool, indeed.
