Au clair de la lune

Same as [link] Wide.


Using the moon in a hazy sky as a contre-jour light source, I took a few 30-second time exposures of the statue of famous explorer and founder of Quebec City, Samuel de Champlain holding an astrolabe, an ancient navigational device, at the Astrolabe Outdoor Amphitheatre. It was cold so the results weren't as great as expected. I probably added a vibration to the camera during an exposure that would have been better using an actual tripod. I'll likely try it again this summer in milder conditions with my Manfrotto Jubilee. I used a six-inch high pocket goose-necked tripod for this shot.

An astrolabe bearing the date 1603 and believed to have belonged to Samuel de Champlain was discovered within the township of Whitewater Region.

Following from [link]

"The Astrolabe was developed at the Greek school in Alexandria about 160 B.C. by Hipparchus. Great scientific strides forward at that time were the result of combining the Greek sciences with Babylonian mathematics.

This was all made possible by the conquests of Alexander the Great who established a vast empire throughout the Mediterranean.

The Astrolabe was known to scholars from then on, and was used as a slide rule of the Heavens. Direction, time, angles, and the position of the celestial bodies could all be calculated.

When Prince Henry the Navigator established his seafaring fleet, he began using the Astrolabe to navigate the ships.

For many years, this gave the Portuguese the exclusive ability to navigate open waters, which the other countries could not do.

When Sir Francis Drake raided ports along the South American coast he was forced to flee from the Spanish ships. Drake attacked a Portuguese ship and took its Navigator hostage to guide him on his round the world voyage, thus avoiding the Spanish Fleet.

All the great voyagers in the age of exploration navigated with the Astrolabe, including Cartier, Cabot, Columbus, Magellan, and Drake (and of course, Samuel de Champlain until he lost it along the shores of the Ottawa River).

About 1391 Chaucer wrote his Treatise on the Astrolabe for his son. All scientific texts were written in Latin, so that scholars everywhere could read them. But Chaucer's son was too young at 10 to read Latin, so Chaucer's instructions to his son became the first scientific text written in English."