- For the first fifty years or so of cinema’s life span, the Western was a major genre, dominating the industry up until the 1970s. But as cinema entered into a new era, it left the Western behind, with modern filmmaking rendering the frontier setting stale when compared to alien worlds or alternate dimensions. This video tracks the life cycle of the Western, from its humble beginnings to its end, looking at how it represents America as a country, and why we might benefit from its return.
- Star Tales - Hydra (ianridpath.com)
Hydra is the largest of the 88 constellations, winding over a quarter of the way around the sky. Its head is south of the constellation Cancer, the crab, while the tip of its tail lies between Libra, the scales, and Centaurus, the centaur. The total length from its westernmost boundary to the easternmost one is 102°.5. Yet for all its size there is nothing prominent about Hydra. Its only star of note is second-magnitude Alphard, a name that comes from the Arabic al-fard appropriately meaning ‘the solitary one’. Bode on his Uranographia atlas gave it the alternative name Unuk es Schudscha, from the Arabic unuk al-shujā, neck of the serpent. Both names were originally given by al-Ṣūfī in his Book of the Fixed Stars (AD 964).