Intersecting Points

The four stars listed on the "intersecting points" list have two controversies attached. Dutton's and other references caution against using "vernal" and "autumnal" when noting equinoxes, since you are being "hemisphere-ist" by assuming those references are unambiguous. The listing of "vernal" before "autumnal" here seems to establish order, though. 

The other controversy is the name "Ipsilon", which is not a Greek letter. When you search the web VERY carefully, you can find some references that indicate "Ipsilon" is an archaic and uncommon corruption of "Upsilon" - but it's a pretty obscure usage.

Now that we are running through this slowly and carefully, I see that the Ipsilon/Upsilon  controversy here had me so rattled, I read Ipsilon as being analogous to our "i", and looked up the table reading for "Iota" - which you see here in the figure towards the right as the star Iota Aurigae.

Reminds me of my Junior year (my first at the big zoo university) in my Fields & Waves class, where the professor wrote an equation with "Eta" in it, and I asked a question about how "scripty-N" was applied there. But eventually, you CAN take the cow out of the cowboy ... Mostly.

Upsilon Aurigae is not included in the long star list! - but as you can see here in the constellation map, UA is VERY close to Theta Aurigae, which IS listed.

I've plotted the four points here. They seem to follow a geodesic - a globe's version of a straight line. But why are they out of numerical order, from right to left? Just looks wrong, somehow. And, would plotting this on a Mercator projection make the plot more "linear"? Still looking for Mercator plotting software. The Mercator plot would probably be more "primitive" than the globe plot, may have been the plot more available in the eighties.

The label "Intersecting Points" comes from peeking at the Hypercard scripts running behind the curtain. "Ascending Path" list is labeled in the scripts as "Northern Path", and "Descending Path" list is labeled as "Southern Path". The Hypercard scripts also refer to "Spiral path(s)". 

And, of course, the "Ascending Path" lists below the Sun, while the "Descending Path" lists below the Moon.

Still missing something here! 

Or Roger knows we are peeking, and he's messing with us  ...