Syzygy

 

The last issue we need to concentrate on is the odd word "syzygy" in the blank verse clue.

syz•y•gy

/sizijē/

Noun

ASTRONOMY
1. a conjunction or opposition, especially of the moon with the sun.
    "the planets were aligned in syzygy"
2. a pair of connected or corresponding things.
    "animus and anima represent a supreme pair of opposites, the syzygy"

Roger does lead us further when he makes sure the Tessaract path eclipse and equinox September 23 1987 date is part of the star list event roster. But we need to bring in more aspects.

When you think about it for a while (maybe 30 years?), you notice that the definition is NOT just solar eclipses, it is any situation where the three bodies in question are in a straight line. 

I have been led astray by my choice of sources. The 1987 Nautical Almanac only lists the two solar eclipses, and the 1988 Air Almanac (which I fished for out of curiosity) does not include any eclipses. The 1989 Nautical Almanac DOES list both solar and lunar eclipses, but there is only one star dated 1989 in this puzzle, and that date happens way early, before any 1989 eclipses of any kind.

The Internet can now back us up with this information:

The one lunar event is odd, the "almost" lunar eclipse of 1987, where the players almost line up, but not quite. There is another event like this coming up in 2024, although it is hard to find these listed in order. There are no "almost" solar eclipses that I can find, so far. Curious!

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/1987-september-7

Another way to look at how the eclipses parse between the lists. It does look like Roger's trademark symmetry.

MAYBE there is a significance to the figure these 6 points show here - does this plot look like Mercator projection would undistort what this may be trying to tell us? May be worth the effort to express it that way. Next time?

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