Daughter of the Stars:
3:30 p.m.
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The Shawnee Indians of our own country
called this group of stars
[Corona Borealis]
the “Celestial Sisters,”
and have an interesting legend respecting it,
but lack of space does not permit of its inclusion here.
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—Olcott’s Field Book of the Skies,
revised by R. Newton and Margaret W. Mayall
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The Shawnee Indians knew it
[Corona Borealis]
as the
Celestial Sisters,
the fairest of them being the wife of the hunter White Hawk,
our
Arcturus.
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—Star Names: Their Lore and Meaning,
by Richard Hinkley Allen
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We shall have to make up our minds precisely where we stand
on the inherent nobility of the Indian,
because the problem willl arise later when we least anticipate it.
To be specific:
some ninety percent of American college and university students in 1976
will believe without question,
and will vote in accordance with that belief,
that the Indians who roamed the west in 1776
had solved all problems of group living
and had attained the ecological balance that ought to exist
between man and his environment.
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—James A. Michener
(1907–1997),
Centennial
(1974), Chapter 4, p. 168
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Book by Jon U. Bell,
graphics by by
Joe Tucciarone,
produced by
Joe Hopkins Engineering.
Running time is only 30 minutes,
leaving plenty of time for the sky tonight
and the objects mentioned in the show.
Once I kept the stars off until the Milky Way segment (line 381).
By this time, the audience’s eyes were used to the dark,
and the effect was overwhelming.
Setup
- DVD:
Daughter.
- Zeiss:
north in front, latitude 50° N,
positioned to point out
- Pleiades,
RA 3h 47m
- Corona Borealis,
RA 16h
- Arcturus,
RA 14h 16m
- Mizar
in
Ursa Major,
RA 13h 24m
- Spice
computer:
DVD-DOTS.CUE
(not
DOTS.CUE).
- Slew
(projector R):
when line 38 is highlighted,
put woven basket in front of and above woman.
- Zoom:
not used.
- Audience enters when
46 RUN
is higlighted.
- Audience entry
sequence.
Setup
The show is about native American stories about the sky.
Ask why people tell stories:
to teach a lesson,
to remember events during the year,
…
The show
Press
DVD
PLAY/PAUSE
twice to start show.
Line numbers in
DVD-DOTS.CUE:
- Fade up stars with slow diurnal motion when blue sky fades.
- Iroquois:
Sun
and
Moon
- Kutenai:
We must have a
sun
- Bella Coola:
The
Sun
and his dancers.
Summer and winter
solstice
suns: lines 130–134.
- Snake
Indians: Stealing fire from the
Moon
- Many tribes: the
Moon
- Onandaga:
Legend of
Indian Summer.
“There you can see them still”:
point out the
Pleiades.
- Algonquin:
the flight of Waupee.
The Shawnee
legend
of
Corona Borealis;
White Hawk is
Arcturus
in
Boötes.
Slew
the basket manually at the following lines.
- 235–237 (“He saw a magical basket descending”):
drop basket to horizon.
- 244–246 (“and leaping into the basket”):
raise basket.
- As soon as the basket fades, lower to the horizon
(even though you can’t see it).
- 260–262
(“Singing her song, she returned…having woven a new basket”)
raise basket.
- As soon as the basket fades,
stop its motion by switching slew to automatic.
Then turn off the slew.
- Seneca:
Thunderer.
Strobed lightening
(SwitchPulse 0.1 SWCH: F)
in lines 295 and 302.
Fade down stars and make it rain.
Fade stars back up when rainbow fades down.
- Creek:
Serpent Rainbow
- Mayan:
Ix-chel
- Mohawk:
the great hunt for
Ursa Major:
Mizar
and
Alcor
in the
Big Dipper.
Point out Big Dipper at
“Without hesitation they followed him.”
Point out Alcor at
“If you look closely you can see the small hunting dog.”
- Alabama:
Sky Canoes.
The “star that never moves”
is
Polaris.
- Many tribes: the
Milky Way.
Turn Zeiss stars on here (with slow diurnal motion) and leave them on.
- Aztec:
return of the feathered serpent
- Dawn: fade down stars.
The campfire burns out.