My scarf is Reves D'espace, or Dreams of Space, designed by Michel Duchene, and issued in 1993. This scarf is packed with symbols of the history of the human fascination with space and flight. Many thanks to
@Living.la.vida.fifi for telling me that a pilot needed this scarf. She is so right.
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I will be spending a few days with this scarf, beginning today with the astrolabes pictured in the four corners of the scarf.
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The astrolabe is an instrument used to make astronomical measurements, typically of the altitudes of celestial bodies, and was used in navigation for calculating latitude before the development of the sextant. In other words, this useful device can give you the time, date, your location and much more. It was developed during the height of the Roman Empire and remained popular through the 18th century when it was replaced by a combination of accurate clocks and the sextant. It was one of the devices that drove the development of astronomy, by getting more precise astrological predictions. It would have been among the navigational tools used by Christopher Columbus when exploring the New World. Many of the ancient astrolabes recovered today are from shipwrecks of Spanish and Portuguese explorers.
The astrolabe was also widely used in the medieval Islamic world. Muslim astronomers introduced angular scales to the design and circles indicating azimuth on the horizon. It was widely used in the Muslim world as an aid to navigation and as a way of finding the direction of Mecca.
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The medieval astrolabe pictured above was made by French instrument maker Jean Fusoris (c. 1365-1436), who also made portable sundials and other popular instruments in his shop in Paris.
Many years ago I purchased a small working astrolabe necklace at a local Renaissance festival. I misplaced the instruction book years ago, but I’m hoping to rediscover the computations that mine can make.
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As a symbol of the importance of these navigational instruments in reaching the stars, the original crew of Apollo 13 was pictured with a sextant and an astrolabe.
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Wearing red, blue and green again today, because, yes, I adore these colors. Thank you all for the sweet comments.
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