Bart Bear's Blog

In earlier posts you met the alter-egos of the Oldies, Sheik Rattlenroll and Princess Neferonnasunday (that's them on the right of the picture, just in case you are confused). Well, at the barbecue evening of the astronomy conference in Brisbane they were joined by two more representatives of Egyptian astronomy. Unka Ray and Aunty Libby have been to Egypt too and they decided to join the Oldies as their alter-egos. Unka Ray is Pharaoh Potolomey the Last and Aunty Libby is Princess Neferataloss. They caused quite a stir at the barbie and, surprisingly, some of the attendees couldn't work out what Egypt had to do with astronomy. Just in case you are wondering as well, Alexandria in Egypt was the main centre of all sciences in classical times. One of the most important astronomical books of all time was written there, Ptolomey's Almagest. You should also remember that the Arabic scientists were the ones who kept the sciences alive during the European Dark Ages. Indeed, most of the brighter stars have Arabic names. The presence of the Pharaoh, the Sheik and the Princesses at the barbie was a tribute to these important ancient astronomers.

Labels: astronomy, Brisbane, Egypt, friends, Queensland