Action photography refers to the taking of photographs of moving objects, typically at sports events. Action photography requires a camera shutter speed of at least 1/500 of a second, any slower and the action will be blurred. This implies the use of faster photographic film, generally recommended is 400 ASA or faster film, but this is low resolution and grainy, particularly when photographs are enlarged to A4 size or larger. Modern cameras often try to over rule the photographer with low light warnings, and refuse to operate if the camera believes the light is too low for the shutter speed. A method of avoiding this is to load the camera with 200 or 400 ASA film, but set the camera to a faster film speed, often double that actually loaded. Photographs may be slightly under exposed, but can be lightened after processing.
A long lens is essential for photographing sporting events. 500 mm or even 600 mm being ideal, but 300 mm will often suffice, and the lens needs to be of at least reasonable quality and aperture size, certainly no worse than F5. Camera bodies are least significant. But if using auto focus it can be found that cheaper cameras are too slow to auto focus, and quick manual focusing particularly with a long lens is a highly skilled craft. Research Action Photography
The Alexandrian School or Alexandrian Age was the school or period of Greek literature and learning that existed at Alexandria in Egypt during the three hundred years that the rule of the Ptolemies lasted, from 323 until 30 BC, and continued under the Roman supremacy. Ptolemy Soter founded the famous Alexandrian Library, and his son, Philadelphus, established a kind of academy of sciences and arts. Many scholars and men of genius were thus attracted to Alexandria, and a period of literary activity set in, which made Alexandria for long the focus and centre of Greek culture and intellectual effort. It must be admitted, however, that originality was not a characteristic of the Alexandrian age, which was stronger in criticism, grammar, and science than in pure literature.
Among the grammarians and critics were Zenodotus, Eratosthenes, Aristophanes, Aristarchus, and Zoilus, proverbial as a captious critic. Their merit is to have collected, edited, and preserved the existing monuments of Greek literature. To the poets belong Apollonius, Lycophron, Aratus, Nicander, Euphorion, Callimachus, Theocritus, Philetas, etc. Among those who pursued mathematics, physics, and astronomy, was Euclid, the father of scientific geometry; Archimedes, great in physics and mechanics; Apollonius of Perga, whose work on conic sections still exists; Nicomachus, the first scientific arithmetician; and under the Romans, the astronomer and geographer Ptolemy. Alexandria also was distinguished in philosophical speculation, and it was here that the New Platonic school was established at the close of the second century by Ammonius of Alexandria about 193 AD, whose disciples were Plotinus and Origen. Being for the most part orientals, formed by the study of Greek learning, the writings of the New Platonists are strikingly characterized - for example, those of Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Lamblicus, Porphyrius - by a mixture of Asiatic and European elements. The principal Gnostic systems also had their origin in Alexandria. Research Alexandrian School
A comet is a small body orbiting the sun on an elliptical path with a long tail of dust and ice.
Some comets are only visible by the aid of the telescope, while others can be seen by the naked eye. In the latter case they usually appear like stars accompanied with a train of light, sometimes short and sometimes extending over half the sky, mostly single and more or less curved, but sometimes forked. In a comet which appeared in 1744 the train was divided into several branches, spreading out from the head like a fan. The train is not stationary relatively to the head, but is subject to remarkable movements. The direction in which it points is always opposite to the sun, and as the , comet passes its perihelion the train changes its apparent position with extraordinary velocity. The head of the comet is itself of different degrees of luminosity, there being usually a central core, called the nucleus, of greater brilliancy than the surrounding envelope, called the coma.
Comets were long regarded as supernatural objects, and usually as portents of impending calamity. Tycho Brahe was the first who expressed a rational opinion on the subject, coming to the conclusion that the comet of 1577 was a heavenly body at a greater distance from the earth than that of the moon. The general law of the motion of bodies, as well as his own observations on the comet of 1680, led Isaac Newton to conclude that the orbits of the comets must, like those of the planets, be ellipses, having the sun in one focus, but far more eccentric; and having their aphelions, or greater distances from the sun, far remote in the regions of space.
This idea was taken up by Halley, who collated the observations which had been made of all the twenty-four comets of which notice had been taken previous to 1680. The results were very interesting. With but few exceptions the comets had passed within less than the earth's shortest distance from the sun, some of them within less than one-third of it, and the average about one-half. Out of the number, too, nearly two-thirds had had their motions retrograde, or moved in the opposite direction to the planets. While Halley was engaged on these comparisons and deductions the comet of 1682 made its appearance, and he found that there was a wonderful resemblance between it and three other comets that he found recorded - the comets of 1456, of 1531, and of 1607. The times of the appearance of these comets had been at very nearly regular intervals, the average period being between seventy-five and seventy-six years. Their distances from the sun, when in perihelion, or when nearest to that luminary, had been nearly the same, being nearly six-tenths of that of the earth, and not varying more than one-sixtieth from each other.
The inclination of their orbits to that of the earth had also been nearly the same, between 17 degrees and 18 degrees; and their motions had all been retrograde. Putting these facts together, Halley concluded that the comets of 1456, 1531,1607, and 1682 were reappearances of one and the same comet, which revolved in an elliptic orbit round the sun, performing its circuit in a period varying from a little more than seventy-six years to a little less than seventy-five; or having, as far as the observations had been carried, a variation of about fifteen months in the absolute duration of its year, measured according to that of the earth. For this variation in the time of its revolution Halley accounted upon the supposition that the form of its orbit had been altered by the attraction of the remote planets Jupiter and Saturn as it passed near to them; and thence he concluded that the period of its next appearance would be lengthened, but that it would certainly reappear in 1758 or early in 1759. As the time of its expected reappearance approached, Clairaut calculated that it would be retarded 100 days by the attraction of Saturn, and 518 by that of Jupiter, so that it would not come to the perihelion, or point of its orbit nearest the 500 sun, until the 13th of April, 1759.
It actually reached its perihelion on the 13th of March, 1759, being thirty days earlier than he had calculated. Along with the period of this comet and its perihelion distance, the magnitude and form of its path were also calculated. Estimating the mean distance of the earth from the sun at 95,000,000 miles (the number which was at that time considered as the true one), the mean distance of the comet was calculated to be 1,705,250,000 miles; its greatest distance from the sun, 3,355,400,000; its least distance, 55,100,000; and the transverse or largest diameter of its orbit, 3,410,500,000. This comet, therefore, is a body belonging to the solar system, and quite beyond the attraction of any body which does not belong to that system; and as this is determined of one comet, analogy points it out as being the case with them all. In 1835 it again returned, being first seen at Rome, on August the 5th, and from that time continued to be observed until the end of the year in Europe, and through a great part of spring 1836 in the southern hemisphere.
The comet denominated Encke's comet, which has made repeated appearances, was first observed in 1818, and was identified with a comet observed in 1786, also with a comet discovered in 1795 by Miss Herschel in the constellation Cygnus, and with another seen in 1805. Its orbit is an ellipse of comparatively small dimensions, wholly within the orbit of Jupiter; its period is 1260 days, or about three years and three-tenths. It has been frequently observed since.
Another comet, the history of which is of the utmost importance in the latest theories regarding the connection of these bodies and the periodic showers of shooting-stars, is one known as Biela's comet, discovered in 1826. It revolved about the sun in about 6.75 years, and was identified as the same comet which was observed in 1772 and in 1806. Its returns were noted in 1832, 1839, and 1845. In 1846 it divided into two, returned double in 1852, but has not since been seen, the Supposition being that it has been dissipated, and that it was represented by a great shower of meteors that were seen in November 1872. One of the most remarkable comets of recent times was that known as Donati's, discovered by Dr. Donati of Florence in 1858. It was very brilliant in England in the autumn of that year, and on the 18th of October was near coming into collision with Venus, The year 1881 was remarkable for the number of comets recorded. During that year no fewer than seven comets, including the well-known short-period comet Encke's, were observed. Research Comet
Eschatology is a term used primarily in Christian and Jewish theology to refer to the 'last things', including the ultimate fate of the world and the individual soul. However, almost all religions of the world have eschatological features, which may be divided into those based on mythological explanations of the origins and end of the world and those based on historical explanations. The biblical accounts of the history of the Jewish people and the teaching and parables of Jesus are examples of historical eschatology, leading to millenarian expectations of the coming of the Messiah among Jews, and of the Second Coming among Christians. Contrasting with such views is the expectation of the apocalyptic or cataclysmic intervention of God in history. In both Hinduism and Buddhism, eschatological beliefs focus on the longing for release from the cycle of birth and rebirth. Research Eschatology
A hyperbola is a plane curve, one of the conic sections, formed by a plane that cuts both nappes of a right circular cone but does not pass through the vertex of the cone. A hyperbola has two U- shaped non-intersecting branches, identical in form, with the open parts facing in opposite directions; the arms of each branch separate as they recede. A hyperbola is also defined as the locus of all points, such that the difference between the distances from any point on the hyperbola to two fixed points, called the foci, is equal to a constant. Each branch contains one focus in its interior area; the line joining the foci intersects each branch in a point called a vertex. This line, or the segment between the vertices, is called the transverse axis. The line perpendicular to the transverse axis and passing through the point midway between the vertices, midway between the foci, is the conjugate axis. The two axes meet at the centre of the hyperbola, which is symmetric with respect to each axis and the centre.
A hyperbola has two asymptotes passing through the centre; an asymptote of a curve is a straight line with the property that the distance between it and the curve approaches zero as the curve recedes to infinity. A rectangular or equilateral hyperbola has asymptotes that are perpendicular to each other. The hyperbola has useful and important properties. In particular, the angle formed at a point on the hyperbola by the lines joining the point to the foci is bisected by the tangent to the hyperbola at that point. In astronomy, some orbits are hyperbolic in shape. The modern navigational device the loran also uses
hyperbolas. Research Hyperbola
The Sorbonne is a French educational institution in Paris. It was founded in 1253 by Robert de Sorbon as a hostel for poor students of the university of Paris belonging to various nations, under the title of 'the community of poor masters'. The Sorbonne soon gained a fame and authority in theological matters, which lasted until its temporary suppression at the French Revolution. Royal patronage and support secured a house for the new focus of learning in 1257, in the Latin quarter of Paris. The Sorbonne became a centre of traditional religion, vehemently opposing liberalism and reformation.In 1808 the Sorbonne was restored by Napoleon and in 1896 became the university of Paris. Research Sorbonne
Clement Clarke Moore was an American poet. He was born in 1779 at New York and died in 1863. Educated at Columbia College, he became a scholar of Hebrew and professor of Oriental and Greek literature. He is best known for inventing the modern Father Christmas or Santa Claus, as the jolly fat man with a white beard who visits houses at Christmas, which he describes in his poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' also known as 'A Visit from St Nicholas' which he wrote in reaction to the anti-social behaviour witnessed in New York at Christmas time when roving gangs of poor young men called at the houses of the rich and demanded Christmascomfort, Clement Clarke Moore and his peers wishing - and succeeding - to switch the focus of the Christmas celebrations onto the giving of presents to children rather than the poor. Research Clement Clarke Moore
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer. He was born in 1571 near Stuttgart and died in 1630. He studied the motion of planets and proved that planets move in an elliptical path with the sun at one focus, thereby laying the foundations of modern astronomy. Research Johannes Kepler
Mary I was queen of England from 1553 to 1558. She was born in 1516 and died of cancer in 1558. Mary I was the first Queen Regnant (that is, a queen reigning in her own right rather than a queen through marriage to a king). Courageous and stubborn, her character was moulded by her earlier years: an Act of Parliament in 1533 had declared her illegitimate and removed her from the succession to the throne (she was reinstated in 1544, but her half-brother Edward removed her from the succession once more shortly before his death), whilst she was pressurised to give up the Mass and acknowledge the English ProtestantChurch. Mary restored papal supremacy in England, abandoned the title of Supreme Head of the Church, reintroduced Roman Catholic bishops and began the slow reintroduction of monastic orders. Mary I also revived the old heresy laws to secure the religious conversion of the country; heresy was regarded as a religious and civil offence amounting to treason (to believe in a different religion from the Sovereign was an act of defiance and disloyalty).
As a result, around 300 Protestant heretics were burnt in three years - apart from eminent Protestantclergy such as Thomas Cranmer (a former archbishop and author of two Books of Common Prayer), Latimer and Ridley, these heretics were mostly poor and self-taught people, leading to her being known as 'Bloody Mary'. Apart from making Mary I deeply unpopular, such treatment demonstrated that people were prepared to die for the Protestant settlement established in Henry's reign. The progress of Mary I's conversion of the country was also limited by the vested interests of the aristocracy and gentry who had bought the monastic lands sold off after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and who refused to return these possessions voluntarily as Mary I invited them to do.
Aged 37 at her accession, Mary I wished to marry and have children, thus leaving a Catholic heir to consolidate her religious reforms, and removing her half-sister Elizabeth (a focus for Protestant opposition) from direct succession. Mary I's decision to marry Philip, King of Spain from 1556, in 1554 was very unpopular; the protest from the Commons prompted Mary I's reply that Parliament was 'not accustomed to use such language to the Kings of England' and that in her marriage 'she would choose as God inspired her'. The marriage was childless, Philip spent most of it on the continent, England obtained no share in the Spanish monopolies in New World trade and the alliance with Spain dragged England into a war with France. Popular discontent grew when Calais, the last vestige of England's possessions in France dating from William the Conqueror's reign, was captured by the French in 1558. Dogged by ill health, Mary I died later that year leaving the crown to her half-sister Elizabeth. Research Mary I
Abbreviations
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