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Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all) jrbarnett Eyepiece Hooligan Reged: 02/28/06 Loc: Petaluma, CA "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions       #5512014 - 11/09/12 05:26 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   You observe Albireo. You could report "The primary was yellow and the secondary was blue." Ho-hum. You could jazz it up a bit and say "The primary was a brilliant yellow and the secondary a pale, lovely blue." Ookay. Or you could use your words and really lay it on thick, and opine "The primary was a lustrous citrine with a companion of blazing aquamarine." Yee-haw! That's the spirit! Back in the day when the Smyths and Webbs of the world were describing the doubles they'd resolved, they had a lot of time on their hands and large, personal libraries loaded with reference tomes. One can imagine a class A-1 toff like Smythy saying to himself "Hrmph, 'yellow and blue' simply won't do. I am a learned man. I must use terms that only other learned gentle-folk will understand. *sniff*. Allow me to consult my dictonary...ah, yes, here we are. 'A glittering flavous primary attended by a dear wee companion of palest indigo'. There, now that's a proper description." Here are some fun color terms to play with when compiling your own observing notes for double stars. “Flowery” Color Vocabulary for Double Star Aficionados Reds: Red Ruddy Rosy Rose Cardinal Carmine Claret Crimson Copper Garnet Rubicund Ruby Salmon Scarlet Vermillion Blues: Azure Aquamarine Cerulean Cobalt Indigo Sapphire Turquoise Yellows: Amber Aureate Canary Blonde Citrine Citron Flavous Fulvous Gold Honey Lemon Primrose Sallow Straw Tawny Orange: Apricot Coral Peach Tangerine Titian White: Alabaster Ashen Blanched Chalk Hoary Ivory Milky Pearly Silver Snow Waxen So the next time you report on a double star observation here on CN, we expect it to be luscious and succulent with dripping color terminology. I'm sure there are many more color terms that could be added to the above sampling. Enjoy. - Jim Edited by jrbarnett (11/09/12 08:12 PM) Post Extras:       fred1871 sage Reged: 03/22/09 Loc: Australia Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: jrbarnett]       #5512109 - 11/09/12 06:25 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   A wonderful list of colour terms, Jim. They're certainly beyond my ability to discern as separate colour tones. But, please, please, could we have the correct spelling for Albireo - not "Alberio", which sounds like an invitation to Oktoberfest. Yes, I know, it depends on one's accent... and some folk try to spell the way they happen to speak, imagining words to all have phonetic spelling. And I suspect poor old Smyth, with his amazing colour vocabulary, far more extravagant than Webb's, was a chap who saw himself as "learned", not "leaned". You're quite right of course - we must not use such flowery language in the grimly practical and down-to-earth 21st century. Colour (or color) me plain. And I'll see stars that way too. By the way - "cirtine"??? - I'm not certain that even Smyth would use such a term (unless you've found him doing so...) Post Extras:       jrbarnett Eyepiece Hooligan Reged: 02/28/06 Loc: Petaluma, CA Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: fred1871]       #5512251 - 11/09/12 08:13 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Dude, I type fast and am just too lazy to spell check. - Jim Edited by RLTYS (11/10/12 06:40 AM) Post Extras:       Ed Wiley professor emeritus Reged: 05/18/05 Loc: Kansas, USA Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: jrbarnett]       #5512315 - 11/09/12 09:07 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Double star folks should take lessons from the wine oenophiles if they want to get "flowery." Ed Post Extras:       Bonco Post Laureate Reged: 04/17/06 Loc: Florida Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Ed Wiley]       #5512353 - 11/09/12 09:41 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Funny post...all good humor,(humour?)has an element of truth in it. Bill Post Extras:       Asbytec Guy in a furry hat Reged: 08/08/07 Loc: La Union, PI Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Bonco]       #5512403 - 11/09/12 10:31 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Jim's list is too short and he left out lilac. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors Post Extras:       mountain monk Pooh-Bah Reged: 11/06/09 Loc: Grand Teton National Park Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Asbytec]       #5512463 - 11/09/12 11:26 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Nice list, but it presumes the perceptual ability to make the relevant distinctions. Put a (white) egg next to a porcelain bowl next to a page from an open book all on a linen table cloth. Try to paint them. And what color is the open sea off Point Reyes in sunlight in afternoon in late October? Use a pure hue of any of the blues in your list and you will fail miserably--as I did only two weeks ago. Then read Color and Culture by John Gage (U of C Press). Then despair. Thoreau noted that Americans have/had a particularly limited ability to discern and describe color. And American astronomers...? Nice list though, and a great subject. Dark skies. Jack Turner Edited by mountain monk (11/09/12 11:29 PM) Post Extras:       RLTYS Post Laureate Reged: 12/18/04 Loc: New York (Long Island) Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: jrbarnett]       #5512739 - 11/10/12 06:39 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Hay, I like the list and will try to use it. Rich (RLTYS) Post Extras:       Man in a Tub Postmaster Reged: 10/28/08 Loc: Fogpatch, CA Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: RLTYS]       #5513958 - 11/11/12 03:20 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Here's a link to a list of "obscure colour terms" with just a wee bit of duplication of the list above. The author's disclaimer at the top is a gem: "Don't worry if the colours (or colors) in your universe don't match up with the definitions I've given for these words, though - I've been known to have skewed perceptions of reality ..." http://phrontistery.info/colours.html Edited by Man in a Tub (11/11/12 04:52 AM) Post Extras:       jrbarnett Eyepiece Hooligan Reged: 02/28/06 Loc: Petaluma, CA Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Man in a Tub]       #5514223 - 11/11/12 10:40 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Todd, that is awesome! I'm sorting through a semi-permanent setup on my deck here at home and plan on multitudes of double star observations. "I shall endeavour to utilise these vainglorious and gaudy hue delineations." - Jim Post Extras:       Asbytec Guy in a furry hat Reged: 08/08/07 Loc: La Union, PI Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: jrbarnett]       #5514232 - 11/11/12 10:43 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   "I do" I like them...LOL Post Extras:       drollere Pooh-Bah Reged: 02/02/10 Loc: sebastopol, california Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Asbytec]       #5515971 - 11/12/12 01:02 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   there is a bit of "color history" on this topic that is worth knowing. color terms, as a basic language tool, start from humble beginnings. most primitive cultures have only a handful of terms, which are gradually expanded. (i've written a detailed account HERE.) "flowery" color terms are actually a product of the late 18th and 19th centuries, in other words, of the industrial revolution. and they are closely associated with the commercial use of colors: dye and paint technology became far more productive during that period, due to advances in basic and industrial chemistry. many inorganic pigments still used today, such as viridian, ultramarine, cobalt blue, iron oxides, manganese violet, etc., etc., were developed in the early 19th century. industry created variety, and commerce demanded labeling, and the result was a huge increase in the number of color terms. and also an increase in the acceptance of their use to discriminate color differences. this can be traced from a.g. werner's Nomenclature of Colors (1774) through robert ridgeway's Color Standards and Color Nomenclature (1912). references such as these provided a series of hand painted colored patches as a visual standard for each color, with the color's name and, in earlier versions, a list of flowers, insects or minerals that exemplified the color in nature. similar tools are still used today to sort or grade products in horticulture, agriculture and food processing. however color science has moved on since then, and industrial colors are now given dull and pedantic numerical designations, either as paint or ink combinations (e.g., in the pantone system) or as coordinates in a color space (the Munsell color system or the CIECAM color model). these have the same romance and zing as the HIP or HP numbers assigned to stars. as i posted elsewhere, brightness, chroma and hue are still the fundamental attributes of color, and are the three most important color attributes to communicate accurately and reliably. there is great fun and poetry in a personal color language, but poetry usually allows the reader to provide his own interpretation. Post Extras:       jrbarnett Eyepiece Hooligan Reged: 02/28/06 Loc: Petaluma, CA Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: drollere]       #5516310 - 11/12/12 04:40 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Hold up there, MacEvoy...are you sayin' that what I'm callin' "aquamarine", ain't? - Jim Post Extras:       rookie Good Night Nurse Reged: 01/14/06 Loc: St. Petersburg, FL Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Man in a Tub]       #5517107 - 11/13/12 12:19 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Here's a link to a list of "obscure colour terms" with just a wee bit of duplication of the list above. The author's disclaimer at the top is a gem: "Don't worry if the colours (or colors) in your universe don't match up with the definitions I've given for these words, though - I've been known to have skewed perceptions of reality ..." http://phrontistery.info/colours.html Love the list Todd, I'm printing it up and will keep it in my log book for observation reports. Fun topic Jim. Your own creative list is great too. Thanks Post Extras:       RLTYS Post Laureate Reged: 12/18/04 Loc: New York (Long Island) Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Man in a Tub]       #5517797 - 11/13/12 12:05 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Here's a link to a list of "obscure colour terms" with just a wee bit of duplication of the list above. The author's disclaimer at the top is a gem: "Don't worry if the colours (or colors) in your universe don't match up with the definitions I've given for these words, though - I've been known to have skewed perceptions of reality ..." http://phrontistery.info/colours.html That is one cool list unfortunetly I can't even begin to pronouce most of those names. Rich (RLTYS) Post Extras:       MikeMcCaskey professor emeritus Reged: 03/09/12 Loc: South Central Kansas Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: Ed Wiley]       #5522725 - 11/16/12 11:24 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Double star folks should take lessons from the wine oenophiles if they want to get "flowery." Ed From the flowery words it kinda makes you wonder if the two activities haven't gotten a little blurry............... Post Extras:       astroneil Pooh-Bah Reged: 07/28/09 Loc: res publica caledoniae Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: MikeMcCaskey]       #5522792 - 11/16/12 12:01 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Language is a precious and enriching manifestation of the human mind. To suggest a moratorium on colour descriptions fills me we absolute dread. ....just another blind step towards the Universal. Post Extras:       nytecam Postmaster Reged: 08/20/05 Loc: London UK Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: jrbarnett]       #5523233 - 11/16/12 05:22 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Dude, I type fast and am just too lazy to spell check. - Jim Jim - your sounding a bit Smythy to me and I'd hope we've moved on from those flowery time. Anyway, when you've done a bit of spectroscopy, all these colour description seem nonsence Post Extras:       Asbytec Guy in a furry hat Reged: 08/08/07 Loc: La Union, PI Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: astroneil]       #5523464 - 11/16/12 09:02 PM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Language is a precious and enriching manifestation of the human mind. To suggest a moratorium on colour descriptions fills me we absolute dread. ....just another blind step towards the Universal. Agreed. One can imagine human communication never evolving beyond the primitive, "Ug!" Post Extras:       RLTYS Post Laureate Reged: 12/18/04 Loc: New York (Long Island) Re: "Flowery" Color Terms for Double Star Descriptions [Re: nytecam]       #5523891 - 11/17/12 07:13 AM Edit   Reply   Quote Quick Reply   Quote: Jim - your sounding a bit Smythy to me and I'd hope we've moved on from those flowery time. Anyway, when you've done a bit of spectroscopy, all these colour description seem nonsence Personally I just can't agree with you. Rich (RLTYS) Post Extras:       Pages: 1 | 2 | (show all)

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