"Beyond the Farthest Star" was the premiere of ST:TAS, on September 8, 1973. It is a terrific episode. The use of life-support belts by the crew was an intriguing science fiction concept for the show and eliminated the need for spacesuits. The force field from the life-support belt had to be enormously powerful in order to allow the users to breathe, be shielded from all types of radiations, protected from the icy cold of outer space, and create artificial gravity. I wondered with such a formidable aura surrounding the wearer, how were the tricorders, communicators, and phasers able to successfully operate within the aura? Wouldn't the aura create severe interference with such technology, or even render them entirely useless?
As an amateur astronomer, hearing Uhura say "Nine seconds Right Ascension from the Galactic plane" got a wry chuckle out of me. That's utterly meaningless. Right Ascension is an Earth centered coordinate, equivalent to longitude, and is measured in hours, with 24h = 360 degrees. Nine seconds of time (as Right Ascension is measured) is a pretty small angle; hardly worth being concerned about. Referencing a position with respect to the Galactic plane, if in angular measure, will be called Galactic latitude (not Right Ascension), and 9 seconds of angle is much smaller than 9 seconds of time; practically zero. When out in space, zipping about at warp velocities and thus covering not inconsiderable distances, referencing a position with respect to the Galactic plane poses problems. An angular measure of Galactic latitude becomes inconstant due to one's own positional changes. In any event, the mingling of coordinate systems, with one based on a rotating Earth, no less, reveals just enough familiarity with astronomical terminology to get into trouble. ;)
300 million years ago, the Carboniferous Period was just ending, and the Permian Period was just beginning. Life had emerged long before, and multicellular life, and animals; the land had been conquered, and stem mammals had diverged from reptiles. Why not take the trouble to get this right?
It is a really old show; maybe they just had it wrong back then until later discoveries. For an in-universe explanation maybe they were goin on some galactic standard time and time relativity messed with how much time passed near the ship versus earth
"Beyond the Farthest Star" was the premiere of ST:TAS, on September 8, 1973. It is a terrific episode. The use of life-support belts by the crew was an intriguing science fiction concept for the show and eliminated the need for spacesuits. The force field from the life-support belt had to be enormously powerful in order to allow the users to breathe, be shielded from all types of radiations, protected from the icy cold of outer space, and create artificial gravity. I wondered with such a formidable aura surrounding the wearer, how were the tricorders, communicators, and phasers able to successfully operate within the aura? Wouldn't the aura create severe interference with such technology, or even render them entirely useless?
As an amateur astronomer, hearing Uhura say "Nine seconds Right Ascension from the Galactic plane" got a wry chuckle out of me. That's utterly meaningless.
Right Ascension is an Earth centered coordinate, equivalent to longitude, and is measured in hours, with 24h = 360 degrees.
Nine seconds of time (as Right Ascension is measured) is a pretty small angle; hardly worth being concerned about.
Referencing a position with respect to the Galactic plane, if in angular measure, will be called Galactic latitude (not Right Ascension), and 9 seconds of angle is much smaller than 9 seconds of time; practically zero.
When out in space, zipping about at warp velocities and thus covering not inconsiderable distances, referencing a position with respect to the Galactic plane poses problems. An angular measure of Galactic latitude becomes inconstant due to one's own positional changes.
In any event, the mingling of coordinate systems, with one based on a rotating Earth, no less, reveals just enough familiarity with astronomical terminology to get into trouble. ;)
I have to admit that is a pretty cool looking starship design.
It looks more like seaweed to me, but I suppose it is meant to look like an ant farm with the sand taken away.
300 million years ago, the Carboniferous Period was just ending, and the Permian Period was just beginning. Life had emerged long before, and multicellular life, and animals; the land had been conquered, and stem mammals had diverged from reptiles. Why not take the trouble to get this right?
It is a really old show; maybe they just had it wrong back then until later discoveries. For an in-universe explanation maybe they were goin on some galactic standard time and time relativity messed with how much time passed near the ship versus earth
@@jonathanz.9675 all of this was known in the 70s.
So a mystery is afoot interesting