Comments on: Lost in translation

By: Joshua

Joshua — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 13:39:33 +0000

This might be beating a dead horse, but I just found a post by James Gurney mentioning sun pillars, and he refers to Minnaert's book The Nature of Light and Colour in the Open Air (note slightly different title! big difference in price, it's a Dover edition, about $12 new on Amazon, $5 used).

By: Malgorzata Wilk

Malgorzata Wilk — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:25:03 +0000

Wow, and here i thought in the absense of the English original I could start with the German translation. Actually the books aren’r in print anymore. I snatched up book four first on a sale, then book one and today book three.
And two weeks for a 400 pages book is impossible. Fortunately I always get something around 30 pages a week which is acheivable even after working hours and during weekends. And a translator should always remember to check wikipedia. Sun dogs in English directs to the article in various languges, also German as well as my native Polish.
I’m currently doing a large piece from German, 900 pages and need to look up a lot and wikipedia is invaluable.
Oh, yes, thez dumped the translation of at least 3 books to one translator, Angela Koonen. I should probably get the English original, then. I’m very much looking forward to reading it.

By: Melinda Fleming

Melinda Fleming — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:33:40 +0000

ALL Rosemary’s books are awesome! For many, many reasons. Accurate and authentic details being simply one out of many.

By: Kalessin

Kalessin — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:05:39 +0000

Oh, I’m just a PhD student. True, I get paid and stuff, but I still feel like a student *g* Though I do have the benefit of not having to attend classes but being allowed to attend classes. This semester, I’ll do a seminar on string theory.

Yeah, it might have been 1999. I remember being in school but not much more. My, thirteen years ago already! I was fourteen then and in 8th grade…
My boyfriend actually went to the south of Germany (I think Burg Teck) into the path of totality. But on a cruise ship and on your birthday is of course waaaay cooler!

I saw the link to the book in the other comments (I got the comments feed, else I would miss everything) and clicked on it and also looked it up on german amazon – but it’s just too expensive.
Your comment with the library gave me an idea though: university library! And they have it, available. They just refuse to tell me where *sigh* (They think they tell me where, but when I try to find out what they mean, they want to give me courses in how to use the catalogue. Hng.) Well, I guess I’ll have to go annoy some people with question they think trivial. This book sounds awesome and I want to lay my hands on it.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 18:49:28 +0000

I also don’t remember hearing of sun dogs before I read this post (though I have read The Language of Power, I must have glossed over that part in ignorance). But I did see a couple a little while before seeing the post, and now I know! (I thought they were just partial rainbows.)

I don’t remember if Galen Rowell talks about sun dogs specifically, but he does mention a lot of optical atmospheric phenomena I’d never heard of before in his photography books, and apparently knew quite a bit about them. Something like Mountain Light might be worth checking out (especially if you can get it from the library).

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:50:32 +0000

Kalessin –

Wow, an actual scientist on board! Excellent!

The eclipse you saw might have been the 1999 eclipse that my sister and I witnessed. In Bonn, it would have been a partial eclipse, but we were on an old cruise ship on the Black Sea, smack-dab in the middle of the path of totality. Amazing. Plus: it was my actual birthday.

Over in the comments for the original Sun Dogs post, Walter Underwood pointed us toward M.G.J.Minnaert’s Light and Color in the Outdoors, which I have now added to my Amazon Wishlist. Alas. $99 new. Even the Kindle version is $79! But it seems to be THE definitive source for the science behind these phenomena. I think I’ll see if my lovely library can scare up a copy…

By: Kalessin

Kalessin — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 19:31:14 +0000

That would explain my ignorance. While I love staring at sky phenomena going “oooooh!”, I prefer the night sky. (And it’s embarassing how ignorant I am as to the physical explainations – being a physicist in an astrophysical institute.)
And I don’t think I’ve ever seen sundogs – I’ve lived most of my life in Bonn(Germany) or south of that in rather warm areas.

Double rainbows are pretty common, I’d say. They seem to appear about as often as simple ones. A full-sized triple I’ve never seen – though part of a third one isn’t that uncommon. (Or maybe I’m just lucky *g*)
I haven’t seen a total solar eclipse, just a partial one (about 10 years ago, I think) and a transit of Venus (must have been about 2004, I was still in school and missed an English lesson to stare through a telescope with a rescue blanket on it). But then, I’m still young, lots of things yet to come, I hope.

A parallel read when not fluent in both languages would probably take a long time. (Parallel reading probably is a lot slower anyway.)
I’d much rather you write and I read *g* Of course I’ll let you know if I notice anything missing (or being added for that matter – though that would indeed be very unexpected). I’m very tempted to just pick them up and start reading now, but there’s work I’m paid to do is waiting for me.

By: Rosemary

Rosemary — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:16:25 +0000

Kalessin –

Sundogs are well-known — but only among people already interested in them! Most people, on average, haven’t heard of them, and don’t notice when they appear. But I am a fan of all things that happen in the sky, so I’m always looking for something. Rainbows, double rainbows (which happen more often than people notice), and triple rainbows (only saw a full-sized triple once!). Eclipses of various sorts (I’ve seen two total solar eclipses and a partial). Sundogs, halos, rings around the moon… Thunderstorms! Lightning, when I can watch it safely. The famous “green flash” of sunset at sea, which I’ve yet to witness.

I thought of doing a parallel read of the English and German versions of my books for myself — but the investment of time was just too much! I’ve got NEW books to write. But if you do it, I’d be very interested to know if you find anything else missing.

By: Kalessin

Kalessin — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 07:59:33 +0000

Are sundogs a well known phenomenon? Because I’ll admit to never having heard of them before – or of ‘Nebensonnen’ (as I’m German).

But as I have the Language of Power here, unread, because it’s the only one of your books I have in English, I think I’ll try to parallel-read it with the German one on next re-read and tell you if I come across anything that has been cut out.

(And one day, when I’m rich, I’ll also buy the other books in English! Then I can do the same thing with those as well.)