Dear Roger (with a question for James Morrison), You prompt an interesting side-track in your observation that...
> The national flag for Brazil also incorporates > an armillary sphere... It seems that you are living just a bit in the past here. Aren't we all? The flag of Brazil incorporated an armillary sphere until 1816 when it was largely covered up and in 1826 it disappeared from the flag altogether. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Brazil This article describes the current flag in great detail. It is dominated by a representation of the night sky over Rio de Janeiro at 08:37 on the morning of 15 November 1889. In an intriguing note, the article explains that the positions of the stars were altered slightly in 1992 to account for proper motion since 1889. The Brazilians are to be commended for their insistence on precision but this alteration means that the flag no longer represents the night sky in November 1889. As such the current flag is a bit of an iconoclast. I do hope that "Instruction on the Design of the National Flag" is in the school curriculum in Brazil. No wonder the country is doing well! The only detail that I would like explained is just what projection is used. Can James Morrison comment please? Frank King Cambridge, UK. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
