Saturday Scenes

On the 21st of May 2011 the rapture occurred.

Well, at least that’s what Harold Camper said was going to happen and being a gullible trusting soul, I believed him. I know that the Saturday Scene submitters are all really wonderful people, so it was clear to me that by the end of Saturday, you would all have ascended. OK, so I was a teeny bit disappointed that you all left me behind but hey, a date’s a date, right? I didn’t take it personally.

But now it turns out that Mr Camper got the wrong date. Apparently, he meant October, not May, which makes a big difference. And which, I guess, means you all are still here and waiting on the weekly post. Which I didn’t write because you weren’t supposed to be here.

Luckily, I found this great video for you to watch while I get caught up.

Would you believe, that song was released over 30 years ago? No, I didn’t much like to dwell upon that thought either.

So, moving right along, here are our photographs:

And here are our submitters who are – hurray! – still here:

• carocat
• rnout
• Pewari
• akrabat
• CarolineBignell
• ladyauntiecathy
• fembat
• JanetIsserlis
• raumsinn
• fuyobc
• sahfenn
• fluttabyz
• elibrody
• pixelfreund
• icklemouse
• HeideSpruck
• knball
• HereticChick
• evenstar84
• dlewis1701
• twasntme
• ernmander
• UKMelia
• rOcKeTmAn_76
• turquoise
• weefz
• noirem
• jamesnnb
• SoullessMachine
• vaxanta
• RealCainMosni
• pendrift
• CallumDG
• RyanosaurusRex
• ingridf

Sorry for the late post but it was worth the wait, right?

We’d love to see your photos! Just take a picture on a Saturday and send it to SatScenes with a location.

See you next week tomorrow!

On the 14th of May in 1879, the Leonidis carried 463 Indian indentured labourers to Levuka on Fiji. 498 passengers departed from Calcutta in March and a few days later there was an outbreak of cholera and smallpox on the schooner. Seventeen passengers died before they reached the islands. Fiji had previously suffered from infectious diseases brought in by ship: in 1875 a third of the Fijian population died to measles. They were taking no chances and the ship was anchored as far from the shore as possible in order to quarantine the crew and passengers.

The day the ‘Leonidas’ arrived in Fiji (Fiji Times, May 17, 1879)

Dr McGregor (the Chief Medical Officer of the Colony) has devised a very ingenious method of effectually preventing the contagion being conveyed to the shore, during the process of sending stores, letters, etc, to the ship.

A staging has been erected on the outer reef, with a moving platform. Stores necessary to the ship are placed on this platform at low tide and taken off by the ship’s boat.

The whole staging is then demolished and allowed to float until the next low tide; when it is re-erected.

All letters are placed in a carbolic acid bottle, and are of course fumigated before delivery. Communication with the vessel under these circumstances is of course slow, but from what we learn there are 373 male and 149 female coolies on board, independent of children, all of whom are under the charge of Doctor Welsh. We hear also that two buffaloes are on board.

A further eighteen passengers died of dysentery and typhoid during the quarantine. The remaining 463 survivors were admitted onto the Fiji islands on the 9th of August in 1879. They were the first of some 61,000 indentured labourers to arrive from India over the ensuing 37 years.

On the 14th of May in 2011, these photographs were submitted to SatScenes without using precautionary methods nor even a pinch of carbolic acid:

• DaughterofLir
• sahfenn
• CarolineBignell
• robdavies
• akrabat
• Pewari
• UKMelia
• raumsinn
• fembat
• Pixelfreund
• cosfordairshow
• ernmander
• pendrift
• dudleypj
• akaSylvia
• fluttabyz
• jamesnnb
• PCurd
• RyanosaurusRex
• drewbenn
• JanetIsserlis
• icklemouse
• ingridf
• RacingHippo
• HeideSpruck
• carocat
• RealCainMosni
• twasntme

We want to see MORE photographs of more places! Simply tweet the location of your photograph (taken on a Saturday) to @SatScenes to be included.

Follow SatScenes for more details and you’ll never miss another edition.

On the 7th of May in 1994, Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream was recovered, three months after it had been stolen from the National Gallery of Norway.

It was stolen on the day of the the opening of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer: the painting had been moved down to a less secure display as a part of the Olympic Festivities.

A note was left which said “Thanks for the poor security”. A month later, the gallery received a ransom demand of US$1 million which they refused to pay.

The Scream – Wikipedia

After the gallery refused a ransom demand of US$1 million in March 1994, Norwegian police set up a sting operation with assistance from the British Police (SO10) and the Getty Museum, and the painting was recovered undamaged on May 7, 1994. In January 1996, four men were convicted in connection with the theft, including Pål Enger, who in 1988 had been convicted of stealing Munch’s Vampire. However, they were released on appeal on legal grounds: the British agents involved in the sting operation had entered Norway under false identities.

The painting was stolen again twenty years later in 2004 (and recovered again within months) and currently resides back in The National Gallery of Norway, presumably with slightly better security.

And on the 7th of May in 2011 these expressionistic images were captured in locations all over the world (except not in Norway):

Don’t scream when you see who submitted:

• CarolineBignell
• akrabat
• fluttabyz
• carocat
• cosfordairshow
• evenstar84
• JanetIsserlis
• ingridf
• fembat
• sahfenn
• twasntme
• raumsinn
• elibrody
• pixelfreund
• robdavies
• Pewari
• icklemouse
• RealCainMosni
• ernmander
• dudleypj
• evenstar84
• UKMelia
• brooks_beauty
• jamesnnb
• HeideSpruck
• tradingnothing
• mousewords
• 9to5poet
• SoullessMachine
• drewbenn
• pendrift
• RacingHippo
• RyanosaurusRex
• akaSylvia
• CallumDG
• timewind
• DaughterofLir

Doesn’t this look like more fun than the Olympics?

Join in! Simply take a photograph on a Saturday and send it to Satscenes with a location!

On the 30th of April in the year 1006, the Supernova SN 1006 appeared in the constellation of Lupus.

SN 1006 was the brightest stellar event in recorded history. It was recorded all over the world, with observers “as far north as the Monastery of Sankt Gallen” in Switzerland, a location regularly featured in SatScenes by @raumsinn, @vaxanta and others! The “guest star” was low in the sky and was extremely bright – some said as bright as a quarter moon. It was bright enough to cast shadows in Cairo when it rose above the horizon and at its peak it was clearly visible during the day.

We have clear descriptions of the supernova from China, Egypt, Iraq, Japan, Switzerland and possibly North America.

Why possibly? Well, this piece of ancient rock art discovered in Arizona was claimed to be a depiction of the supernova along with the constellation Scorpius. (Photo by John Barentine, Apache Point Observatory)

But Sky and Telescope are not convinced.

Did Ancient Americans Record a Supernova? – News from Sky & Telescope – SkyandTelescope.com

“Having looked at the White Tanks rock art panel, I am appalled,” says Edwin C. Krupp, Director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles and author of Archaeoastronomy and the Roots of Science. “Panels like this are not rare. There is no reason to link it to any supernova event. There is nothing persuasive about the imagery to support the extraordinarily detailed claim. The authors say nothing about all of the other imagery on the boulder and select two details for their discussion. These two details are in themselves dubiously interpreted.”

“This Supernova 1006 petroglyph interpretation is nothing but assumptions and wishful thinking,” he adds.

So I guess the lesson is: When you wish upon a star, make sure it’s not a supernova.

Over one thousand years later, on the 30th of April of 2011, thirty-three sensational SatSceners snapped and submitted the following scrumptious scenes:

And the salubrious snapshotters who submitted them:

• pendrift
• CarolineBignell
• fembat
• JanetIsserlis
• Pewari
• carocat
• RyanosaurusRex
• sparc
• raumsinn
• sahfenn
• fluttabyz
• akrabat
• DorindaDorinda
• ernmander
• UKMelia
• akaSylvia
• icklemouse
• robdavies
• rOcKeTmAn_76
• dudleypj
• twasntme
• noirem
• ingridf
• evenstar84
• timewind
• dlewis1701
• drewbenn
• vaxanta
• tradingnothing
• elibrody
• DaughterofLir
• jamesnnb
• RacingHippo

Saturday Scenes is a great way to see the world from someone else’s point of view! Taking part is easy:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Send it to @SatScenes on Twitter
3. Wait for the webpage to get updated
4. Oooh and aah over all the great submissions from all over the world!

So take a photograph this weekend and send it to @SatScenes!