Astronomy

Astronomy, a natural science, is the study of celestial objects (such as stars, galaxies, planets, moons, asteroids, comets and nebulae) and processes (such as supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, and cosmic microwave background radiation), the physics, chemistry, and evolution of such objects and processes, and more generally all phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with studying the Universe as a whole.

Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, and Maya performed methodical observations of the night sky. However, the invention of the telescope was required before astronomy was able to develop into a modern science. Historically, astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy and the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is nowadays often considered to be synonymous with astrophysics.

Astronomy (Dragonland album)

Astronomy is the fourth studio album by Swedish power metal band Dragonland, released in Europe on November 13, 2006 and in North America on November 28, 2006. While their third album Starfall focused heavily on keyboards and had a more upbeat lyrical tone, according to guitarist Olof Mörck, Astronomy is "gloomier, more stygian and packed with crunching guitars; both furiously fast and bone-grindingly heavy."

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Olof Mörck, except "Intuition", by Tony Harnell, Ronni Le Tekrø. 

Lyrical references

In a February 2007 interview with Metal Reviews, guitarist Olof Mörck went into details about some of musical and lyrical influences in Astronomy:

Astronomy (song)

"Astronomy" is a rock song by Blue Öyster Cult that has appeared on several of the band's albums. It was first published on their 1974 album Secret Treaties. Their second live album, Some Enchanted Evening, included a version with an extended guitar solo and a third version was included on the Imaginos album. It was also re-recorded for the band's Cult Classic collection in connection with the TV miniseries of Stephen King's The Stand. Most recently the song was included on the A Long Day's Night album.

Lyrics

The song's lyrics are selected verses from a poem by Sandy Pearlman, the band's producer and mastermind behind their image, called "The Soft Doctrines of Immaginos". In the poem, which was later partially released under the BÖC moniker in the album Imaginos, aliens known as Les Invisibles guide an altered human named Imaginos, also called Desdinova, through history, playing key roles that eventually lead to the outbreak of World War I.

In "Astronomy", the character of Imaginos comes to realize his heritage and his role as the altered human. References are made to celestial objects throughout the song: "The light that never warms" being the moon, "The Queenly flux" the constellation Cassiopeia, "My dog, fixed and consequent" being Sirius, the dog star. The "Four Winds Bar" may be a reference to the Tropic of Cancer. All in all, it has Imaginos explaining his position as part of Les Invisibles.

Azimuth

An azimuth (ⁱ/ˈæzɪməθ/) (from Arabic al-sumūt, meaning "the directions") is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. The vector from an observer (origin) to a point of interest is projected perpendicularly onto a reference plane; the angle between the projected vector and a reference vector on the reference plane is called the azimuth.

An example is the position of a star in the sky. The star is the point of interest, the reference plane is the horizon or the surface of the sea, and the reference vector points north. The azimuth is the angle between the north vector and the perpendicular projection of the star down onto the horizon.

Azimuth is usually measured in degrees (°). The concept is used in navigation, astronomy, engineering, mapping, mining and artillery.

Navigation

In land navigation, azimuth is usually denoted alpha, , and defined as a horizontal angle measured clockwise from a north base line or meridian.Azimuth has also been more generally defined as a horizontal angle measured clockwise from any fixed reference plane or easily established base direction line.

Azimuth (album)

Azimuth is the debut album by British jazz trio Azimuth featuring trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, vocalist Norma Winstone, and pianist John Taylor recorded in 1977 and released on the ECM label.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Michael G. Nastos awarded the album 4½ stars calling the compositions "deep improvisations, communicative and spiritual".

Track listing

Personnel

References

List of Legacy of Kain characters

This is a list of characters in the Legacy of Kain series of video games, created and produced by game developers Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights. The franchise, which comprises five action-adventure games—Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (1996), Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999), Soul Reaver 2 (2001), Blood Omen 2 (2002), and Legacy of Kain: Defiance (2003)—takes place in the fantasy land of Nosgoth, and follows the protagonist, Kain, a vampire destined to preserve the balance of the world. He and Raziel, the series' secondary playable character, are supported by a variety of non-player characters and bosses.

Inspired by the literary style of playwright William Shakespeare, Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack and writer Ken McCulloch made an effort to subvert ideas of moral absolutism when conceiving Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain's main cast, feeling that the video game industry lacked a story addressing issues of good and evil, propaganda, and fate. Crystal Dynamics' Amy Hennig, who directed subsequent games, continued this trend in the sequels, aiming to avoid two-dimensional, uncomplicated characters. She felt it ideal to ensure that each one was given depth, flaws and realistic motives corresponding to their belief systems.