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U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

ionathan.ch

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Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#21

Post by Polizeiposaune »

aleyan wrote: post #7

This is a fantastic discovery! Displaying azimuth in my ascii-side-of-the-moon [0] sounds useful, but then I would need to explain the symbol. I am displaying altitude/elevation below horizon, but there doesn't appear to be standard symbol for it. I checked the tables linked from article and there doesn't seem to be a symbol for it. Maybe this is the opportunity to invent and suggest a symbol for Altitude? [0] https:…

Elevation -- the angle above the horizon -- is usually what's paired with azimuth.

Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#22

Post by qingcharles »

Conscat wrote: post #16
theamk wrote: post #2

context: a follow up to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31012865 (2022), a post which started the hunt for the mysterios origin of this unicode symbol.

That's become of the most memorable threads on Hacker News to me. I definitely think about it at least once most weeks.

Closure finally!

Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#23

Post by Dawda »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #8
cookiengineer wrote: post #6

I didn't know that this is a mystery? A lot of old German sailor maps (e.g. from the Hamburg or Bremen maritime museum exhibitions) contain Azimutal angle descriptions. The globe on an azimutal map is projected from the North Star in the center. This way you could more easily calculate the angles you would need to use the Sextant (which was focused on the brightest star, the North star). They also used circles (the t…

The typographic symbol was the element in question, not what "Azimuth" is.

[flagged]

Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#26

Post by aleyan »

Polizeiposaune wrote: post #21
aleyan wrote: post #7

This is a fantastic discovery! Displaying azimuth in my ascii-side-of-the-moon [0] sounds useful, but then I would need to explain the symbol. I am displaying altitude/elevation below horizon, but there doesn't appear to be standard symbol for it. I checked the tables linked from article and there doesn't seem to be a symbol for it. Maybe this is the opportunity to invent and suggest a symbol for Altitude? [0] https:…

Elevation -- the angle above the horizon -- is usually what's paired with azimuth.

Yes, the angle above the horizon is usually what is most useful because it is used to find something small but visible. In the case of my ascii moon, the angle below the horizon, is there to explain why something is not visible. The Moon is large enough that people can easily find it on their own if it is not obstructed by the Earth itself.

Consider the Moon as viewed from NYC at time of comment [0], it is hiding below the horizon. If you were to look at my website and then at the sky you might become upset that I am reporting the shape of the moon, but obviously it can't be seen. Hence why the website reports the angle below the horizon roughly half the time it isn't visible.

Adding Azimuth and Elevation when the Moon is above the horizon would be for completionism only and not the real enterprise use-cases served by ANSI compliant renderings of the Moon.

[0] https://aleyan.com/projects/ascii-side-of-the-moon/?lat=40.7...

Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#27

Post by cookiengineer »

poizan42 wrote: post #17
cookiengineer wrote: post #6

I didn't know that this is a mystery? A lot of old German sailor maps (e.g. from the Hamburg or Bremen maritime museum exhibitions) contain Azimutal angle descriptions. The globe on an azimutal map is projected from the North Star in the center. This way you could more easily calculate the angles you would need to use the Sextant (which was focused on the brightest star, the North star). They also used circles (the t…

Okay, but what does any of that have to do with knowing that the glyph at U+237C originated as a symbol for azimuth?

Because that symbol was used as a notation symbol in those star charts and azimutal maps?

The article quotes the Didot system, specifically, which focused on printing travel maps and is known not only in the French speaking world for its timely accuracy [1] as it was also using that very same map system.

Maybe read the article next time?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didot_family

[2] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_de...

Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#28

Post by [deleted] »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #8
cookiengineer wrote: post #6

I didn't know that this is a mystery? A lot of old German sailor maps (e.g. from the Hamburg or Bremen maritime museum exhibitions) contain Azimutal angle descriptions. The globe on an azimutal map is projected from the North Star in the center. This way you could more easily calculate the angles you would need to use the Sextant (which was focused on the brightest star, the North star). They also used circles (the t…

The typographic symbol was the element in question, not what "Azimuth" is.

[deleted]

Re: U+237C ⍼ Is Azimuth

#29

Post by dhosek »

russellbeattie wrote: post #20

The photos of the symbol catalogs are incredidble. You really have to admire the precision printing they did in the early 1900s. All those glyphs were created by hand. I'm not exactly sure what sort of lithography process was used (I can't imagine they weren't casting them in lead), but there was definitely nothing digital about it. The results are amazing.

Those would be characters set with lead type. Most twentieth century designs would be created using a pantograph to engrave matrices for casting type although traditionally, a type designer would engrave punches which would be essentially the characters engraved at printing size, then struck into a blank matrix for casting the type.
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