Highly impersonal.

April 30 has been the uploading date of two previous Boidem columns. Considering that often I find it difficult to find a significant event that can be used as a date tie-in (or more to the point, an event whose significance can in some way be construed as relevant to Boidem-like topics), it would seem that the third time around would become a case of scraping the bottom of the barrel. Yet somehow, one of the first items that appeared on the April 30 page of the Wikipedia seemed particularly fitting. It was on that page that I read that, according to orbital calculations, in the year 1483:

on this day, Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit

and remained within that orbit for twenty years. I find an event of this sort rather fascinating, very different from another celestial event - the event that immediately precedes it on the same Wikipedia page. That event also occurred on April 30, this time in 1006:

Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus.

In the case of the Supernova, we know of this event because it was recorded. It was observed in Japan and in China, in Egypt, in Iraq, and apparently also in Switzerland and North America. In short, it was very impressive - impressive enough so that people would note that they saw something extraordinary in the sky. In 1483, however, nobody observed (the celestial body formerly known as a planet) Pluto. Nobody even knew it was there (wherever "there" was), and the "event" that's been noted as taking place on this date has been determined by calculations - if we know both Neptune's and Pluto's orbits, then we're able to note when their orbital paths would have crossed. I guess it's sort of like a tree falling in a forest.

Go to: Taking it personally.