TowardsTheLight

Irony

Just thought I'd say I find it ironic and amusing to see "TowardsTheLight" editing the British Astronomical Association page. Move to the darkness for better visibility! Unless you're a solar astronomer. -mattbuck (Talk) 11:07, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

That's true! I'll turn the lights off soon. TowardsTheLight (talk) 13:25, 5 February 2014 (UTC)

A page you started (Donald Sadler) has been reviewed!

Thanks for creating Donald Sadler, TowardsTheLight!

Wikipedia editor Callmemirela just reviewed your page, and wrote this note for you:

Very well done

To reply, leave a comment on Callmemirela's talk page.

Learn more about page curation.

Jesse Ramsden

Thanks for adding the reference to a nice article. I started worked on this page last year and my intention was to come back and enlarge all the sections on instruments and dig up relevant images. The main problem is to find more references to material that is on the web and some non-copyright images. I had thought of trying to contact McDonnel to see if she had anything to provide. Care to assist? I'm very busy with another page at the moment.  Peter Mercator (talk) 12:37, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, Peter Mercator. I've been trying to add new references to articles about the history of astronomy, and found something relevant to Ramsden, so added that. There are some images relevant to Ramsden on the Wikimedia Commons, so it should be straightforward to add some from there. There are several in the category https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jesse_Ramsden . I might have a go sometime. I'll have a look at some old books to try to find out-of-copyright images that could be scanned, but that might take a few weeks.TowardsTheLight (talk) 13:42, 21 February 2016 (UTC)

ArbCom Elections 2016: Voting now open!

Hello, TowardsTheLight. Voting in the 2016 Arbitration Committee elections is open from Monday, 00:00, 21 November through Sunday, 23:59, 4 December to all unblocked users who have registered an account before Wednesday, 00:00, 28 October 2016 and have made at least 150 mainspace edits before Sunday, 00:00, 1 November 2016.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2016 election, please review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 22:08, 21 November 2016 (UTC)

ArbCom 2017 election voter message

Hello, TowardsTheLight. Voting in the 2017 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 10 December. All users who registered an account before Saturday, 28 October 2017, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Wednesday, 1 November 2017 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2017 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

ArbCom 2018 election voter message

Hello, TowardsTheLight. Voting in the 2018 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23.59 on Sunday, 3 December. All users who registered an account before Sunday, 28 October 2018, made at least 150 mainspace edits before Thursday, 1 November 2018 and are not currently blocked are eligible to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2018 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 18:42, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

ArbCom 2019 election voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2019 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 on Monday, 2 December 2019. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate in the 2019 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:15, 19 November 2019 (UTC)

Eleazar (Eleazer) Roberts

Hi, I was the one who moved Eleazar Roberts to the spelling Eleazer, because I thought it was an accidental misspelling, based on its appearance in the normally reliable New Grove ([1]) and the spelling that appeared in the footnotes from the original article by User:FruitMonkey. But as you correctly point out, the Welsh biographical dictionary actually has the "Eleazar" spelling (despite the footnote, which you have corrected), as do the other footnotes as far as I can tell (the fifth footnote, the other that mentioned his name and was spelled "Eleazer," seems to be dead). Based on these sources, I think you're right that "Eleazar" is the correct spelling, but I wonder about why the "Eleazer" spelling appears in so many sources. (Others include this from his lifetime and this work of secondary scholarship. If these are not mere typos, was the spelling changed in his lifetime, or was one for use in English and one in Welsh? If you know, it would be good to have that in the article, since "Eleazer Roberts" should obviously redirect there. Rigadoun (talk) 16:51, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

That's interesting. The accessible references in the article all use Eleazar as the spelling, not Eleazer. It was on the basis that I reverted the changes to the article. That includes the Welsh Academy Encyclopaedia of Wales used twice in the footnotes. It's therefore not clear why the original editor used the spelling Eleazer for those references.

That the New Grove uses Eleazer is a little surprising given that the Dictionary of Welsh Biography used Eleazar (and the New Grove contributor would presumably have checked that publication at some point).

A search through the Welsh Journals Online resource at the National Library of Wales finds 294 occurrences of "Eleazar Roberts" and 114 of "Eleazer Roberts", at least some of both sets matching the Eleazar Roberts of the article. Both spellings were used in publications in Welsh. So it does appear that both spellings were used quite widely, and presumably by the subject of the article himself. I'll add a comment about the other form Eleazer to the article.

The missing reference (number 5) in the article appears to be available here. That uses just the name "E. Roberts". I'll replace the link in the article with that. TowardsTheLight (talk) 21:32, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

How relative time must be adjusted

13.8 billion years ago was the proper figure in 2019, however it is relative time so right now it would be 13.800000005 billion years ago. Using a dynamic formula is the only way to ensure the relative time with uncertainty always refers to the same time range. 2A01:119F:31B:5D00:9421:EF37:6D83:A9A9 (talk) 18:13, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

An example: An article in 2019 says an event happened 3 years ago, with an uncertainty of 1 year. This means it happened in 2015, 2016, or 2017. However, when the year changes to 2020, the time range suddenly changes to 2016, 2017, or 2018, which is inconsistent with what it was before. So it must be changed to a dynamic formula that says it happened 8 years ago, with an uncertainty of 1 year. This makes it always the proper time range. The same thing is happening with the article of Chronology of the universe. 2A01:119F:31B:5D00:9421:EF37:6D83:A9A9 (talk) 18:18, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) Please see the discussion started at Talk:Chronology of the universe#Lead sentence. The basic point is that we do not have a date for the big bang, we have a rough estimate of how long ago - and that precision is nowhere close to 1 year precision. Tarl N. (discuss) 19:00, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

The article quotes an age of the Universe of 13.8 Gyr with an uncertainty of 21 million years. An uncertainty this large would make quoting ages and dates to the nearest year meaningless. I reverted the original edit (stating that the Big Bang occurred in the year 13799997982 BC) on the belief that it was probably vandalism. Whether it was a good-faith edit or vandalism, quoting a meaningless precision would make no sense. TowardsTheLight (talk) 20:27, 8 August 2020 (UTC)

Sorry, I was just skimming your page to get some idea if your removal of my edit was in good faith—but the concept of time itself starting in a particular year is hilarious to me! 😆 2604:2D80:DE09:D400:1C0:793:75E5:9481 (talk) 23:11, 10 March 2023 (UTC)

ArbCom 2020 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2020 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 7 December 2020. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate in the 2020 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 02:32, 24 November 2020 (UTC)

ArbCom 2021 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2021 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 6 December 2021. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate in the 2021 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:35, 23 November 2021 (UTC)

ArbCom 2023 Elections voter message

Hello! Voting in the 2023 Arbitration Committee elections is now open until 23:59 (UTC) on Monday, 11 December 2023. All eligible users are allowed to vote. Users with alternate accounts may only vote once.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the authority to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

If you wish to participate in the 2023 election, please review the candidates and submit your choices on the voting page. If you no longer wish to receive these messages, you may add {{NoACEMM}} to your user talk page. MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:41, 28 November 2023 (UTC)