1644: Stargazing - Revision history

FaviFake: /* Trivia */

2025-07-29T14:37:31Z

‎Trivia

FaviFake: /* Relevant TV-shows */ Moved to category

2025-07-29T14:23:17Z

‎Relevant TV-shows: Moved to category

FaviFake at 18:11, 20 April 2025

2025-04-20T18:11:09Z

DollarStoreBa'al at 15:38, 19 April 2025

2025-04-19T15:38:02Z

DollarStoreBa'al at 15:37, 19 April 2025

2025-04-19T15:37:41Z

172.70.163.109: /* The host's observations */

2025-04-05T15:52:11Z

‎The host's observations

Kynde: /* Explanation */

2025-04-05T09:50:39Z

‎Explanation

Kynde: /* Explanation */

2025-04-05T09:46:50Z

‎Explanation

Jackal: /* Explanation */ Adding mention of Stargazing 4

2025-04-05T03:06:51Z

‎Explanation: Adding mention of Stargazing 4

DollarStoreBa'al at 14:37, 21 March 2025

2025-03-21T14:37:01Z

@@ Line 78: / Line 78: @@
 *In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20160221022727!stargazing.png original version of the comic], the third panel said "'''That's''' Andromeda" instead of "'''This is''' Andromeda".
-*In [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json the original version of the official transcript], the TV host was referred to using male pronouns. It was later updated to use female pronouns for the host.
+*In [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json the original version of the official transcript], the TV host was referred to using he/him pronouns. [http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json The transcript was later updated] to use she/her pronouns for the host.
 *The transcripts [[Transcript|have been messed up]] for comics uploaded around this time, with some descriptions in official transcripts being mismatched with other comics uploaded around this time. This issue can still be seen [http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], as it [[Transcript|has not been fixed to this day]].

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 ;A {{w|dictionary}} is a reference resource for words. Unless otherwise specified (as a "Dictionary of ''<some theme>''"), it contains a significant proportion of ''all'' words in the language(s) it covers.
 :The host considers the dictionary ''boring'', which suggests that she is not even familiar with how to zero in on a word and its definition. For a typical and expected English dictionary (unless she made further errors) the word "Astronomer" is actually quite near the start, but it still would have been a large number of words needing to be read past (e.g. "a ... aardvark ... abandon ... abbey ... abbreviation ... ability ...") if one tried to find the word by slavishly checking every entry on the way up to it. It adds to the suspicion that the host's actual expertise isn't in either space ''or'' any more normal and grounded matters but {{tvtropes|Cloudcuckoolander|somewhere else entirely}}.
 ==Transcript==

@@ Line 82: / Line 82: @@
 ==Trivia==
 *In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20160221022727!stargazing.png original version of the comic], the third panel said "'''That's''' Andromeda" instead of "'''This is''' Andromeda".
-*The official transcript [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json originally] used male pronouns for the TV host. It was later updated to use female pronouns for the host.
-*The transcripts appear to have been messed up for comics uploaded around this time, with some descriptions in official transcripts being mismatched with other comics uploaded around this time. This issue can still be seen [http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], as the issue has not been fixed to this day.
+*In [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json the original version of the official transcript], the TV host was referred to using male pronouns. It was later updated to use female pronouns for the host.
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 *In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20160221022727!stargazing.png original version of the comic], the third panel said "'''That's''' Andromeda" instead of "'''This is''' Andromeda".
 *The official transcript [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json originally] used male pronouns for the TV host. It was later updated to use female pronouns for the host.
-*The transcripts appear to have been messed up for comics uploaded around this time, with some descriptions in official transcripts being mismatched with other comics uploaded around this time. This issue can still be seen[http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], as the issue has not been fixed to this day.
+*The transcripts appear to have been messed up for comics uploaded around this time, with some descriptions in official transcripts being mismatched with other comics uploaded around this time. This issue can still be seen [http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], as the issue has not been fixed to this day.
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
 This is the first comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series. It was followed by [[2017: Stargazing 2]] two and a half years later.
@@ Line 83: / Line 82: @@
 ==Trivia==
 *In the [http://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/archive/4/48/20160221022727!stargazing.png original version of the comic], the third panel said "'''That's''' Andromeda" instead of "'''This is''' Andromeda".
-*The official transcript [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json originally] used male pronouns for the TV host. It now (as of 2019) uses female pronouns for the host.
+*The official transcript [https://web.archive.org/web/20160913162302/http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json originally] used male pronouns for the TV host. It was later updated to use female pronouns for the host.
-**The official transcripts seems to have been messed up on xkcd at the time being.
+*The transcripts appear to have been messed up for comics uploaded around this time, with some descriptions in official transcripts being mismatched with other comics uploaded around this time. This issue can still be seen[http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], as the issue has not been fixed to this day.
 {{comic discussion}}

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 :The host correctly states that they are just dots. (This is also true for the bright stars, but at least they are clearly distinguishable).
-;{{w|Sirius}} is the {{w|Apparent magnitude|brightest}} star in our {{w|List of brightest stars|night sky}}. But it is not the brightest object in the night sky, as several of the planets, especially {{w|Venus}} and {{w|Jupiter}}, and of course the {{w|Moon}} are much brighter. It is also far from being one of the most {{w|Absolute magnitude|luminous stars}} in the {{w|Milky Way}}, but its proximity to Earth makes it the brightest in the night sky. For instance, {{w|Betelgeuse}}, mentioned later in the comic, is thousands of times more luminous than Sirius, but it is so farther away that it appears dimmer.
+;{{w|Sirius}} is the {{w|Apparent magnitude|brightest}} star in our {{w|List of brightest stars|night sky}}, which of course also excludes the Sun itself. But it is not the brightest object in the night sky, as several of the planets, especially {{w|Venus}} and {{w|Jupiter}}, and of course the {{w|Moon}} are much brighter. It is also far from being one of the most {{w|Absolute magnitude|luminous stars}} in the {{w|Milky Way}}, but its proximity to Earth makes it the brightest in the night sky. For instance, {{w|Betelgeuse}}, mentioned later in the comic, is thousands of times more luminous than Sirius, but it is so farther away that it appears dimmer.
 :The host thus names Sirius as the star in charge since it outshines all the others as seen from the {{w|Earth}}.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-{{incomplete|The [[#Trivia]] section is a mess. Need to clean it up and use coherent sentences.}}This is the first comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series. It was followed by [[2017: Stargazing 2]] two and a half years later, [[2274: Stargazing 3]] four years later, and [[3072: Stargazing 4]] nine years later.
+{{incomplete|The [[#Trivia]] section is a mess. Need to clean it up and use coherent sentences.}}
 This comic opens on [[Megan]] as the host for a {{w|stargazing}} TV show, or simply a stargazing tour. She claims to be a doctor, although it is unclear what exactly she's a doctor of. Her remarks, however, may call her professionalism into question. (Originally the host was suspected to be a spoof on {{w|Brian Cox (physicist)|Brian Cox}}, see [[#Relevant TV-shows|below]], but at some later point [[Randall]] changed his official transcript thus making the host female rather than male as in the original version, see the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section below. Thus now the host is clearly Megan, which it could not have been originally when the host was described as a man by Randall).

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 ==Explanation==
-{{incomplete|The [[#Trivia]] section is a mess. Need to clean it up and use coherent sentences.}}This is the first comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series. It was followed by [[2017: Stargazing 2]] two and a half years later and [[2274: Stargazing 3]] four years later. This comic opens on [[Megan]] as the host for a {{w|stargazing}} TV show, or simply a stargazing tour. She claims to be a doctor, although it is unclear what exactly she's a doctor of. Her remarks, however, may call her professionalism into question. (Originally the host was suspected to be a spoof on {{w|Brian Cox (physicist)|Brian Cox}}, see [[#Relevant TV-shows|below]], but at some later point [[Randall]] changed his official transcript thus making the host female rather than male as in the original version, see the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section below. Thus now the host is clearly Megan, which it could not have been originally when the host was described as a man by Randall).
+{{incomplete|The [[#Trivia]] section is a mess. Need to clean it up and use coherent sentences.}}This is the first comic in the [[:Category:Stargazing|Stargazing]] series. It was followed by [[2017: Stargazing 2]] two and a half years later, [[2274: Stargazing 3]] four years later, and [[3072: Stargazing 4]] nine years later. This comic opens on [[Megan]] as the host for a {{w|stargazing}} TV show, or simply a stargazing tour. She claims to be a doctor, although it is unclear what exactly she's a doctor of. Her remarks, however, may call her professionalism into question. (Originally the host was suspected to be a spoof on {{w|Brian Cox (physicist)|Brian Cox}}, see [[#Relevant TV-shows|below]], but at some later point [[Randall]] changed his official transcript thus making the host female rather than male as in the original version, see the [[#Trivia|trivia]] section below. Thus now the host is clearly Megan, which it could not have been originally when the host was described as a man by Randall).
 Throughout the comic the host's tone and choice of words becomes increasingly unprofessional, referring to most of the stars as "shitty," personifying them based on different astronomical observations, and providing little useful information on the study of stars or how they work. It seems that this is not an isolated issue as the host mentions that people keep asking her whether or not she is a real astronomer. The host also continuously glosses over the arguably less exciting portions of a typical presentation on astronomy sharing only what she sees as "the good stuff." This penchant for only caring about something if it is interesting extends past astronomy as well as the host is too bored when reading the dictionary to look up the meaning of astronomer.

@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 ***This has not been corrected (4 years later at the time of writing)!
 ****So the official transcript for 1644 can be found [http://xkcd.com/1646/info.0.json here], together with the data for comic 1646.
 {{comic discussion}}