This came up in examination of Beck's Septentrional (a post containing a whole cornucopia of good word suggestions but I'll leave that to him)...
Asterism- (n)
1. Printing Three asterisks in a triangular formation used to call attention to a following passage.
2. Astronomy A cluster of stars smaller than a constellation.
3. Mineralogy A six-rayed starlike figure optically produced in some crystal structures by reflected or transmitted light.
(freedictionary)
Asterism
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8170
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
I like the example of a #1 asterism I just saw. Two on top, one below, in between the top two. A starry eyed emoticon, with a kiss. Too bad our Agora software doesn't let us do it.
It looks a bit ape-ish as it comes out here, but move the lower asterisk over a bit in your mind, and you'll get the picture.
**
*
It looks a bit ape-ish as it comes out here, but move the lower asterisk over a bit in your mind, and you'll get the picture.
**
*
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2578
- Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
- Location: Crownsville, MD
How's this for a closer approximation?
"You have to understand how a starship operates."
-- Capt. Kirk, Star Trek II: The Wrathe of Khan"
My guess is that in classical printing it's a single piece of type, equivalent to a single character in computer word processing.
AHA! HERE 'tis! ... ⁂
It's really small ( ⁂ ) unless you use the Font Size tag to enlarge the character. A 29 is the largest number accepted for the font size.
Code: Select all
* * *
* or * *
-- Capt. Kirk, Star Trek II: The Wrathe of Khan"
My guess is that in classical printing it's a single piece of type, equivalent to a single character in computer word processing.
AHA! HERE 'tis! ... ⁂
It's really small ( ⁂ ) unless you use the Font Size tag to enlarge the character. A 29 is the largest number accepted for the font size.
Regards//Larry
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee
- Slava
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 8170
- Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
- Location: Finger Lakes, NY
Interesting, thanks for finding it. Too bad I've never figured out how to use Unicode.How's this for a closer approximation?
"You have to understand how a starship operates."Code: Select all
* * * * or * *
-- Capt. Kirk, Star Trek II: The Wrathe of Khan"
My guess is that in classical printing it's a single piece of type, equivalent to a single character in computer word processing.
AHA! HERE 'tis! ... ⁂
It's really small ( ⁂ ) unless you use the Font Size tag to enlarge the character. A 29 is the largest number accepted for the font size.
By the way, is that a take-off on the original Star Trek II?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
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