I thought this was cool....
(do NOT forward without full attribution)
http://www.statesman.com/asection/content/auto/epaper/editions/monday/new
s_e36f6ac2747d20550037.html


Capturing a van Gogh moment
Through astronomy, SWT team determines when 'Moonrise' was painted
 

'Moonrise' by Vincent VanGogh 

By the time physics and astronomy professor Donald Olson left France, his
team had nailed it down: The scene in the painting was a moonrise that
occurred on July 13, 1889 at 9:08 p.m., local time.

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By Jeremy Schwartz

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Monday, June 23, 2003

SAN MARCOS -- While hospitalized in a monastery in the south of France,
Vincent van Gogh left a legacy of nearly 300 paintings and drawing,
including perhaps his most famous, "Starry Night." 

But he also left a mystery: an undated painting called "Moonrise." The
puzzle was not solved until a team of Southwest Texas State University
professors traveled to Saint Rémy last year to apply astronomical arts to
try to determine the painting's date. 

Some time during the spring or summer of 1889, van Gogh painted a scene
of shimmering wheat fields with an orange orb behind a stone cliff in the
upper right hand corner. But "Moonrise" carried no date, and a letter to
his brother Theo identifying it was without a postmark. 

Art historians, who largely depended on van Gogh's letters to catalog his
work, were left to bicker over possible dates. Even the orb was in
question -- for decades, it was thought to be the setting sun. 

By the time Donald Olson, a physics and astronomy professor, left France,
his team had nailed it down: The scene in the painting was a moonrise
that occurred on July 13, 1889 at 9:08 p.m. local time. 

"It's just such a pleasure to walk in the footsteps of van Gogh," Olson
said in his SWT office, covered with van Gogh prints and lined with more
art books than science books. "I appreciate better how he was inspired by
the natural world." 

Olson and Russell Doescher, an SWT lecturer and former student of
Olson's, and Olson's wife Marilynn, an SWT English professor, visited the
monastery where van Gogh painted "Moonrise." To their delight, the three
found that the natural features in the painting actually existed. A
peculiar, double-sided house van Gogh painted still stands as does the
rock outcropping. Recounting the experience, Olson said, "It's like
you're walking in one of van Gogh's paintings." 

The team spent six days determining the exact coordinates of the stone
cliff. Then, using trigonometry, aerial photos and software they
developed, they discovered that van Gogh would have seen a full moon in
that area on only two dates: May 16 or July 13 of 1889. 

But the golden wheat fields in the painting make it clear the July 13
date is correct -- in May, van Gogh wrote that the monastery was
surrounded by green wheat fields. 

The professors' calculations further showed the moon was behind the cliff
for less than two minutes, allowing them to pinpoint the time. Since van
Gogh was painting about a picture per day during this period, it's likely
he painted "Moonrise" that night or the next morning. 

The team published its findings this month in Sky and Telescope magazine,
and the professors are in contact with the curators of the Kröller-Müller
Museum in Amsterdam, home to "Moonrise," about officially pegging the
painting's date as July 13. 

"We're trying to clarify misconceptions people have had or explain things
that haven't been explained," Doescher said. "It's like you were there --
the sky is still the same." 

Michael Charlesworth, an art history professor at the University of
Texas, said the team's work brings viewers closer to van Gogh. "We can
kind of imagine our way into the painting," he said. Olson "is sort of
marrying the work to the biography." 

The "Moonrise" mystery is just the latest to be unraveled by Olson and
Doescher. 

Two years ago, they used their astronomical sleuthing to decode another
orb in van Gogh's "White House at Night" painting. That one turned out to
be the planet Venus. The two have also turned their attention to history
and literature, using the moon's movements to explain an unexpected tide
that grounded a Marine landing on the atoll of Tarawa during World War
II, leading to the deaths of more than 1,000 men. 

In 1996, they calculated that Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson's
accidental death at the hands of his own troops was the result of his
being caught in the glare of a full moon. 

And Olson has deciphered a passage in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" in
which a magician caused boulders to disappear. It turns out that a solar
eclipse created unusually high tides on Dec. 19, 1340. 

Olson said his forays into other disciplines began 15 years ago when an
SWT colleague asked him for help in understanding the astronomical
passage in Chaucer. "That got me looking into the astronomy of the past,"
he said. He has since combined those interests into an honors class at
SWT called Astronomy in Art, History and Literature. 

Olson won't say what his next project is, but admits to a fascination
with van Gogh's "Starry Night." Sometimes he stares at the painting on
the wall of his office trying to decipher the swirling stars in what may
be the most famous re-creation of the night sky. "I still hope I'll get a
flash of insight," he said. 

jschwartz{at}statesman.com; (512) 392-8750

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