Epoch
Gangale originally chose late 1975 as the epoch of the calendar in recognition of the American Viking program as the first fully successful American soft landing mission to Mars and ignoring the earlier 1971 Soviet Mars 3 Landing. In 2002 he adopted the Telescopic Epoch, first suggested by Peter Kokh, which is in 1609 in recognition of Johannes Kepler's use of Tycho Brahe's observations of Mars to elucidate the laws of planetary motion, and also Galileo Galilei's first observations of Mars with a telescope. Selection of the Telescopic Epoch avoids the problem of the many telescopic observations of Mars over the past 400 years being relegated to negative dates.
Read more about this topic: Darian Calendar
Famous quotes containing the word epoch:
“Every epoch which seeks renewal first projects its ideal into a human form. In order to comprehend its own essence tangibly, the spirit of the time chooses a human being as its prototype and raising this single individual, often one upon whom it has chanced to come, far beyond his measure, the spirit enthuses itself for its own enthusiasm.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“A man lives not only his personal life, as an individual, but also, consciously or unconsciously, the life of his epoch and his contemporaries.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“Old age cannot be cured. An epoch or a civilization cannot be prevented from breathing its last. A natural process that happens to all flesh and all human manifestations cannot be arrested. You can only wring your hands and utter a beautiful swan song.”
—Renee Winegarten (b. 1922)