Talk:Poncet Platform

Requested move

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: keep article where it is. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:16, 17 April 2011 (UTC) Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:16, 17 April 2011 (UTC)

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Poncet Platform → Equatorial platform —Title is obscure and hard to find for the general reader who knows nothing of history but needs to know about the device. We no longer call light bulbs Edison light bulbs, and we don't call airplanes Wright flying machines but we discuss the history of such devices giving due weight to their histories and their creators within their respective articles.Trilobitealive (talk) 17:13, 13 March 2011 (UTC) (I can't believe the server kicked me off while I was editing this template! This is my request!)Trilobitealive (talk) 17:13, 13 March 2011 (UTC)

• Oppose - more along the "works already done" line than anything else. Didn't notice the request and already put up the article "Equatorial platform" which I think negates this. But following through with the debate with reasons to keep Poncet Platform.....

  Reasons -

  Logic: Poncet Platform is an Equatorial platform but not all Equatorial platforms are Poncet Platforms. The Poncet Platform is a specific historical invention (maybe the first[1]) by Adrien Poncet that uses a pivot point as one support and an incline plane as the other. Other types of Equatorial platforms do not have that configuration so a Poncet Platform is logically a sub-type of Equatorial platform.

  Reference: Google Books - telescope poncet mount (83)[2], "poncet mount" (7)[3], "poncet table" (2)[4], "poncet platform" (35)[5], so not totally obscure. Compare to "equatorial platform" telescope (84)[6], and "equatorial table" telescope (65)[7].

  Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 00:15, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Comment: Those are very good points but I now have the question of whether Poncet platform would better be expanded and cross-linked or moved to become a section of Equatorial platform? BTW I complement you on your having put together that little article quite well and rapidly. Trilobitealive (talk) 01:41, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

My speed in putting up the article was due to the fact that I did the major revamp of Poncet Platform in June 2009[8] and noticed then that there seemed to be an overall type - Equatorial platform - and redlinked it as such for future expansion (so was already cooking in my brain). Both are kinda stubs right now and your addition of Equatorial platform brought up the question again "same thing or sub-type?". IMHO we have a sub-type situation here with enough to develop both articles. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 02:29, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Concede: You are right. I looked up the difference and it is a sub type with sufficient difference to warrant 2 short articles. I don't have a good reference to the assertion yet, but the Poncet platform appears to do better in higher lattitudes while the 2 track type does better in the lower lattitudes.

One of the things I really respect about you is that you truly know this material, whereas I edit various subjects and come and go to the astronomy ones with less depth of knowledge. Although we do need to leave up the tag awhile until any other interested parties add possible other things neither of us have thought of. Trilobitealive (talk) 01:32, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

Comment: Actually it was my lessor knowledge that had me looking at these articles recently. Someone put up links and info on an Alt-alt (altitude-altitude) mount. I thought "no such thing", then I looked it up and said "oops-there really is such a thing". I agree there is still more opinion to be sought. I noticed info on a Russian equatorial platform with the AFU-75 Satellite-Tracking Cameras [9][10][11] whose 1965 date makes it the earliest type by reference. This site diagrams out three types of EP mounts <--expansion for equatorial platform. Fountains of Bryn Mawr (talk) 14:47, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.