Night Park Lane, The Ethereal Academy of Mathematics, Art and Astronomy.
IntroductionLa Copa de Ray is an initiative which has been devised to help people learn about key starsin both the northern and southern skies.Tied to the concept of Christmas Entropy, the main feature is an Advent Calendar in whicheach day sees a particular star introduced. The stars can then be labelled on the correspondingstar chart. A short account of each star is uploaded each day to the “Star of the Day” web page.The northern stars are selected from the Database of 2021 Northern Stars whilst the southernstars used for Christmas Australis are selected from the Database of 2021 Southern Stars.The competition element of La Copa de Ray has the capacity for 36 entrants.Christmas EntropyFacing the prospect of a two-hour cycle ride back home on a cold night in early January 2019 after the AGM of the South Downs Astronomical Society, I was heartened by the chance of being able to admire the many Christmas decorations that had been on display in December.To my dismay the overwhelming majority of the decorations had already been taken down even though it was only the 10th day of Christmas (January 3rd). It seems ridiculous that decorations are put up earlier every year, weeks in advance, but people do not keep them up for Christmas. It was a stark demonstration of just how far the notion of Christmas has veered away from the original spirit.It is poignant to wonder what the equilibrium state of Christmas will be. Where is it headed?That equilibrium state will be the state of maximum entropy. It will be where the reality ofChristmas is completely detached from the original idea.From the point of view of astronomy one way to counter the detachment is to give a purposeto each of the 12 days of Christmas. Consequently, the concept Christmas Entropy allocatesa topic from astronomy to study on each of the 12 days culminating in the award of La Copade Ray on the 12th night. This brings the concept in line with the Night of the Three Kingsin Spain.Previous Winners of La Copa de RayArchive: How Graham won the cup in 2020How Nikki won the cup in 2019How Abigail won the cup in 2018