Boy and Barrel - Asteroid 2063 Bacchus - Huddersfield, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 38.840 W 001° 46.792
30U E 580651 N 5944976
This wooden pub sign was first erected in 1898, is nine feet tall, weighs half a ton and had a temporary stay in The Bradford Industrial Museum. Although this boy is dressed as a sailor he represents Bacchus the Roman name for the God of Wine.
Waymark Code: WMG5GZ
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/15/2013
Views: 3
A famous painting by (
visit link) Guido Reni of 1623 shows Bacchus as a boy drinking wine from a barrel. Although pubs are primarily associated with beer, a number of pubs have used the reference to barrels to advertise their premises using the boy and barrel name.
Due to being exposed to the weather of Huddersfield the sign had to be sent to the Bradford Industrial Museum for renovation and was put back onto the roof in 1996.
Asteroid 2063 Bacchus was discovered in 1977 and it crosses the orbits of Earth, Venus and Mars.
This Wikipedia article (
visit link) tells us that "In March 1996 radar observations of the asteroid were conducted at the Goldstone Observatory under the direction of JPL scientists Steven Ostro and Lance Benner, allowing the construction of a model of the object." This was the same year that the 'model' of the Boy and Barrel was restored to its rightful position on the roof of the pub.
The astronomer that discovered the asteroid was American Charles T Kowal who amongst other things discovered a total of 19 asteroids.