Was er uns bedeutete

Eigentlich hätte die Bedeutung von nadir folgende sein sollen:

  • Punkt, auf den eine Zentralperspektive in unendlich weiter Entfernung zuläuft
  • Fluchtpunkt in der Unendlichkeit

So hatten wir uns das jedenfalls gedacht, als wir diesen Namen für das InfoSystem gewählt haben.
Leider mussten wir später feststellen, daß nadir in Wirklichkeit doch etwas anderes bedeutet:

Bedeutungen in Nachschlagewerken

Stein/Kumm: Astronomische Navigation

Die Richtung zum Erdmittelpunkt ist uns durch das Lot ueberall bekannt. Die Verlaengerung des Lotes durch den Erdmittelpunkt, zur anderen Seite hin also, gibt uns den Nadir(Na). Der Zenith liegt genau senkrecht ueber, der Nadir genau senkrecht unter dem Beobachter. Wir legen jetzt senkrecht zur Achse Zenith-Nadir durch das "Auge des Beobachters" eine Ebene und nennen sie Ebene des scheinbaren Horizontes.[...]

Webster Definition for "nadir"

na.dir \'na--.di(*)r, 'na-d-*r\ n [ME, fr. MF, fr. Ar nazsub-dot>i-r opposite]
1: the point of the celestial sphere that is directly opposite the zenith and vertically downward from the observer
2: the lowest point

pons english dictionary

nadir n (a) (Astron) Nadir, Fusspunkt m.
(b) (fig) Tiefstpunkt m. the ~of despair tiefste Verzweiflung.

Encyclopaedica Britannica

zenith,

point on the celestial sphere directly above an observer on the Earth. The point 180 opposite the zenith, directly underfoot, is the nadir. Astronomical zenith is defined by gravity; i.e., by sighting up a plumb line. If the line were not deflected by such local irregularities in the Earth's mass as mountains, it would point to the geographic zenith. Because the Earth rotates and is not a perfect sphere, the geocentric zenith is slightly different from the geographic zenith except at the Equator and the poles. Geocentric zenith is the intersection with the celestial sphere of a straight line drawn through the observer's position from the geometric centre of the Earth.

Mughal style: Jahangir period (1605-27).

The emperor Jahangir, even as a prince, showed a keen interest in painting and maintained an atelier of his own. His tastes, however, were not the same as those of his father, and this is reflected in the painting, which underwent a significant change. The tradition of illustrating books began to die out, though a few manuscripts, in continuation of the old style, were produced. For Jahangir much preferred portraiture; and this tradition, also initiated in the reign of his father, was greatly developed. Among the most elaborate works of his reign are the great court scenes, several of which have survived, showing Jahangir surrounded by his numerous courtiers. These are essentially large-scale exercises in portraiture, the artist taking great pains to reproduce the likeness of every figure.
The compositions of these paintings have lost entirely the bustle and movement so evident in the works of Akbar's reign. The figures are more formally ordered, their comportment in keeping with the strict rules of etiquette enforced in the Mughal court. The colours are subdued and harmonious, the bright glowing palette of the Akbari artist having been quickly abandoned. The brushwork is exceedingly fine. Technical virtuosity, however, is not all that was attained, for beneath the surface of the great portraits of the reign there is a deep and often spiritual understanding of the character of the person and the drama of human life.
Many of the paintings produced at the imperial atelier are preserved in the albums assembled for Jahangir and his son Shah Jahan. The Muraqqah-e Gulshan is the most spectacular. (Most surviving folios from this album are in the Gulistan Library in Tehran and the Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin; a section is temporarily housed in Tübingen.) There are assembled masterpieces from Iran, curiosities from Europe, works produced in the reign of Akbar, and many of the finest paintings of Jahangir's master painters, all surrounded by the most magnificent borders decorated with a wide variety of floral and geometrical designs. The album gives a fairly complete idea of Jahangir as a patron, collector, and connoisseur of the arts, revealing a person with a wide range of taste and a curious, enquiring mind.
Jahangir esteemed the art of painting and honoured his painters. His favourite was Abu al-Hasan, who was designated Nadir-uz-Zaman ("Wonder of the Age"). Several pictures by the master are known, among them a perceptive study of Jahangir looking at a portrait of his father. Also much admired was Ustad Mansur, designated Nadir-ul-'Asr ("Wonder of the Time"), whose studies of birds and animals are unparalleled. Bishandas was singled out by the emperor as unique in the art of portraiture. Manohar, the son of Basavan, Govardhan, and Daulat are other important painters of this reign.

Mansur,

also called USTAD ("Master") MANSUR (fl. 17th century, India), a leading member of the 17th-century Jahangir studio of Mughal painters, famed for his animal and bird studies. The emperor Jahangir honoured him with the title Nadir-ul-'Asr ("Wonder of the Age"), and in his memoirs Jahangir praises Mansur as "unique in his generation" in the art of drawing. Mansur was primarily a natural history painter who avoided personal expression in his careful studi= es.
Mansur made many studies of natural life under the direct orders of his patron, who was passionately fond of recording the rare specimens that were brought before him. A turkey cock painted about 1612 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) is attributed to Mansur and marks that bird's first appearance in India. Similarly, while on a trip to the Kashmir Valley, Jahangir ordered Mansur to paint as many varieties of local flowers as possible, stating in his memoirs that the number depicted exceeded 100.

voladores, juego de los

(Spanish: "game of the fliers"), ritual dance of Mexico, possibly originating among the pre-Columbian Totonac and Huastec Indians of the region now occupied by Veracruz and Puebla states, where it is still danced. Although the costumes and music show Spanish influence, the dance itself survives almost exactly in its original form. Four or six men (the voladores, or "flyers") dance on a platform atop a pole 60 to 90 feet (18 to 27 m) high; at the end of the dance, they circle downward around the pole as the ropes that fasten them to it unwind. The ancient agricultural fertility significance of the dance has disappeared, but there remains in the number of dancers--four or six--the pre-Christian ritual orientation to the four points of the compass plus the zenith and the nadir.