[Avodah] stars

[Zev Sero]

Eli Turkel wrote:
>> Nor is it relevant what the "average person" was to understand, since
>> the shiur of 3 middling stars was not given to the average person, but
>> to experts in astronomy.  It was for the benefit of the rest of us,
>> who wouldn't know how to classify a star's magnitude if our lives
>> depended on it, that the other shiurim were given.>>
 
> Is there is a source for this? A number of poskim have stated that to
> decide when it is night it is perfectly okay to look at the sky and
> see middling stars. No need to be astronomers just to have
> normal eyesight

IIRC it's explicitly stated in the Baal Hatanya's Seder Hachnasat
Shabbat (which is where he sets out his shita on "shkia hanir'it"
and "shkia ha'amitit", and where he also says that the BY changed
his mind about RT's shita).  There are editions of this essay with
mar'ei mekomot, which I'm sure will show the BH's source.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas