33. Mayan Astronomy Workplace Unearthed

Doomsday predictions that the world will finish on December 21, 2012 in lots of 2012 themed books, and the film 2012, are primarily based on urban myths aboutpurveyors declare that on the 2012 winter solstice the Earth, Solar, and heart of the Milky Approach galaxy will align, inflicting the Solar to eclipse the galactic middle. Moreover, doomsday purveyors claim that tidal forces from this alignment will cause severe disruptive earthquakes to finish the world, and that the same tidal forces appearing on the Sun will trigger severe solar storms devastating Earth. The planets in the solar system may also allegedly align on December 21, 2012.

In about 500 BC astronomers in the Yucatan Peninsula predicted that a outstanding event would happen some 2,500 years of their future. They thought it so significant that they constructed a posh calendar stuffed with cycles inside cycles such that all the cycles would come to an finish (and thus a new starting) at once on that day. That day is December 21, 2012, the solstice, and it’s virtually upon us. If we’ve got not achieved so already, it is time to make preparations. However not in the way many new-age pundits, with their penchant for sensationalism, would have us consider.

Remove the gnomon and use the middle of its place as the middle of a circle. Use string to attract a circle that may undergo the shadows. Discover the shortest shadow and note the time. The shadow at solar midday should be the shortest. If it is winter, this shadow is pointing north. If it is summer, the shadow is pointing south. To mark East and West, connect the top points of equal size shadows.

The Sun Will Not Eclipse the Galactic Heart : The Earth’s rotational axis tilts about 23.5 levels. The December winter solstice occurs when Earth is on the level in its orbit where the southern hemisphere most instantly factors in the direction of the Sun. The Solar is then straight overhead as seen from Earth at 23.5 degrees south latitude, the Tropic of Capricorn. The Sun can not appear additional south in the sky. To measure celestial positions, astronomers venture latitude and longitude into the sky and name them declination and right ascension.

As an inheritor of the Renaissance, Pope Urbanwas intrigued the problem of Galileo’s findings. Since God could act in mysterious ways, even a pontiff should adapt to the greater divine plan. The cardinals from Habsburg Spain tolerated no such deviations from doctrine and demanded the Vatican arrange an inquisition in opposition to the astronomer. For the previous three years, Martin has been a volunteer with Cornell’s “Curious? Ask an Astronomer” service, a Web page founded by astronomy graduate students in 1997. The irony, maybe, is that the upcoming solstice-galaxy alignment was first talked about again in 1969 in Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend’s groundbreaking e book Hamlet’s Mill.

New E-book: Astronomy In The Maya Codices

The constellation we know as Orion has the truth is been identified as this kind of for 1000s of years back again once the Greeks preliminary bestowed the title upon it. In Ancient Greece Orion was one in every of their heroes hovering in the night sky for eternity. The Egyptians noticed this an identical constellation and noticed a figure as nicely. In Egyptian astronomy this was one in all their gods Osiris. This was their god from the afterlife. However, that doesn’t stop individuals and groups from prophesizing the various various methods by which the Earth and humankind will change on December 21. The astronomical connection

Thus, the Milky Way “sits” on the earth, touching it at all points around, opening up the cosmic sky portal. The galactic and solar planes are thus aligned. “Sky portal” is only a term to explain the “opened sky” state of affairs obvious when the Milky Manner rims the horizon. This is not to be confused with the “darkish-rift” itself. Lastly, if a Mayan village was situated at 20 degrees North latitude. What two days would the solar be immediately overhead? How would the Mayan astronomers know that the Solar was directly overhead? Share with college students the significance of nowadays in Mayan culture and astronomy.

Scofield is a cautious man, so cautious that he takes a full seven hours of the lecture to propose that Maya astronomy is a full fledged astrological system. This may must do with his Saturn sitting on his ascendant, and perhaps his twelfth house Most cancers Solar. In any case he lays out his case methodically with few embellishments concerning the mythology of the Maya. With a masters diploma in history, he made connections with cultural development of the Maya to the development of other world peoples.

Eclipses are totally different. They happen when one planet or moon strikes into the shadow of one other planet or moon. The term is most frequently related to solar eclipses, when the moon’s shadow crosses the earth as a result of the moon is between the earth and the solar. For brief moments, the sun is eclipsed by the moon and a shadow is forged upon the earth. A lunar eclipse is totally different. Lunar eclipses happen when the moon passes round behind the earth and the earth casts a shadow. Its shadow gets forged proper onto the moon.

So you see, as a sensible man as soon as stated, everyone is entitled to their very own opinion however not their very own facts. There are not any alignments, no rogue planets, and no prediction by the Maya or by professional scientists that the world will end on December 21, 2012. So end your vacation shopping, and proceed your plans for the brand new yr. You’ll be hearing extra from One-Minute Astronomer in the 14 th baktun of the Mayan calendar. A Venus desk that predicts the occasions when Venus appears as morning star and the other apparitions of the planet.