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A consequence of the
precession is a changing pole star. Currently
Polaris is extremely well-suited to mark the
position of the north celestial pole, as Polaris is a
moderately bright star with a visual
magnitude of 2.1 (variable), and it is located
within a half degree of the pole.
On the other hand,
Thuban in the
constellation
Draco, which was the pole star in
3000 BC, is much less conspicuous at magnitude 3.67
(one-fifth as bright as Polaris); today it is invisible
in light-polluted urban skies.
The brilliant
Vega in the constellation
Lyra is often touted as the best north star (it
fulfilled that role around 12000 BC and will do so again
around the year AD 14000), however it never comes closer
than 5° to the pole.
When Polaris becomes the north star
again around 27800 AD, due to its
proper motion it then will be farther away from the
pole than it is now, while in 23600 BC it came closer to
the pole.
It is more difficult to find the south
celestial pole in the sky at this moment, as that area
is a particularly bland portion of the sky, and the
nominal south pole star is
Sigma Octantis, which with magnitude 5.5 is barely
visible to the naked eye even under ideal conditions.
That will change from the eightieth to the ninetieth
centuries, however, when the south celestial pole
travels through the
False Cross.
This situation also is seen on a star
map. The orientation of the south pole is moving toward
the
Southern Cross constellation. For the last 2,000
years or so, the Southern Cross has nicely pointed to
the south pole. By consequence, the constellation is no
longer visible from subtropical northern latitudes, as
it was in the time of the
ancient Greeks. |
North_Star
A candidate for navigation northward must be viewable
from Earth and
circumpolar to the
north celestial pole. The current one is
Polaris. It is the star at the end of the "handle"
of the Little Dipper
asterism in the constellation
Ursa Minor. |
In 3000 BC the faint star
Thuban in the
constellation
Draco was the North Star. At magnitude 3.67 (fourth
magnitude)
Gamma Cephei
(also known as Alrai, situated at 45 light-years away)
will become closer to the northern celestial pole than
Polaris around 3000 AD, and be at its closest approach
around 4000 AD. The "title" then will pass to
Iota Cephei (ι Cephei, situated 115 light-years
away) some time around 5200 AD. The first magnitude star
Vega (26 light-years away) will then become the
North Star by 14000 AD.
Currently, there is no
South Star as useful as Polaris; the faint star
σ Octantis is closest to the south celestial pole.
However, the constellation
Crux, the Southern Cross, points towards the south
pole. |
History of astronomical interferometry
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History of astrology |
Archaeoastronomy |
Star_of_Bethlehem |
The eye of
Taurus, or "the Bull's eye" is a very bright
red star named
Aldebaran,
The name Aldebaran comes from the
Arabic (الدبران al-dabarān) meaning
"the follower" and refers to the way the star follows
the
Pleiades
star cluster in its nightly journey across the sky.
In
Persia it was known as
Satvis and Kugard.[1]
It is known as 畢宿五 (Bìxiùwŭ, the Fifth
Star of the Net) in Chinese. Aldebaran is identified as
the
lunar mansion
Rohini in Hindu astronomy and as one of the
twenty-seven daughters of
Daksha and the wife of the god
Chandra.
Aldebaran is
about 38 times the diameter of the
Sun. The
Hipparcos satellite has measured it as 65.1
light years away, and it shines with 150 times the
Sun's luminosity. With an
apparent magnitude of 0.87, it is the
14th brightest star |
Aldebaran
and another star,
Antares,
in the
constellation
Scorpius lies almost exactly opposite it in
the sky, forming an almost perfect line, or axis through
the heavens.
Spica, and
Regulus are the other two bright stars noted for
their helpful nearness to the
ecliptic which gives us the zodiac. |
Immanuel
Velikovsky [ 1895 - 1979] is best known as the
author of a number of controversial books reinterpreting
the events of ancient history, in particular the US
bestseller
Worlds in Collision, published in 1950.
His books use
comparative mythology and ancient literary sources
(including the
Bible) to argue that Earth has suffered
catastrophic close-contacts with other planets
(principally Venus and Mars) in ancient times.
Velikovsky argued that electromagnetic effects play an
important role in celestial mechanics. He also proposed
a
revised chronology for
ancient Egypt,
Greece,
Israel and other cultures of the ancient
Near East. The revised chronology aimed at
explaining the so-called "dark
age" of the eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1100-750 BCE)
and reconciling biblical history with mainstream
archeology and
Egyptian chronology |
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We are all attracted to the
brightest stars. It is in our DNA. This has always been the
case. For
as long as we know, navigators have known how to determine their
latitude — their position north or south of the equator. At
the North Pole, which is 90 degrees latitude, Polaris (the North
Star) is directly overhead at an altitude of 90 degrees. At the
equator, which is zero degrees latitude, Polaris is on the
horizon with zero degrees altitude.
In ancient times, the
navigator who was planning to sail out of sight of land would
simply measure the altitude of Polaris as he left homeport, in
today’s terms measuring the latitude of home port. To return
after a long voyage, he needed only to sail north or south, as
appropriate, to bring Polaris to the altitude of home port, then
turn left or right as as appropriate and "sail down the
latitude," keeping Polaris at a constant angle.
Pole stars are often used in
celestial navigation. While other stars' positions change
throughout the night, the pole stars' position in the sky
essentially do not. Therefore, they are a dependable indicator
of the direction toward its respective pole. Due to the
precession of the equinoxes the direction of the Earth's axis is
very slowly but constantly changing, and as the projection of
the Earth's axis moves around the celestial sphere over the
millennia, the role of North Star passes from one star to
another. Since the precession of the equinoxes is so slow, a
single star typically holds that title for many centuries.
Sirius the dog star
 |
The Dog Days of
Summer |
The brightest of all the fixed
stars is Sirius. Known to astronomers as Alpha Canis
Major, it is the principal star of the constellation
Canis Major (the Big Dog). The ancient Egyptians called
it Septit, the Hebrews knew it as Sihor, to the Greeks
as Sothis and also as the "the Dog Star" that followed
Orion the Hunter. Sirius has a magnitude of -1.42, which
makes it nine times more brilliant than a standard first
magnitude star. |
If you go back on time to look at
the sky at the time of the first helical rising at the
Dog star that was at 4323 BC you'll find out that it
was, the end age of Gemini and the beginning of age of
Taurus. |

The well-regulated
equilateral triangle is formed from Betelgeuse in Orion,
Sirius in Canis Major, and Procyon in Canis Minor is
called the Great Winter Triange and can be easily
detected in urban areas. However, the constellation of Monoceros, the Unicorn,
within the
Triangle is often overlooked.
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In ancient times during
the height of the summer from the 3rd of July to the
11th of August, Sirius rose into the sky at the same
time as the sun. People thought the days were made
hotter by Sirius, the Dog Star, that it's brightness
added to the Sun's energy, producing the additional
warmth. Hence the title "the dog days of summer".
While the ancient
Egyptians built sundials to keep track of daylight
hours, during the night they measured the movement of
the stars across certain portions of the sky. |
Isis & Sirius
 |
They associated their
goddess Isis, "the lady of all the elements, the
beginning of all time" with the brightest star in the
night sky, Sirius.
"Your sister Isis comes to you rejoicing for
love of you. You have placed her on your phallus
and your seed issues in her, she being ready as
Sirius, and Horus Sopd (a star) has come forth
from you as Horus who is in Sirius…"
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[Pyr.
Text line 632] |
They built temples facing
the point on the eastern horizon where Sirius first
appeared before sunrise. Ancient Egyptian astronomers,
tracking Sirius for their calendar, started a new year
at the first new moon following the appearance of Sirius
and all awaited the annual floods that irrigated the
land. |
New
Year's Day, which occurred on or near summer solstice,
was heralded by Sirius, brightest star in the sky and
great benefactor of Egypt, rising before the Sun. This
momentous event "opened the year," announcing the annual
inundation of Egypt as the life-giving waters of the
Nile flood, gift of Isis, returned renew the parched
valley after the season of dryness. New Moon festivals
were also significant at this time.
Throughout the ancient Egyptian civilisation the
celebration of the birth of the divine child, Horus,
from the womb of the goddess Isis was commemorated at
the opening of the New Year when the star Sirius rose
heliacally at dawn. But because of the effect of
precession, the event shifted along the calendar at
approximately the rate of 8.5 days every 1000 years.
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Sothic (Sirius)
Cycle
Each year the sun returns
to the same place in the sky a quarter of a day later.
We employ a leap year, adding a day every fourth year to
adjust. The ancient Egyptians used two cycles: a "vague"
civil year of 365 days, and a "fixed" sacred year,
marked by the return of Sirius to the same place in the
sky, in exactly 365 1/4 days.
"The Egyptians celebrated the Dog Star's rising with the
Sun as the beginning of the year, for it coincided with
the annual flooding and refertilization of the Nile
River." |
Orion the Giant Hunter or Warrior, he
was a giant so tall that he could wade through any sea,
His first marriage ended when the boastfulness of his
first wife got her banished to the underworld. He was
blinded by a jealous father when he fell in love with a
Greek princess, but regained his sight when an oracle
told him to look into the sun at dawn. When he saw
Aurora the goddess of dawn, they fell in love. All was
well until Orion was stung by a Scorpion, he fell sick
and died. In order to honor him and protect him from his
enemy he rises in the east as his enemy, the Scorpion
sets in the West. Orion is never seen at the same time
as the Scorpion.
Orion was used to predict the seasons,
a midnight rising of Orion meant that the grapes were
ready to harvest, a morning rising meant that Summer was
beginning, and an evening rising that winter is here.
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During the construction of the Great Pyramid the
"North Star" of the period was α-Draconis,
also known as Thuban, though it was 2° away from true
North at the time of Khufu. However, rather than the use
of one star, Spence proposes that two circumpolar stars
were used, and that an imaginary chord was drawn between
the two as they rotated about celestial North. When the
two stars are vertically aligned, an alignment with the
stars of a plumb-line will be exactly oriented to true
North. Then, because of precession, this method will
become increasingly inaccurate with time. |
North Star & the Little Dipper
 |

Ursa Minor or the Little Dipper
Constellation points to the North Star although this will change
after some centuries due to the precession of the equinoxes. It
was one of the 48 listed by Ptolemy [83 – 161 AD]. and is called
the Little Dipper because its seven brightest stars seem to form
a ladle, or dipper shape. The four stars in the "bowl" of the
little dipper are unusual in that they are of second, third,
fourth and fifth magnitude. Hence they provide an easy guide to
determining what magnitude stars are visible, useful for city
dwellers or testing your eyesight.
The handle of the Dipper is the
Little Bear's tail and the Dipper's cup is the Bear's flank. The
Little Dipper is not a constellation itself, but an asterism,
which is a distinctive group of stars. Another famous asterism
is the Big Dipper in the constellation Ursa Major.
To many ancient cultures Ursa
Minor was the Hole in which the earth's axle found its bearing.
The star at the end of the
dipper handle is Polaris, the North Star. Polaris can also be
found by following a line through the two stars which form the
end of the "bowl" of the Big Dipper, a nearby asterism found in
the constellation Ursa Major.
Because the Earth's axis
is
precessing , Polaris is only
temporarily at the North Pole. In about 13,000 years, Vega will
be the North Star and another 13,000 years after that, it will
be Polaris again. Precession is caused by the the gravitational
attraction of the Sun and the Moon. It only happens because the
Earth is not quite spherical.
Ursa Major extends its influence over
a period of time that spans parts of the Piscean Age and as well
as the Aquarian Age. Some might say the constellation Ursa
Minor is ushering in the zodiacal Age of Aquarius.
The North Celestial Pole had great significance
to the ancient navigators and astronomers who measured heavenly
motions. Knowing the motions of the heavens could determine
whether a sailor could get back to home port or not.
Phoenician sailors used the North Star Polaris for
celestial navigation giving Ursa Minor importance as
the box-like body and tail of the smaller bear pointed to the
North Star.The North star (pole star)
also changes with the precession of the equinoxes. The North
star was Thuban (Alpha Draconis) when the Great Pyramid was
constructed to align with true North. The descending passage of
the Great Pyramid points to Thuban, the most accurately aligned
pole star of all the North stars in the 25,800-year cycle of our
Earth.
The ancient Persians called Polaris the
"turning point star" 5,000 years before it became our current
pole star between the sixth and seventh ages.
The Christian saint Jerome called the Virgin
Mary by the title of Stella Maris which means: 'The star of the
sea', referring to the starring role that Polaris has for
sailors. Polaris has always been a symbol of virtue and chaste
women because it is the most constant and faithful star in the
sky.
Big Dipper & Little Dipper by Keith
Snyder

former Webelows and
Tenderfoots Boy Scout Cosmology Instructor
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the Big Dipper |
the Big Dipper. This grouping of
stars is one of the few things that has likely been seen, and
will be seen, by every generation. The Big Dipper is not by
itself a constellation. Although part of the constellation of
the Great Bear (Ursa Major) |
The Big Dipper @NASA by Jerry
Lodriguss (Catching the Light) & astropix.com |
From
Polaris to Vega
 |
The axis of the earth is slowly moving from pointing
towards Polaris to pointing in the direction of another
star: the star, Vega . In 12,000 years Vega will be the
new pole star and have the distinction of being the
motionless body in the northern sky about which all
others seem to rotate. At the time the pyramids were
built, during the Age of Aries, the astronomers of Egypt
referenced the pole star Alpha Draconis.
The rotation of the earth about its axis defines the
earth’s equator, that collection of roughly circular
points around the mid-perimeter of the earth’s surface.
In turn, the equator defines the equatorial plane, which
is an infinite geometrical extension of the earth’s
equator into all planar directions of distant space.
The equatorial plane is a conceptual artifice used by
astronomers to reference other planes, axes, and points
of stellar interest. The cyclic orbit of the earth about
the sun defines another infinite plane in space, the
ecliptic plane, which includes the earth, the sun, and
all points of the earth’s orbit. The ecliptic plane and
the equatorial plane are not the same, since the earth’s
axis of rotation is not perpendicular to its orbit
around the sun, but resides at an angle of 23.5 degrees
The ecliptic plane is also home to most of the other
planetary bodies of our solar system. Our earth, moon
and the planets all make their journey around the sun in
roughly the same plane. Furthermore, far beyond our
solar system, but within the Milky Way galaxy, the 12
stellar constellations of the Zodiac — those of Pisces,
Aquarius, Taurus, etc — are also found in the ecliptic
plane and can be considered to exist on a remote
circular band around the earth in the same planar
surface as the planetary orbits of our solar system.
Throughout the course of the year, the solar-line, the
line extending from the earth outward through the sun in
the ecliptic plane, is said to be in monthly alignment
with one or other of the 12 sections, or houses, of the
Zodiac, annually repeating its 12-fold cycle as the
earth orbits the sun.
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Is the Big Bang dead?
 |
Space
is Eternal in that it does not experience "Time" |
Currently,
Cosmology is obscured by an incorrect belief in the ‘Big
Bang’ - that the universe is expanding, and thus had a
beginning at some time in the past. As we shall explain,
this is not correct, for the simple reason that the
observed ‘Hubble’ redshift with distance is NOT caused
by a Doppler shift due to receding Motion / expanding
Universe, but rather, is caused by diminishing Wave
Motion interactions with distance.
Wave Structure of Matter explains that Time is Caused by
wave Motion, thus only Matter in Space, as the Spherical
Wave Motion of Space, experiences Time. Space is Eternal
(does not experience Time) thus it cannot be ‘created’.)
Again, both ancient Indian and Greek
Philosophy correctly realised that something is never
created from nothing ‘ex nihilo’, thus
something has eternally existed;
Without
beginning or end (through eternity) this world
has continued to exist as such. There is nothing
here to be questioned. In no place or time was
this world ever observed otherwise by anybody in
the past, nor will it be, in the future. ---Madhva,
1250AD
Alternatively,
suppose we were to accept the mythical genesis
of the world from night or the natural
philosophers' claim that 'all things were
originally together.' We are still left with the
same impossible consequence. How is everything
to be set in motion, unless there is actually to
be some cause of movement? Matter is not going
to set itself in motion - its movement depends
on a motive cause.
---Aristotle, 340BC |
Cosmology @SpaceAndMotion.com
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Egypt had defined a civil year
as thirty six ten day periods and one five day period
known as the epagomenal days when the children of Nut
the stars above the heavens and Geb arth below the
heavens under the cosmic sea were born. |
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Canis Minor - the Little Dog
consists of only two stars - bright Procyon and a fainter one
which means someone wanted the Big Dog to have company. |
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Polaris is our North Star now and for
another 2000 years. In ancient Egyptian times, 4,800 years ago,
the star Thuban in Draco was the north star. |
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Plasma
Cosmology |
The emerging Plasma Universe paradigm, allows us
to imagine many profound implications.
Mainstream science, for the most part, looks on the universe as
electrically neutral and purely mechanical; a place where the
weak force of gravity holds fort. Plasma Cosmology, by contrast,
acknowledges the electrodynamic nature of the universe. Gravity
and inertia are NOT the only forces at work.
The
history of science, of course, is fraught with controversy, and
it is important to bear in mind that the situation today is
little different.
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The
earth's axis is tilted by 23½ degrees, which gives us two north
poles, True North and Magnetic North. |
Polaris Growing Brighter |
Recent research
reported in Science suggests that Polaris is 2.5 times brighter
today than when Ptolemy observed it (now 2mag, antiquity 3mag).
The astronomer Edward Guinan considers this to be a remarkable
rate of change and is on record as saying that "If the y are
real, these changes are 100 times larger than [those] predicted
by current theories of stellar evolution." |
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Pleiades |
7 sisters in Taurus the bull |
If you look out to the east when
the sky is dark during the fall months, you will see one of the
most famous and beautiful star groupings in the sky. It looks
like a small faint question mark, made up of stars. This star
grouping, or cluster, is the Pleiades (pronounced PLEE-uh-deez),
or Seven Sisters. The Pleiades are located within the
constellation Taurus, the Bull, and represent the bullís
shoulder.
In Greek mythology, Taurus represented the king of the gods,
Zeus, who disguised himself as a white bull with golden horns to
attract the beautiful maiden, Europa. When Europa seated herself
on the bullís back, he swam away with her to Crete, which is why
we see only the animalís head and forequarters in the
constellation. |
"Frequently consider the
connection of all things in the Universe. ... Reflect upon the
multitude of bodily and mental events taking place in the same
brief time, simultaneously in every one of us and so you will
not be surprised that many more events, or rather all things
that come to pass, exist simultaneously in the one and entire
unity, which we call the Universe. ... We should not say ‘I am
an Athenian’ or ‘I am a Roman’ but ‘I am a Citizen of the
Universe'. "
---Marcus Aurelius, 170AD |
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Orion's Belt |
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Christian mythologist,
Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote:
"There is the legend
of the 'Three Kings of the Orient' who came on Christmas to
adorn the new-born God… from days of old the Three Kings were
the three conspicuous stars in the belt of Orion… that so easily
distinguishes this notable constellation… and their title was
for long the Three Kings of Orion… They point almost in a direct
line to the following…Sirius (which) was made in the type of
Christ-soul in mankind. (Sirius) is preceded by the Three Kings
who anticipate its coming (rising)…"
Kuhn then proceeds to
give a variant of the popular Christmas carol:
"We three kings of
Orion are,
bearing gifts we traverse afar,
fields and fountains, moors and mountains,
following yonder star…" |

Sirius @ astro. wisc.edu Sirius is the brightest
star in the sky, after the Sun. Take a look at the list
of the
Brightest Stars
Canis Major is one of
Orion's hunting dogs. and holds Sirius often
called the Dog Star. |
Plato's teachings have remained
something of an enigma, cited as an influential force by both
mystics and atheists alike |
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