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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
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The Dog Days of Summer |
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| 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. | ||
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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. |
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Isis & Sirius
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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.
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. |
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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." |
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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. |
| 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. |
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North Star & the Little Dipper
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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 |
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From
Polaris to Vega
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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?
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Space is Eternal in that it does not experience "Time" |
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| 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;
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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. |
| 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 |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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"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, |
 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 |
