Megalithic
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Sky
Map
- Planisphere
Map of the Heavens ca. 3000 B.C.
First-time users, please read the Index Page
thoroughly for understanding.
EXPLANATION
AND USE OF THE SKY MAP
(a
sky map is also called a planisphere of the heavens)
(this
page is best viewed if you maximize your window)
WHAT
DOES THE SKY MAP SHOW?
The
sky map above (based on a viewer located at 30 degrees North
latitude) shows the stars of the heavens,
including
the major stellar constellations, the celestial equator,
the
ecliptic (this is the path of the Sun),
the
constellations on that path (the modern Zodiac),
and
the line of the equinoxes in 3000 BC at the position this line occupied 5000 years ago.
For
comparison, the line of the equinoxes for 2002 AD is also drawn.
This
line has moved due to precession, explained further below.
WHAT
USE DOES THE SKY MAP HAVE?
Much
of the material presented on Megaliths.net can be understood properly
only if the user has access to a good historical sky map (planisphere)
or to an astronomy software program which is capable of calculating the
positions of the Moon, Sun, Stars and Planets backwards into
prehistoric eras. Since not everyone has such sources at hand, the sky
map pictured above provides essential basic information, until a good
historical planisphere or a good astronomy software program is
available.
WHERE
CAN ONE GET A GOOD PLANISPHERE?
The
sky map used here is based on Milton D. Heifetz's
Historical Planisphere
with Precession of the Equinoxes (created with consultation from Owen Gingrich of
Harvard) which
is available from Learning Technologies, Inc., 40 Cameron Avenue,
Somerville, MA, 02144 USA, internet at http://www.starlab.com,
e-mail
at starlab@starlab.com, phone at 800-537-8703, 617-628-1459,
and
fax 617-628-8606. Megaliths.net is not affiliated with this company
in any way. This is a sincere recommendation.
WHERE
CAN ONE GET GOOD BASIC ASTRONOMY SOFTWARE?
There
are several good astronomy software programs available.
You
do not need a telescope for basic astronomy. A PC is enough.
The
best software program for historical astronomy research
available
at an affordable price is Starry Night Pro from Space.com created by people affiliated with NASA.
Starry
Night Pro (but not the less expensive Starry Night Backyard)
calculates
astronomy as far back as 99,999 BC. Starry Night Pro 3.0 calculations
of historical solar eclipses (this is dependent on the value given to Delta-T,
the change in the rate of spin of the Earth over millennia) conform to results derived from the megaliths.
A
very popular astronomy software program is
Red
Shift 4 from Cinegram Media.
Use
of this software program for historical purposes is limited by the fact
that its calculations go back only to 4700 BC. Besides, as far as we
can determine, its Delta-T value is clearly wrong and thus the program
is in our opinion useless for history of astronomy work.
HOW
DOES THE HEIFETZ PLANISPHERE WORK?
The
"Center of heaven" (for an observer in the Northern Hemisphere) -
called the North
Ecliptic Pole
by astronomers - is marked by the small red-circumferenced green
point
in the middle of the sky map above.
The
correspondingly colored large green
circle around
that point is the ECLIPTIC - we could also call this the "path of the
Sun". It is also the path of the Planets and the Moon, although these
circle the Sun in orbits which can diverge somewhat south and north
from the ecliptic. Only when the path of the Moon crosses the ecliptic
can there be solar or lunar eclipses. The ECLIPTIC is fixed and DOES NOT CHANGE.
What has given mankind a great deal of trouble over the millennia is
the CELESTIAL EQUATOR which is marked on the sky map above as a large orange point
with a red-circumferenced orange circle
in its middle.
For
an observer on Earth, the CIRCLE OF THE CELESTIAL EQUATOR, as
opposed
to the ecliptic, DOES appear to move its position over time.
PRECESSION
OF THE SOLSTICES AND THE EQUINOXES
The
celestial equator "rotates" its position because Planet Earth wobbles
around its axis like a spinning top. This axis (a line drawn through
the center of the sphere of the Earth from North to South) revolves
around the small circle marked by a red-dotted-line
in the sky map ONCE every 25920 years - a phenomenon which astronomers
call precession
of the solstices and equinoxes or
simply also precession.
As the red-circumferenced orange
circle in the middle of the drawing rotates counter-clockwise in 25920
years, it marks what we call the Northern Pole Star, which is currently a point near the star Polaris
- marked as a red-circumferenced yellow point
on the red-dotted-line. In 3000 BC, however, the position of
the Northern Pole Star was at the red-circumferenced orange
circle in the middle. The pole star (which is not always marked by a
specific star at all) is always located at the middle of the orange
circle marking the celestial equator, so that this orange
circle "moves" as the pole star position moves. Hence, the points at
which the celestial equator and ecliptic intersect - these points mark
the Equinoxes - thus also move, and the solstices also move
correspondingly.
The
sky map shows the Line of the Equinoxes ca. 3000 BC as well as the Line
of the Equinoxes 2002 AD. One can easily see how far this line has
shifted and how precession thus affects the calendric seasons.
In
3000 BC the Spring Equinox was just to the right of the stars of Orion.
Currently, 5000 years later, the Spring Equinox is approaching Aquarius
(counter-clockwise). This is what the song in the musical "Hair" some
30 years ago was proclaiming as "the Dawn of the Age of Aquarius". In
fact, mankind still has some time to wait before this actually happens.
PRECESSION
AND ANCIENT MAN
Modern
mainstream historians of astronomy think that the ancients were not
familiar with precession - but this view is grossly in error. On the
pages of Megaliths.net we will continue to produce evidence that the
ancients have been quite familiar with this phenomenon for thousands
and thousands of years and that the ancient Norse belief that "the sky
was falling" is based on this knowledge. Indeed, the need to account
for precession (i.e. to correctly predict the seasons and establish a
workable calendar) was clearly one major factor which led to the
serious study of astronomy by ancient man and to the building of the
megalithic sites which we study today.
The Line
of the Equinoxes in ca. 3000 BC shows why the ancients of that period,
for example, regarded the otherwise insignificant constellation of
Serpens Caput to be so important. It was a stellar "mark" directly on
the Equinox Line, halfway between the Equinox point and the Northern
Pole Star. Today, we pay little attention to this constellation.
The Milky Way is prominently marked on the sky map. Ancient man paid
far more attention to the Milky Way than we do today in our
artificially lighted planet, whose man-made lights and pollution are
increasingly blotting out our heavens.
On
a clear desert night, the horn of the Milky Way at Cepheus can still be
seen clearly and only when one actually sees this central position can
one understand the megaliths of e.g. Scotland which mark this
constellation.
The
ancients also paid great attention to the color of individual stars,
also using megaliths of a comparable color to mark a given star.
Especially
the reddish or orange stars were given attention by the skywatchers of
old. Perhaps they regarded these stars to be particularly powerful.
This surely was the case for two of the major "red" stars of the
heavens, Antares and Aldebaran, which are more or less directly across
from each other near the line of the Equinoxes in ca. 3000 BC. The sky
map above thus also shows major stars in their actual heavenly color.
Once one gets the feel for the heavens in this perspective, the
astronomy of the ancients becomes more understandable. It is
recommended that the user obtain astronomy software and the planisphere
listed above.
It
is OUR world, and we have no other, so we ought to know the basics
about this one, both past and present:
Legal
Notice, Terms of Use, Impressum
The
owner and webmaster of Megaliths.net is
Andis
Kaulins
B.A.
University of
Nebraska;
J.D. Stanford
University Law School
Former
Lecturer in Anglo-American Law, FFA,
Trier Law School
Author
at Langenscheidt
Fachverlag,
Germany
Alumnus
Associate of Paul,
Weiss, Rifkind,
Wharton & Garrison, NYC
This
website presents information
only. No other relationship is established to the user.
This page was last updated on March 31, 2008.
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All
materials presented on Megaliths.net are for information only.
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We disclaim any and all liability for the consequences of links to
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Notice of Fair Use of Copyrighted Materials:
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