Sky Map at Megaliths.Net 3000 B.C.

Sky Map - Planisphere
Map of the Heavens ca. 3000 B.C.

Sky Map

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:

The ISandIS Network