Min’s Observing and Predicting Planetary Orbits

Min’s Observing and Predicting Planetary Orbits...

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NOTE: half a decade ago, I first wrote and posted this

article describing how ancient astronomers watched and

predicted the planetary orbits with admirable accuracy,

i.e. namely, the naked-eye visible planets in sidereal

order: 1) The Moon; 2) Mercury; 3) Venus; 4) The Sun;

5) Mars; 6) Jupiter; 7) Saturn, and 8) Uranus, to wit

all against the background of naked-eye visible stars. :)

I’ve updated links, added several highlights, but apart

from that the article is verbatim. Given the climate of

anger and resentment on the part of the badly-educated

Atheists and other weak-minded worldly fundamentalists,

seeing their draconian Atheist monopoly over America’s

public schools and government facing global extinction,

and their bogus “Copernican Revolution” down the tubes,

I’ve posted this again for the astute reader’s benefit.

In Vigilance,

Daniel Joseph Min

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OBSERVING AND PREDICTING PLANETARY ORBITS

--by Daniel Joseph Min

(last update January 11, 2008)

ANY MODERN ASTRONOMY program will work for this lesson.

I recommend using the freeware Astrolog 5.41G with the

freeware JPL-DE406 Swiss Ephemeris, Carte du Ciel 2.76

which is also freeware, and includes links to download

dozens of freeware catalogues and other plugin options,

and check out the SkyMap 11 demo version on these URLs:

http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/download.html

http://www.skymap.com/smp_eval.htm

http://astrolog.offline.ee/astrolog/

http://www.astro.com/swisseph/

http://www.astro.com/swisseph/swisseph.htm

ftp://ftp.astro.ch/pub/swisseph/ephe/

http://www.astro.com/cgi/aq.cgi

This is very basic, and will show you how every planet

visible to the naked eye, which includes the Sun, Moon,

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, & Uranus,

this will show you how these planets move as seen from

the Earth in conspicuously repetitious and predictable

patterns which are easily counted by days, months, and

years between repeating sidereal and synodic multiples.

This absolutely destroys any and all arguments against

the ancients being perfectly able to see the motion of

the planets against the night sky and counting by days,

months and years to predict sidereal & synodic periods

for each planet at least out to Saturn and possibly to

Uranus, since it rarely can be seen with the naked eye.

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This is a BIG deal because Atheist-academia has closed

their eyes to timeless science and its reproducibility.

This clearly transcends simple astronomy, but includes

astrology, metaphysics, and all spiritual implications.

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Limit your program to what is visible to the naked eye.

No guesswork & no speculation. Your astronomy software

reliably emulates what we’d see when viewing the night

sky in that direction, at that time from that location,

conveniently, efficiently and with impressive accuracy.

Of course, the view is better through a good telescope,

or through the unaided, human eye, since it is assumed

that ancients didn’t have other means to see the stars.

That’s a humongous ad hoc assumption, but I’m granting

modern-day atheistic science that much and I still win.

Accurate positions of planets and stars is all we need

for this lesson. Your favorite software will work fine.

No telescope needed. We can see this all with our eyes,

so reduce your software’s star magnitude limit to five,

and assume Uranus, Neptune and Pluto to be nonexistent

(not as Gods, but to pacify the badly-educated Atheist).

For this lesson, we’re concerned only with heliacal ri-

sings of each planet separately, which depends only on

sufficient angle between that planet and the Sun so it

can be spotted against background stars before sunrise.

The Sun must be about 18 degrees below the horizon for

full darkness and a little less for heliacal phenomena.

This angle varies with each planet, and each star, and

time of year, temperature, pressure, how good your eye-

sight is, the geographical latitude of observation and

local horizon, obstructions and circumstances of light

pollution, smog, haze from forest fires, volcanos, etc.

While these conditions can vary to extremes, generally,

provided reasonably good seeing conditions towards the

eastern horizon about an hour or so before sunrise, as

you look to the east (from moderate latitudes) you can

barely make out a planet that you expect to see rising

heliacally on or about that date. If you miss it, then

try again in a couple of days and you’re bound to spot

the planet you’re looking for if it’s Mars, Jupiter or

Saturn; or plan ahead and begin looking sooner if it’s

Mercury whose orbit you can see is eccentric. You know

that each planet has predictable orbital patterns, and

although these patterns vary over the short-term, over

the long-term they become more and more predictable to

fractions of a degree in sidereal longitude & latitude.

That’s how you know that Venus is the most predictable,

since Venus has the least eccentric orbit. We see this

behavior of Venus through heliacal risings or settings,

especially at maximum elongations inferior or superior.

If getting up at four in the morning is not your style,

simply open your astronomy program and set it for your

geographical location and voilla! You’re ready to view

the heliacal risings of every planet against the stars.

In the next part we focus on Saturn’s heliacal risings.

Open your favorite astronomy program. As always, I use

Astrolog, so all examples given refer to JPL ephemeris

DE-406 with Abramov’s expanded version of fixstars.ast

provided by S. Moshier using the Astronomical Almanach.

All data is accurate to within several milliarcseconds,

which is vastly better accuracy than the plus or minus

half a degree or thirty arcminutes we can achieve with

an extended pinky finger at arm’s length measuring one

arcdegree...twice the apparent diameter of a full Moon.

Three closed middle fingers spans five degrees, or the

whole hand equals about ten degrees. You can calibrate

simple hand measurements by memorizing bright “marking”

stars near the ecliptic by their approximate longitude

on the caelestial zodiac. The constellations and their

associated myths help us to easily locate and identify

stars as we become familiar with their appearances and

their order in the sky. This is where Carte du Ciel or

SkyMap comes in handy, since they depict the stars and

planets graphically, and include millions more objects

and dozens of unabridged catalogues for the astronomer.

However, only Astrolog can chart the marking stars and

planets by their zodiacal, constellational coordinates

as used by ancient stargazers for tracking the planets.

The complete list of almost 1000 stars is posted on my

website, but here’s an abbreviated list for convenient

reference with the values rounded off to whole degrees

and favoring brighter stars in the northern hemisphere.

Remember the goal is not to memorize every star but is

to estimate a planet’s position at its heliacal rising,

setting, opposition and other repeating synodic phases

against the fixed background of this caelestial sphere:

Name Longit. Lat. Bayer

Al Pherg : 2 Ari + 5 etPsc

Sheratan : 9 Ari + 8 beAri

Caph : 10 Ari +51 beCas

Hamal : 13 Ari +10 alAri

Shedir : 13 Ari +47 alCas

Cih : 19 Ari +49 gaCas

Ruchbah : 23 Ari +46 deCas

Segin : 0 Tau +48 epCas

Algol : 1 Tau +22 bePer

Alcyone : 5 Tau + 4 etTau

Mirphak : 7 Tau +30 alPer

Aldebaran : 15 Tau - 5 alTau <Prime Fiducial

Rigel : 22 Tau -31 beOri

Bellatrix : 26 Tau -17 gaOri

Capella : 27 Tau +23 alAur

--------------------------------

Mintaka : 28 Tau -23 deOri

Alnilam : 29 Tau -25 epOri

*Alnitak : 0 Gem -25 zeOri <Great Pyramid star

--------------------------------

Saiph : 2 Gem -33 kaOri

Polaris : 4 Gem +66 alUMi

Betelgeuse: 4 Gem -16 alOri

Menkalinan: 5 Gem +21 beAur

Alhena : 14 Gem - 7 gaGem

Sirius : 19 Gem -40 alCMa

Castor : 25 Gem +10 alGem

Pollux : 28 Gem + 7 beGem

Procyon : 1 Can -16 alCMi

Asellus Au: 14 Can + 0 deCnc

Kochab : 19 Can +73 beUMi

Dubhe : 20 Can +50 alUMa

Subra : 29 Can - 4 omiLeo

Alphard : 2 Leo -22 alHya

Algieba : 5 Leo + 9 ga1Leo

Regulus : 5 Leo + 0 alLeo

Thuban : 13 Leo +66 alDra

Dhur : 17 Leo +14 deLeo

Denebola : 27 Leo +12 beLeo

Vindemiatr: 15 Vir +16 epVir

Spica : 29 Vir - 2 alVir

Arcturus : 29 Vir +31 alBoo

Menkent : 18 Lib -22 thCen

Zubenelgen: 20 Lib + 0 al2Lib

Dschubba : 8 Sco - 2 deSco

Antares : 15 Sco - 5 alSco

Rastaban : 17 Sco +75 beDra

: 21 Sco -12 epSco

Sabik : 23 Sco + 7 etOph

Rasalhague: 28 Sco +36 alOph

Sargas : 1 Sag -20 thSco

Gal.Center: 2 Sag - 6 SgrA*

Gal.BaryCe: 2 Sag - 6 /sgrab <cf. local std. of rest

Eltanin : 3 Sag +75 gaDra

Sacred Tre: 5 Sag + 0 -----

Solar Apex: 7 Sag +53 HerA*

Kaus Austr: 10 Sag -11 epSgr

Nunki : 18 Sag - 3 siSgr

Vega : 21 Sag +62 alLyr

Altair : 7 Cap +29 alAql

Dabih : 9 Cap + 5 beCap

Sadr : 0 Aqu +57 gaCyg

Enif : 7 Aqu +22 epPeg

Fomalhaut : 9 Aqu -21 alPsA

Deneb : 11 Aqu +60 alCyg

Markab : 29 Aqu +19 alPeg

Scheat : 5 Pis +31 bePeg

Algenib : 14 Pis +13 gaPeg

Alpheratz : 20 Pis +26 alAnd

Since we’re beginning with Saturn, set restrictions in

Astrolog to restrict all then uncheck only the Sun and

Saturn. Set the date & time to December 31, 2003 12 AM,

and you’ll see Saturn at opposition in 15 Gemini. This

is just one “pinky finger” in longitude from Alhena at

14 Gemini. With the Sun in 15 Sagittarius, then Saturn

will be at southing about midnight LAT January 1, 2004.

From this, we can estimate Saturn’s next opposition by

adding 378 days, which is January 13, 2005. But Saturn

is a little slow in getting there, reaching opposition

the next day January 14, in 29 Gemini. The oppositions,

which we’ll skip for Jupiter and Mars, prove to us the

planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, are orbiting the Sun

beyond Earth’s orbit, and these orbits are predictable,

especially over long-term observations. As with Saturn,

by adding 3781 days to its synodic phase, we arrive at

Saturn’s tenth opposition counting from January 1 2004,

which is May 9, 2014, again missing exactitude by only

one or two days, due to Saturn’s moderate eccentricity

and about 2.5 degrees inclination to the ecliptic. For

long-term predictions, the ancient Babylonians noticed

that 9 sidereal orbits of Saturn coincided with around

256 synodic periods and 265 tropical years speaking in

round numbers. Add 265 years to January 1, 2004 and we

have January 1, 2269. Sure enough, there’s Saturn near

opposition in 14 Gemini directly above Alhena and just

two days from true opposition January 3, 2269, showing

that the Babylonians knew what they were talking about

two thousand years before Christ. It’s no mystery, but

is readily observable, predictable and reproducible in

the laboratory of the night sky, like heliacal risings.

The predawn risings of the stars and planets have been

carefully watched and predicted since men could mark a

cave wall with a piece of coal, blood or whatever else

was handy. Primitive stone observatories emerged which

had much greater longevity, and showed the teamwork of

prehistoric stargazers, and the importance they placed

on the ephemeris of the Sun, Moon & Stars to the Earth.

Even the great book of Genesis begins with the planets

of creation, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus

[Gen 1:1-31], then the rest from creation Saturn [Gen

2:1-4, ibid], the importance of the planets paramount.

Naturally, the Sun is the single most important object

visible in the Earth’s sky. Man has watched the Sun as

it rises and sets every day since humankind has walked

the Earth. All life forms follow the diurnal circadian

rhythm of Earth’s daily rotation in one way or another.

Hence the Sun formed the fundamental basis of tracking

time from the beginning of every civilization that has

come and gone, from primitive tribes of early hominids

to more advanced human cultures, most of which are too

distant in the past for their records to have survived.

More recently, the Egyptians, Babylonians, Mayans, and

others around the post-deluvian world are close enough

in time for many of their records to be extant, mostly

bits and pieces, some fairly intact, like the pyramids.

In man’s darkest age, Atheist-religious archaeologists

prefer to believe that civilization is basically under

7000 years old worldwide, due to their historical ties

to the Roman church, and continued use of the language

in their laws and their sciences. Although the Vulgate

is the most accurate translation of the bible (the LXX

for the Old Testament is likewise incomparably erudite),

it’s the politics of religion, primarily ego and greed,

love of money, self-aggrandizement, and mammon-worship,

which has ever been the root of all evil--and all lies!

After all the bible predicted this would happen, so it

isn’t surprising that the schism of Atheistic-apostasy

should continue to rule the minds of men. Yet the Moon

& Stars have continued to illuminate the night sky for

geological aeons and shall continue to do so for aeons.

So it is that Saturn has been rising and setting helia-

cally in very predictable intervals and shall continue

to do so for many long ages to come. Since the initial

date and time for observation of Saturn before sunrise

will vary, we know the Sun needs to be some 18 degrees

below the horizon to ensure visibility of any brighter

star or planet from moderate latitude any time of year,

weather permitting. But in fixed locations, i.e. where

ancient and antediluvian population centers flourished,

the heliacal risings of stars and planets were readily

estimated to within a few days time and by the seasons

of the year, tied directly to planting, harvesting and

every single aspect of their lives. Thus astrology was

the natural result of watching and predicting when the

stars and planets would rise and set, by knowing where

the planets are day and night. This knowledge was made

by simple observation, counting days, months and years

between cycles and phases. When Saturn rose heliacally,

it was always about 378 days give or take a day or two

since the last time it was observed to rise heliacally.

With each consecutive heliacal rising of Saturn, fixed

stars in the background showed that Saturn moves about

13 degrees in keeping with the Sun’s progress relative

to the stars some 13 days later each year--again, give

or take a day or two, talking about long-term averages

rounded off to integer days since the whole premise is

to show that ancient stargazers could and did see that

the planets clearly orbit the Sun, and that they could

readily observe and recognize the sidereal and synodic

orbits by watching the heliacal risings of planets and

stars. The accuracy of the ancient ephemeris increased

commensurate with continued calibration by observation

of heliacal phenomena over the centuries and millennia

of that civilization from its rise until its fall. The

quality of long-lost very ancient ephemeredes is known

by mans inherent ability as a man to see the night sky

and to notice patterns and repetition in nature. These

are perfectly natural talents that all people are born

with--at least most people are. Once again, this comes

down to how much credit we give prehistoric man. There

are anthropologists who have recognized that early man

was smarter than modern day, Atheist-religious science

had theretofore acknowledged. Likewise the recognition

that at least semi-intelligent hominids have been here

many millions of years earlier than the orthodoxy used

to believe albeit some still cling to their hopelessly

obsolete superstitions about the antiquity of man, etc,

it is clear that man and man-like sentient beings have

roamed the Earth for aeons. One might reasonably argue

that dolphins or whales are smart enough to notice the

planets and stars rising and setting, and to count the

days and years of these events. Elephants are known to

remember things very well. At a minimum, we can safely

say that early man was intelligent enough to count the

days, months or years of observable heliacal phenomena

and we see that such observable events are predictable,

simply counting these events by days, months and years.

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I think this is what makes Atheist astronomers angry at

those of us who have realized that planetary motion is

not nearly as mysterious as they’d like you to believe.

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The Egyptians, Babylonians and Mayans showed admirable

levels of sophistication in their astronomical records

and their ability to predict very long-term periodical

events, the great year of precession being among these,

since the Earth’s axis of rotation visibly gyrates one

degree against the fixed stars about every 26000 solar

days, which is about 71 tropical years, two months and

nine days, therearound. This is according to the Mayan

astronomers, whose astronomical skills were comparable

to those of the Babylonians. Both left records proving

that they could see the night sky, and that they could

accurately count and predict periodic planetary orbits

against the starry background of the caelestial sphere.

As in this case, we *see* Saturn observably progresses

about twelve degrees every year against the stars seen

from Earth. Every twenty-nine and a half years, Saturn

goes full circle against the stars, and over centuries

of observation we see that Saturn circles the Sun nine

times every two hundred sixty-five years--meaning that

Saturn advances closer to twelve and a quarter degrees

longitude per year thereby making short-term estimates

of Saturn’s motion a little more accurate and reliable

than our round number of twelve degrees per year. Thus

we may safely predict that Saturn will have moved east

by closer to forty-nine degrees every four years, plus

our ephemeris for Saturn has improved significantly by

repeated observation and simple mathematical deduction.

We’ll notice Saturn’s thirteen degree advance at times

of entering or leaving retrograde motion and that this

retrograde lasts for about one hundred thirty-eight or

so days centered on inferior conjunction or opposition

to the Sun. Every three hundred seventy-eight days, we

see these motions repeat, when Saturn appears to stand

still in the sky then begin to move backwards for some

four and a half months before standing still again and

returning to normal motion. Every time we see it again,

about 378 days have passed and Saturn is approximately

13 sidereal degrees from where it was last time around.

Carte du Ciel is especially useful for animating these

apparent synodic motions against the background of the

stars, since you can fine-tune increments down to days,

hours and minutes, and mark the locations with “finder

circles” to readily observe a planet’s motion relative

to the stars & constellation figures, and to the other

planets. Although the accuracy of the ephemeris is not

very reliable beyond plus or minus four thousand years,

especially for the Moon, you can view distant dates to

circa 20,000 years BC / AD. While tropical seasons can

be way off the mark the apparent motion of a planet to

the stars may not be far off the mark for say, 9000 BC.

You just won’t know the season, or the Moon’s position

at such a distant date, but other planets are probably

within a couple of degrees of where they actually were.

Not that this matters much, since you are simply using

the present-day ephemeris to view synodic and sidereal

motion of the planets which is visible and predictable.

For example, most of us’ll probably be up and about at

midnight January 1, 2004. If your skies are clear, you

should remember to walk outside for a moment and check

out Saturn in 15 Gemini--just above and east of Alhena,

and right below Mebsuta which marks sidereal 15 Gemini

just 2 degrees above the ecliptic. Your extended thumb

at arm’s length spans about two arcdegrees thus you’ll

see that Saturn is maybe a pinky fingernail’s width or

so (about 2/3’s of a degree) below the ecliptic at the

time of observation. Since Asellus Australis (see list

above) marks 14 Cancer right on the ecliptic (actually

+0:04’38” but round degrees are all a stargazer needs),

and bright Regulus at 5 Leo is less than half a degree

above the ecliptic, you can quickly visualize the line,

rather the arc of the ecliptic across the sky. Jupiter

at 24 Leo and about a degree above the ecliptic should

be visible in the eastern sky. Sirius at 19 Gem and 40

degrees below the ecliptic will be hard to miss in the

southern sky (unless you live north of Barrow, Alaska).

If you live in the southern US or similar latitude you

might spot bright Canopus at 20 Gem -76 degrees barely

above the south horizon. Orion should be in clear view

below right of Saturn. See if you can spot Al-debaranu,

the prime fiducial of the caelestial zodiac at 15Tau00

and 5 degrees below the ecliptic. As you see, when you

look at a planet in the night sky the background stars

help you to locate the planet’s longitude and latitude,

hence confirming previous predictions, and calibrating

future predictions. In ancient times this was done for

centuries & millennia. Let’s look at Saturn heliacally.

Just to be on the safe side, we’ll put 30 degrees past

Saturn for the predawn Sun. That ought to make it easy

to spot Saturn before sunrise, whether you’re watching

from the old, royal Greenwich observatory at 25 meters

above sea level & 00E00:00 longitude 51N28:38 latitude,

or viewing atop the Great Pyramid at 31E09:00 29N58:51,

or from the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan, Mexico ~19:44N

98:50W or from the site of ancient Babylon 44E24 32N33.

Use your own default observation location, set up your

favorite astronomy program to watch the sky from there.

I’m using my own location here in central Colorado USA.

Saturn is plainly visible at heliacal rising August 14,

2004 after about 3:30 AM MST. For continuity, I’ve set

Astrolog to 12 PM August 14 2004 or Julian Day 2453232,

with Saturn 27 Gemini and the Sun 27 Cancer. We’ll add

the 378 days for Saturn’s synodic period, to August 27,

2005, with Saturn 10 Can and Sun 9 Leo. Like before we

are just a day short, so on August 28, 2005, Saturn is

rising about 3:50 AM, and it is apparent that Saturn’s

some 13 degrees further along in the caelestial zodiac

than it was back on August 14 2004. Add twice 378 days,

which is 756 days, and we have September 9, 2006 which

is about two days shy of Saturn 30 sidereal degrees to

the Sun, thus September 11 2006 finds Saturn rising at

4 AM. Let’s jump ten times 378, which we know from our

previous observations is closer to 3781 than 3780. The

date is December 21, 2014. Low and behold, Saturn’s at

5 Scorpio and the Sun is 5 Sagittarius, right where we

expected it to be. Remember, Saturn was at 27 Gem back

on August 14, 2004 with the Sun 27 Can. Now, ten times

Saturn is heliacally risen we see that Saturn is 5 Sco

and the Sun 5 Sag. That’s near 128 degrees that Saturn

has progressed in ten synodic periods or ten times our

round figure of 13 degrees. Again, as observations are

made over longer and longer periods of time, ephemeris

calibration and improvements are the inevitable result.

By the way, Saturn rises near 6 AM on December 21 2014.

These long-term observations of the heliacal phenomena

inevitably reveal the limits as to how far the planets

can appear to stray from Earth’s ecliptic with the Sun,

revealing each planet’s orbital inclination to Earth’s,

and also revealing other obvious limits, such as Venus

and Mercury display their orbital eccentricity when at

maximum elongation, Venus very little, Mercury a whole

lot more. This plainly shows the observer that Venus &

Mercury are closer in heliocentric orbit than Earth is,

and of course the paths of Mars, Jupiter & Saturn show

that they are further away from the Sun in their helio-

centric orbits than Earth is. We’ll cover more on this

in later parts. Jupiter is next on the list of planets.

Julian Day 2453309, 12 UT October 30, 2004. Jupiter is

at 13 Virgo, 30 sidereal degrees from the Sun 13 Libra.

Jupiter rises about 4:50 AM (here in central Colorado)

just below bright Venus at 7 Virgo. Zaniah (etaVir) is

between them near 10 Virgo. Remember, we are measuring

the sky with our naked eye and extended hand, so round

degrees, maybe down to a sixth of a degree, or ten arc-

minutes, is as good of accuracy as we can achieve. You

can see that the modern accuracy of JPL’s ephemeris is

based on observations made by large observatories, and

formulated using advanced knowledge of mathematics and

physics. E.g. here’s a chart for Sat 30-Oct-2004 12 UT.

These values are rounded off to the nearest arcseconds

of longitude and latitude, while the internal accuracy

of the software is good to milliarcseconds (JPL-DE406):

Aldebaran : 15Tau00’00” -5:28’00”

Venus : 6Vir55’17” +1:32’47”

Zaniah : 9Vir30’15” +2:35’21”

Jupiter : 12Vir35’49” +1:07’05”

Sun : 12Lib32’48” +0:00’00”

Ancient observers would commonly use a measuring stick

or metal rod notched with linear increments calibrated

by the observer which he or she could comfortably hold

at arm’s length between both hands, ensuring a uniform

perspective of sidereal measurement. But we will limit

our ancient observers as having nothing but themselves

to view the heavens, since that’s all that they needed

to clearly view the predictable motions of the planets

against the fixed background of stars. Easily accurate

to plus or minus one degree, simple enough so children

could be taught to do this and carry on the stargazing

tradition, counting the days, weeks, months, and years,

planting, harvesting, worshipping by the ephemeris and

its religiously-observed calendar--the religion of the

stars. As each civilization developed, and became more

sophisticated, they organized and specialized, so that

astronomical observation, astronomy, and their logical

deductions based on astronomical observations--meaning

mathematics--ergo astrology, became the disciplines of

specialists so that others in their community could go

about their business. In ancient times, the astrologer

was synonymous with the mathematician, “star-logician”

in the most literal sense. Even in our day and age, it

was only within the last few centuries that astrologer

and astronomer reached a schism, since astrologers had

long-since ignored the proper mathematics of astrology,

and astronomers became disenchanted with the illusions

yet perpetuated by today’s tropicillogical astrologers

and other schisms of astrology,--all who’ve hopelessly

lost their grasp on the ancient practice of star-logic.

Since this schism, astronomers have changed their ways

of measuring the sky such that “constellations” became

synonymous with unequal boundaries associated with the

asterisms or some 88 familiar groups of brighter stars

instead of the ancient method which divides the entire

caelestial sphere into twelve equal meridians as signs

with meridians of latitude from the caelestial equator.

Modern astronomers began referencing positions only to

Earth’s terrestrial equator by its intersection on her

ecliptic. Next time there’s a “pole shift”, or crustal

displacement (or both?), that’ll screw up their method

of measuring the sky in a heartbeat. Meanwhile Earth’s

slow gyration of precession continues to change modern

astronomer’s coordinates. For example, look at Regulus

at 5 Leo near the ecliptic. In 8000 BC, Regulus was at

5 Leo. In 8000 AD, Regulus will still be at 5 Leo. The

position of Regulus is easy to see and easily recalled.

Only the slight, very long-term wobble of the ecliptic

itself affects how we chart latitude of stars near the

ecliptic, and also the longitude of stars farther away

from the ecliptic. As a result, Regulus might be close

to a degree from the ecliptic at some remote epoch but

it’s still going to mark 5 Leo for a long time to come,

irrespective of precession, pole-shift or annihilation

of civilization. Any survivors can point up at Regulus

and confidently say “Look! There’s Regulus 5 Leo”, and

any planet passing nearby will certainly be identified

by its position--relative to a recognizable fixed star,

and certainly not by its “RA/Dec”. As for this example,

on Julian Day -1200514, 1-Jan--7999 (8000 BC Gregorian)

Carte du Ciel shows Regulus at 0h46m35s +4*36’06”, and

Carte du Ciel shows Regulus at 15h29m45s -17*53’29” on

Julian Day 4643000 1-Jan-8000 (8000 AD). For a caveman

marking scores on a cave wall to remember positions of

planets relative to nearby stars counting days, months

and years between repeating heliacal risings and other

predictable synodic phases relative to the Sun, anyone

can see that the positions of planets are most readily

and easily tracked by their positions to visible stars,

and that those stars remain fixed in their position on

Earth’s caelestial sphere with subtle proper motion so

slow that it takes millennia even to be noticed by the

best of naked-eye astronomers. Hence Orion’s Belt, for

example, is very close to the same position in the sky

as it was when they built the Great Pyramids 10,500 BC,

since the three stars of the belt have very low proper

motion. So Mintaka 28 Tau, Alnilam 29 Tau, and Alnitak

the “Great Pyramid” star at 0 Gem have illuminated the

same positions on Earth’s caelestial zodiac ever since.

So when we say Jupiter is in 13 Virgo October 30, 2004,

we can easily see where it is in relation to the stars

before sunrise, since the stars tell us where 13 Virgo

is. In this case, Zaniah at 10 Vir is nearby, so it is

easy to estimate Jupiter’s position to plus or minus a

degree of certainty. With this simple observation, the

next heliacal rising of Jupiter is easily predicted by

adding 400 days to October 30, 2004, since 400 days is

the average period that Jupiter has been seen for ages

to repeat its synodic cycles. That is December 4, 2005,

but Jupiter is about five days past the 30-degree mark

from the Sun. November 29, 2005 finds Jupiter 12 Libra

and the Sun in 12 Sco, and Jupiter will be rising near

5:30 AM from my location. With Spica and Arcturus over

rising Jupiter, you can be sure where 29 Virgo is. But

Kappa Virgo at 10 Lib and +3 latitude--although it’s a

lot closer to Jupiter--may be difficult to see at 4.18

magnitude. The star called “109 Vir” is a bit brighter

at 3.72 magnitude and marks 13 Libra near +17 latitude.

The important thing is to know which stars that you’re

looking at, and their approximate longitude & latitude

in the zodiac. In the 395 days between heliacal rising,

Jupiter has moved some 29 degrees. From this we expect

Jupiter will complete one sidereal orbit approximately

every 12 years. Jump ahead 4000 days from October 30th

2004, and we arrive at October 13 2015--eight days too

late. We must go back to October 5, 2015, with Jupiter

17 Leo and the Sun 17 Virgo. From this we find Jupiter

has moved from 13 Vir to 17 Leo, 26 degrees before the

completion of one sidereal year for Jupiter. Estimates

from our observations in 2004 & 2005 led us to believe

that Jupiter would take about 12 years to complete one

sidereal orbit. Jupiter’s tenth heliacal rising showed

us that Jupiter moved about 334 degrees over 3992 days.

We might extrapolate off this, and figure that Jupiter

will make about 360 degrees in another 311 days making

a rough estimate 3992 + 311 = 4303 days for a sidereal

year of Jupiter based on a total of three observations.

Let’s look at the next rising of Jupiter 400 days from

October 5, 2015, November 8 2016. Now we’re about four

days late, so go back to November 4, 2016, for Jupiter

17 Virgo and the Sun 17 Libra, rising about 4:50 AM at

my location. So for eleven heliacal risings 30 degrees

from the Sun, it took 4388 days, and Jupiter transited

through the zodiac from 13 Vir October 30, 2004, to 17

Virgo on November 4 2016. That’s fully 360 degrees and

4 extra degrees that Jupiter was observed to move over

the course of 4388 days and a touch more than 12 years.

Simple interpolation estimates a sidereal year at 4340

days, 37 days higher than our previous estimate but is

now based on four observations not just three. Further

observations empirically calibrate our rough estimates.

From simple observation we were able to deduce Jupiter

takes a little less than 12 years to complete one side-

real orbit, since we are plus 4 degrees after 12 years.

Repeated observation refined our estimate to 4340 days.

After centuries, the ancients were able to winnow this

down to some 4332 days or about 11 tropical years plus

around 316 days that it takes Jupiter to orbit the Sun.

It doesn’t take any “rocket scientist” but only common

sense with a little simple addition and subtraction of

round degrees, days and years. The stargazer could see

Jupiter go retrograde for some 121 days centered on in-

ferior conjunction (opposition), and see these synodic

events repeat every 400 days by the long-term averages.

Ancient Babylonian astronomers were sufficiently adept

to notice that 36 sidereal orbits of Jupiter was quite

close to 427 tropical years and 391 synodic periods of

Jupiter. Just add 427 years to October 30, 2004 to see

if they knew what they were talking about. Try October

30, 2431. Just 6 days later Jupiter is 30 degrees from

the Sun with Jupiter 12 Vir and the Sun 12 Vir. That’s

just one degree from where they were back in 2004. The

ancient synodic multiple for Jupiter is right in there.

Next we’ll look at Mars, which has the longest synodic

period of all the planets. We can see that Mars is the

first planet beyond Earth’s orbit since Mars is moving

much faster through the caelestial zodiac than Jupiter

or Saturn. But like the Jovian planets we can see that

the elongations of Mars from the Sun reach oppositions

on an observably predictable periodic basis as is true

for heliacal risings, settings, squares, trines or any

repeating angle of aspect to the Sun. Heliacal risings

are being treated as semisextile aspect for continuity,

and the nice round number thirty degrees is convenient,

easy to remember and to measure by hand, since a whole

hand or fist plus three closed middle fingers at arm’s

length together makes 15 degrees, two whole fists make

about 20 degrees, depending on your physical type. The

angle from outstretched thumbtip to pinky fingertip is

some 25 degrees, but you must calibrate your own hands

and fingers to estimate a perspective angle accurately.

An easy way to do this is to stand in a rectangular or

square room and see how many hands, fists, and fingers

it takes to measure 90 degrees, i.e. from wall to wall.

Six times a fist plus 3 closed middle fingers ought to

be about 90 degrees. Experiment to see what works best.

Three times your outstretched thumbtip to pinky finger-

tip plus three closed middle fingers equals 90 degrees.

Calibrating by the stars assures the greatest accuracy.

No matter how close or far away an object is, ten feet

or ten thousand lightyears, the angle subtended to you

viewing those objects will be the same. A really sharp

naked-eye astronomer can discern down to one arcminute.

But I’m being conservative, so that ancient stargazers

would need only resolve twenty arcminutes and estimate

positions of stars and planets to plus or minus one de-

gree, which for the Sun’s apparent motion is about one

day equals one degree. This is essential to know since

adding one or more days to a predicted heliacal rising

adds ~1 degree per day to the Sun’s ecliptic longitude.

Each consecutive heliacal rising for Mars occurs about

780 days apart. With a spectacular opposition for Mars

just days away at this writing which will be August 27,

2003, Mars will rise heliacally about December 12 2004

at 26 Libra to the Sun 26 Scorpio. Mars will rise near

5:50 AM from my location with two marking stars rising

above Mars, Zubenelgenubi at 20 Lib +0 & Zubeneshamali

at 25 Lib +8. Add 780 days and we have January 31 2007.

There’s Mars at 16 Sagittarius to the Sun 16 Capricorn,

30 degrees apart. Mars rises locally about 6:40 AM. It

is nearly impossible to see Kaus Borealis at 12 Sag -2

this close to sunrise (past astronomical twilight) and

Mars may be difficult to spot here in the mountains of

central Colorado. 16 Sag is 20 degrees past 26 Lib but

we’ve witnessed Mars at opposition back on August 27th

2003 and again November 7, 2005, an 803-day difference.

This also tells us that Mars is zipping along, so must

have circuited the zodiac past 360 degrees, and is now

360 add 20 equals 380 degrees from where it was before.

Simple interpolation tells us Mars takes some 739 days

to complete one sidereal orbit. This is a rough figure

as further observation shows. 10 times 780 is 7800. Ex-

rience shows Mars has significant orbital eccentricity,

and orbits quite rapidly through the caelestial zodiac.

We find through experience that Mars is frequently off

by a month or more from where we predicted it would be

last we predicted its next heliacal rising, setting or

any other repeating like-phase. Mars is at 14 Pis, and

the Sun is 6 Ari on April 21, 2026. We must jump ahead

to May 28, 2026, fully 37 days later, to find Mars and

the Sun separated by 30 degrees sidereal longitude. As

the apparent velocity of Mars is nearly as fast as the

Sun’s past superior conjunction it takes a few days to

compensate for being just a degree off from 30 degrees.

Thus to compensate for 8 degrees delta took us 37 days.

Come May 28 2026, Mars is 12 Ari and the Sun is 12 Tau.

Hamal at 13 Ari +10 and Sheratan at 9 Ari + 8 makes it

easy to estimate Mars’ position at 12 Aries. Shedir at

13 Ari +47 draws a nearly perpendicular line or arc to

Hamal relative to the ecliptic making measurement easy.

26 Libra is 166 degrees from 12 Ari, meaning Mars went

under eleven & a half times or 4126 degrees around the

zodiac in 7837 days, making our observable average 684

days per sidereal orbit based on just two observations

ten heliacal risings apart. Babylonians over centuries

of observation and calibration found this to be around

687 days based on the long-term averages, which is one

year, three hundred twenty-two days per sidereal orbit

of Mars. These ancient astronomers-astrologers noticed

that 151 sidereal orbits of Mars nearly coincided with

284 tropical years and 133 repeating synodic phases of

Mars to the Sun. Add 284 years to December 12 2004 and

we arrive at December 12, 2288. There’s Mars at 23 Lib

and the Sun 22 Sco, 29 degrees apart. Merely four days

later finds Mars 26 Lib & Sun 26 Sco--right on the dot.

So the ancient Babylonian sidereal-synodic multiple of

Mars is off just 4 days in 284 years...very impressive.

We also notice that Mars goes retrograde centered near

inferior conjunction for an average of 73 days. Try it.

Astrolog charts the synodic velocities of every planet.

The presently-imminent opposition August 27 2003 shows

Mars turned retrograde back on July 29, 2003, and will

leave retrograde September 27 2003, a difference of 60

days. With every empirical observation for retrogrades

and oppositions, the accuracy of this average improves.

Observation proves 73 days is Mars’ retrograde average.

Next on the list is Earth, meaning the Sun relative to

Earth. Since circa ~200,000 BC, the heliacal rising of

stars has consistently demonstrated to stargazers that

the tropical year precesses against the stars by about

five-sixths of one arcminute per year or approximately

one degree per 26000 solar days, i.e. 71 years 68 days

on average. The ancient Mayans were superb astronomers.

They used a “Haab” intercalation interval so that 1508

haabs was commensurate with around 1507 tropical years

(C.P. Bowditch, published 1906) since the value of one

mean tropical year takes 365.2422 mean solar days, and

one Haab equals exactly 365 days--you do the math. The

very long-term Mayan average for the great year of pre-

cession equals 5 times 13 Baktun, or 5 ages of the Sun.

Interesting, since Leo is the fifth sign of the zodiac.

One Baktun is 144,000 days. 13 Baktun = 1,872,000 days.

Five times 1,872,000 days equals 9,360,000 days a year

of precession ergo one 360-degree sidereal gyration of

Earth’s axis of rotation against the caelestial zodiac

takes some 25,626 years 303 days. From this we predict

one zodiacal age of precession is 2,135 years 208 days.

Cf. modern secular-religious estimates of ~2,150 years.

The Mayan long-count is undoubtedly more accurate. The

well-known date of December 21, 2012 was predicted not

by modern science but by ancient Mayan astronomers. It

predicted the winter solstice Sun conjunct the “sacred

tree” or apparent intercept of the galactic & ecliptic

planes at 5 Sagittarius +0...accurate to one arcminute.

If we subtract 9360000 days from December 21 2012, the

last conjunction of the winter solstice Sun was likely

not too far from Julian Day -6903717, which the modern

Gregorian calendar shows as March 1, 23615 BC, clearly

way off the mark...the Gregorian calendar is erroneous

for long-term prediction. The Mayan calendar is better

by far but how they achieved such mastery is a mystery,

unless they actually observed for many, many millennia.

I believe this is how they did it, and that the Mayans

and other pre-Columbian civilizations are vastly older

than Atheist-religious archaeologists have admitted to.

By watching the precession of Earth’s axis, really the

whole rotating Earth, long-term prediction of sidereal-

synodic-tropical cycles gained accuracy over centuries

and millennia of observation. The length of solar days

was always the basis for counting longer periods, such

as a lunar month was some 29 1/2 days, a tropical year

was about 365 1/4 days, four tropical years about 1461

days etc. Each multiple was numbered by days, months &

years, by the Sun the Moon & Stars also as per Genesis.

Hence the multiples for the planets out to Saturn were

referenced to Earth’s solar days, lunar months and the

Earth’s tropical and sidereal years. As we’ve seen for

Mars, Jupiter & Saturn, the sidereal motion of planets

is fundamental to determining not only the position of

a planet but also its sidereal year around the Sun. It

is perfectly obvious that Mars, Jupiter & Saturn orbit

the Sun and it is equally obvious that Mercury & Venus

also orbit the Sun. Hence it follows that Earth orbits

the Sun, since we can see that Mars is further away in

its orbit than Earth is and Venus is closer than Earth

is by its heliocentric orbit. Only the Moon sidereally

appears to orbit the Earth, and the phases of the Moon

show that both Earth and Moon are orbiting the Sun--in

reference to the caelestial sphere. Incommensurability

between Earth’s tropical and sidereal years is easy to

understand, yet has confounded more than a few amateur

astronomers and astrologers for centuries to millennia.

In tracking the synodic and sidereal motion of planets,

we are referencing all positions, that of the Sun, and

the planet(s) in question, to the caelestial zodiac of

the stars. We are counting in solar days independently

of years at first, only later by counting fractions of

years in days instead of decimal places. Thus the side-

real year of Earth reveals to an observer how tropical

years are slightly faster than sidereal years, as year

after year we see this disparity compounding enough so

that we can correctly estimate the value of precession.

The difference between a solar day and sidereal day on

Earth is dependent on the length of a sidereal year vs.

the length of a sidereal day. The faster Earth rotates

sidereally, then the more solar days per sidereal year

the observer will witness. The faster the Earth orbits

the Sun, the fewer solar days per sidereal year we see.

Since the tilt of Earth’s axis circa 200,000 BC, solar

days have numbered 365 and change per year with barely

50 arcseconds per year difference between sidereal and

tropical year relative to the stars to wit, precession.

That is why a solar day is slightly longer than a side-

real day, since Earth’s orbit makes the Sun rise later

than distant stars which, comparatively, care not that

Earth orbits the Sun with its sidereal-annual parallax

having generally indiscernible effect, sidereal diurnal

parallax/geocentric parallax having thousands of times

less effect on the apparent positions of stars--albeit

planets are affected slightly more, Moon more than any-

thing else. At about a quarter million miles, the Moon

can appear up to a degree off from geocentric position.

So far we’ve looked at Saturn, Jupiter, Mars & the Sun.

Next on the list is Venus, the venerated planet nearly

the same size as Earth, and whose orbit is least eccen-

tric of any planet in our solar system, with an almost

perfectly circular orbit, proportionally just ~0.00677

between the major and minor axis although Venus orbits

the Sun some three and a third degrees inclined to the

Earth’s ecliptic. All in all Venus has the most predic-

table orbit of any planet in the solar system with the

exception of Earth itself, whose orbit with the Sun is

only about 0.0167 eccentric -- a ratio more than twice

that of Venus. The Venusian orbit is around 72% as far

from the Sun as Earth’s orbit, hence has a faster side-

real year of about 225 solar days, or about 61.5% that

of Earth. Look at July 1, 2004. Venus rises heliacally

at 15 Taurus, 30 degrees from the Sun 15 Gemini. Venus

is about 4 degrees below the ecliptic, just one degree

above Aldebaran (alpha Tau) at 15 Tau -5, and just one

degree in longitude from Ain, epsilon Tau at 14 Tau -3.

Venus’ll rise approximately 4:40 AM MDT at my location.

From past experience we know that Venus takes 584 days

to repeat its synodic phases. Add 584 days to July 1st

2004 and you have February 6th 2006, which is two days

past 30 degrees from the Sun, so we have to back up to

February 4th 2006, with Venus at 21 Sag and Sun 21 Cap.

Venus will rise about 6 AM MST. In 582 days, Venus has

moved from 15 Tau to 21 Sag, which is 576 degrees from

Venus’ last heliacal rising. Simple interpolation says

that Venus will move 360 degrees against the stars per

364 days or near the period of the Sun’s sidereal year

to Earth. From our perspective on Earth, Venus appears

to orbit the Sun epicyclically, so we can think of the

planet Venus (and Mercury, which we’ll cover later) as

a “moon” of the Sun especially since Venus and Mercury

are the only two planets in our solar system that have

no moons of their own. The sidereal motion of Venus is

easily rectified by watching every 5th heliacal rising,

since 5 x 584 = 2920 days. Our past experience reveals

that every 2919 to 2920 days Venus will appear to rise

heliacally at about the same time of tropical year and

against about the same background stars. Meaning every

eight years, Venus will appear at about the same phase

relative to the Sun and also in the sky (on the caeles-

tial zodiac). Try it. Add 2920 days to July 1 2004 and

you have June 29 2012. The Sun is 13 Gem, Venus 13 Tau,

30 degrees to the Sun and 2 degrees from 15 Tau. Venus

has repeated 5 consecutive synodic orbits and about 13

sidereal orbits. Which means Venus has orbited the Sun

13 times in 2920 days making an average of 224 and six-

tenths days per sidereal orbit--very close to the mark.

Subsequent observations over decades to centuries will

confirm that Venus’ sidereal year is closer to 224 and

seven-tenths mean solar Earth-days, this, according to

ancient Babylonian astronomers cir. 1800 BC. They said

1871 sidereal periods of Venus is close to 720 synodic

phases of Venus and 1151 tropical years on Earth. This

is readily demonstrated by adding 1151 years to July 1,

2004, bringing us to July 1 3155. Try it. We must jump

ahead 29 days to July 30, 3155. Venus is 27 Tau to the

Sun 27 Gem. The default semisextile aspect 30 sidereal

degrees between each planet and the Sun is the natural

default for our planetary analysis of heliacal risings.

Over 1871 orbits and we’re off by half the zodiac from

Venus 21 Sag to 27 Tau. That’s 150 sidereal degrees we

missed by using a Babylonian sidereal-synodic multiple

for Venus. But wait! Out of almost two thousand orbits,

being off by less than one orbit is actually very good,

and being one month off in 1151 tropical years is also

very impressive, and is subordinate to the 720 synodic

repeating phases of Venus, thereby exact to one degree.

The accuracy of the Babylonian multiple for Venus is a

testament to their tremendous astronomical aptitude. I

doubt that anyone before or since has presented a grea-

ter degree of accuracy in their long-term ephemeris if

you examine the actual evidence. Twice 1871 is 3742 or

allegedly 2302 mean-tropical years on Earth, so try it.

2004 + 2302 = 4306. We already know that JPL’s current

estimates for tropical precession are off by 500 years

per great year, thus it’s no surprise we jump ahead to

August 29 4306 with Venus some 30 degrees from the Sun.

Venus is 10 Gem, and the Sun is 10 Can. Remember Venus

was 15 Taurus on July 1, 2004. So we jumped ahead 2302

years to 4306. Venus and the Sun have moved 25 degrees

ahead in 2302 years. The “Habb” intercalation interval

tells us that the ancients figured 365.2422 days every

tropical year, so 2302 years makes around 840,788 days.

That’s the long-term tropical-to-day interval, but the

inference to Venus is also made, at 1151 years per 720

repeating phases. Hence 420,394 solar days ought to be

about 1151 tropical years, and 1871 sidereal years for

Venus is 30 degrees from the Sun, at regular intervals.

We must show that a planet is visible to the naked eye,

weather permitting, at moderate latitudes, at heliacal

rising especially...by using 30 degrees as our default.

This renders consistency to our empirical observations,

even as rendered virtually by our modern computer soft-

ware. We know it’s accurate and we can thank dedicated

astronomers for making such software possible and also

commendably accurate and reliable. That’s all fine and

good. But let’s not forget that these same astronomers

have persistently ignored the ancient evidence for the

astronomers throughout time, to be able to immediately

see the sidereal and synodic orbits of the planets and

be able to deduce which planets are closer and further

away from the Sun, and also from Earth in their orbits.

Anyone can see that the planets are not invisible, nor

do they fail to show to their orbits to anyone looking,

whether they looked at ten million BC or anytime since.

Look at Julian Day 2453022 or January 17 2004 12 PM UT,

with the Sun acquiring a semisextile aspect to Mercury

of about 6 degrees with Sun in 2 Capricorn which is 24

degrees from Mercury 8 Sagittarius. Owing to Mercury’s

considerable ratio of orbital eccentricity, or about a

fifth again larger between major and minor axis, we’ll

see Mercury rising heliacally at maximum elongation to

the Sun, 6 degrees short of the 30 degree mark like we

used for the other planets. Recall from my new book on

Planetary Awareness Technique that Mercury needs to be

at least 18 degrees separated from the Sun in order to

become visible before sunrise or after sunset. Mercury

never exceeds around 28 degrees of separation from the

Sun in any case, so we’ll never see 30 degrees between

them. Mercury is seen to rise heliacally about 6:50 AM

from my location, with Polis (muSgr) at 8 Sag +2 right

next to Mercury, with Sabik (etOph) at 23 Sco +7 above

right of Mercury. Bright red Antares (alSco) at 15 Sco

and 5 degrees below the ecliptic points the way to the

waning Moon at 2 Scorpio -1 and about 24% phase to the

Sun. On the long-term average, Mercury will be seen to

repeat its phases approximately every 116 days. We add

116 to January 17 2004 bringing us to November 10 2004.

There’s Mercury at 13 Scorpio to the Sun 24 Libra. But

wait! Now Mercury’s setting heliacally just 19 degrees

from the Sun, at about 5:20 PM my local time, with the

cascading Rocky Mountain 14-ers on the western horizon.

But how did we go from heliacal rising to heliacal set-

ting in just 116 days? It’s because Mercury has a very

high orbital eccentricity, and whose orbit is inclined

to Earth’s ecliptic by about 7 degrees. The centennial

rate between consecutive Mercury perihelions increases

by 573.57 arcseconds per century on this jpl/nasa site

http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/elem_planets.html meaning that

each consecutive perihelion advances by 5.7 seconds of

arc each mean-tropical year. Cf. Earth’s sidereal year

of 365.25636 mean solar days, with Earth’s anomalistic

year of 365.25964 mean solar days per consecutive peri-

helion, or five minutes longer than a sidereal year of

the Earth-Sun barycenter, so that the perihelion point

advances on average about 1.1 arcminutes per annum. At

present, Earth’s perihelion repeats around January 4th.

Thus, Mercury’s orbit is increasing ever so slowly out-

wards from the Sun at a rate of about 61 miles per cen-

tury (1 AU = 92,956,229.4 miles, Earth’s mean distance

from the Sun) or 6/10ths of a mile every tropical year.

This also shows the orbit of Mercury increasing in its

eccentricity by a ratio about 0.00002527 between major

and minor orbital axis per century or about 0.00000025

per year on the semi-major axis of Mercury’s orbit. By

watching Mercury’s heliacal phenomena over decades and

centuries, a long-term average of 116 days is realized.

We can jump ahead by ten synodic periods to see if our

116-day number holds up under scrutiny, bringing us to

March 21 2007, since past experience has shown Mercury

repeats ten average synodic phases closer to 1159 days,

or 1 day less per every ten heliacal risings, settings

etc. There’s Mercury at 8 Aquarius to the Sun 6 Pisces,

separated by 28 degrees in caelestial longitude, which

is Mercury’s maximum elongation from the Sun. Note the

velocity fields in Astrolog, which shows the following:

Astrolog 5.41G chart for Wed Mar 21, 2007

12:00:00pm (+0:00 GMT) 0W00:00 0N00:00

Body Location Latitude Velocity

Sun : 5Pis36 +0:00’00” +0.9935813\

Mercury : 7Aqu53 -1:03’20” +0.9725359/

The following day, March 22nd shows Mercury’s velocity

to be overtaking the Sun’s velocity, if only barely at

+1.0177906 for Mercury, compared to the Sun +0.9929804.

The velocity numbers tell how many degrees per day the

object appears to be moving through the zodiac meaning

the Sun is moving slower than Mercury is by March 22nd.

Since Mercury appears to be moving slower than the Sun

on March 21st, it follows that the angle of separation

between Mercury & the Sun reaches its maximum on March

21, 2007, which is about 28 degrees sidereal longitude.

Ancient Babylonian astronomers found that 191 sidereal

orbits of Mercury lasted about 145 synodic periods and

46 tropical years. Try it. Add the 46 years to January

17th 2004, which will bring us to January 17, 2050. We

find Mercury rising heliacally at 8 Sagittarius to the

Sun at 2 Capricorn. As you’ll recall Mercury was 8 Sag

to the Sun 2 Cap back on January 17, 2004, making this

ancient sidereal-synodic multiple for Mercury right on

the money. You’ll notice Mercury begin to overtake the

Sun on the very next day, January 18 2050, which means

that Mercury reaches its maximum elongation January 17,

2050. Clearly the Babylonians knew precisely what they

were talking about--at least two thousand years before

Christ...so much for the Atheists’ “flat-earth” theory,

claiming that ancient astronomers didn’t know that the

Earth and other planets are in orbit -with- the Sun or

their similarly-ridiculous contention that astronomers

believed the world to be “flat” before the Johnny-come-

lately “Copernican” astronomers “reinvented the wheel”.

The second-brightest object in the sky next to the Sun

is the Earth’s moon. Since time immemorial, humans and

other hominids have watched the Moon wax and wane over

the skies of Earth. The lunar orbit takes about 27 1/3

solar days to complete one sidereal revolution. That’s

more than two days faster than the lunar synodic month

of about 29 1/2 days, and reveals to the observer that

the phases of the Moon are a function of the Earth and

Moon together orbiting the Sun. The Moon appears to be

almost exactly the same size as the Sun as viewed from

Earth, since the Moon is in fact 400 times smaller and

400 times closer than the Sun on average. This is easy

to see during a total solar eclipse, during which time

the Sun’s corona becomes distinguishable from the dark

background, and the Moon is seen to be closer to Earth

than the Sun is. The relative distances of the Sun and

Moon to Earth don’t appear to change all that much and

both Sun & Moon orbit Earth in a fairly linear fashion,

albeit the Moon’s orbit with the Earth is more complex.

As a result, we can be sure that both Sun & Moon orbit

the Earth sidereally. We already know from observation

that the planets orbit the Sun, and we’ve also deduced

the length of every planet’s sidereal year and average

synodic period. We’ve learned to count these repeating

intervals by their observable averages in days, months

and years, by their repeating synodic aspects relative

to the Sun, and by their repeating sidereal aspects to

fixed stars on the Earth’s caelestial firmament. There-

by we see that the Moon’s phases take consistently lon-

ger than the Moon’s sidereal month by about 2 1/6 days.

We have learned that the difference between the Moon’s

sidereal and synodic month is directly attributable to

the length of a sidereal year of the Earth-Moon system

orbiting the Sun verses the length of a sidereal month.

We view the Moon orbiting Earth on a long-term average

of some 13 1/3 sidereal lunar orbits per sidereal year,

i.e. as seen against the fixed background of stars. Re-

member, that the distant stars care not that Earth and

the other planets orbit the Sun or more accurately the

solar system barycenter along with the Sun, since even

nearby stars a few dozen lightyears away are yet 1000s

of times more distant than Earth is to the Sun. To wit,

one lightyear is the linear equivalent of about 63,240

astronomical units where 1 AU equals ~92,956,230 miles,

and just one lightyear equals ~5,878,482,160,000 miles.

Even Spica (alpha Virginis at 29 Virgo -2, magnitude 1)

at 262 lightyears is some 1 1/2 quadrillion miles from

Earth...16.5 million times Earth’s distance to the Sun.

Hence Spica’s trigonometric parallax is barely one one-

hundredth of an arcsecond or nearly 5000 times smaller

than one arcminute ergo indiscernible to the naked eye

by a factor of five-thousand to one. If Spica were but

one-twentieth of a single lightyear from Earth then we

might barely be able to discern one arcminute parallax.

At 2160 miles in diameter, and ~239,000 miles distance

from Earth, the Moon’s diurnal parallax can be as high

as one arcdegree from its geocentric position. For the

Moon, annual parallax has no effect, since the Moon is

forever orbiting Earth epicyclically some 13 1/3 times

per sidereal Earth-year. Thus the Earth-Moon system is

averaging 360 divided by 13 1/3 makes about 27 degrees

per sidereal month on average that the Earth-Moon bary-

center has advanced in its heliocentric sidereal orbit.

This means that the Sun advances on average 27 degrees

per sidereal month through the caelestial zodiac along

the plane of the ecliptic, and Moon orbits Earth about

387 sidereal degrees per synodic month totalling 12.37

synodic months per sidereal Earth-year. Eclipse cycles

are tied to where the lunar orbit crosses the ecliptic,

also called the nodical month, and is about 27.21 days.

The anomalistic month averages 27.55 days which is the

approximate interval between lunar perigees or apogees,

and which determines an annular or total solar eclipse.

There are numerous eclipse cycles running concurrently

due to the complexity of the lunar orbit. Most popular

of these are Saros cycles of 18 tropical years plus 10

or 11 days. Next comes the Moon’s nutation cycle every

18.61 years, and is the average time that it takes for

the head of the dragon, or north lunar node to regress

full circle through the caelestial zodiac. Next is the

so-called “Metonic” cycle, although Meton was far from

the first one to have discovered this very predictable

19-year cycle. The ancient calendars revealed intimate

knowledge of this cycle by its affect on intercalation,

i.e. when an extra lunar month was computed in advance

to make every second or third year have 13 months, not

just 12 months as usual. This intercalation cycle runs

every 19 lunisolar calendar years, following a pattern

so perfect that it is off +two hours every 19 tropical

years like clockwork. Two hours each 19-years added up

to one extra day every 220 years or about ten days per

zodiacal age ergo 10 extra days in 2135 tropical years.

This enabled precise calculation of a calendar decades

in advance by the tribal mathematician, the astrologer.

This allowed ritual observance of seasonal holidays or

holy-days in season and at the right phase of the Moon,

all imperative considerations for calendar calculation,

for planting, harvesting and all religious observances.

We’ve seen how Earth’s tilted axis results in tropical

years, such that 1508 Mayan Haabs is commensurate with

1507 tropical years, meaning 1508 contiguous intervals

of 365 mean solar days apiece total 550,420 solar days

per every 1507 mean tropical years. This intercalation

interval of the ancient Mayan calendar makes 365.24220

average solar days per average tropical year, which is

an hairbreadth from modern averages i.e. less than one

second in time difference per year between ancient and

modern averages for a tropical year. 1 second per year.

^ ^^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^

We’ve seen how the heliacal risings of stars & planets

attest to planetary motion in our solar system visible

to the unaided human eye. We’ve learned how to use the

human hand to estimate subtended angles between planet

and star readily to within one degree of longitude and

latitude, and we know from experience that the best of

naked-eye astronomers can discern as little as one arc-

minute between objects. We’ve seen how a man can count

by days, months and years to estimate repeating cycles

of the planets, chiefly sidereal years relative to the

Sun and distant stars, and by synodic aspects to Earth

relative to the Sun. We’ve learned from experience how

one sidereal year on Earth is barely 20 minutes longer

than a tropical year, and that this tiny disparity can

add up over time to the tune of one constellation--one

zodiacal age--every 2,135 tropical years plus 208 days.

There are longer eclipse cycles, like the Inex some 29

years minus 20 days. After this is the exeligmos cycle

of 54 Years plus 34 days, basically three Saros cycles.

There’s an eclipse cycle each 58 Years less 40-42 days.

Similar types of eclipses return every 65 Years plus 0

to 3 days. Then there’s the triple Inex cycle every 87

years less 61 days. Beyond this is solar totality each

approximately 410 years. Above this, 18 Inex cycles is

521 Years plus or minus 1 or 2 days and is very useful

for making very long-term eclipse predictions. There’s

one longer luni-solar cycle which is called the “grand

century of the Moon”, and repeats like clockwork every

800 years. Lunar eclipses occulting the “bearded star”

Regulus at 5 Leo recur in predictable, 800-year cycles.

The last series ended in 1943, thus 2510 marks a point

567 years into this 800-year period, which is when the

next eclipsed-Moon occulting Regulus series begins and

lasts 233 more years, with a 19-year plus a 65-year se-

paration between eclipse intervals which overlaps with

metonic cycles of 19 years (235 solunar synods) and by

similar eclipse-type cycles that repeat every 65 years.

So 2510 AD marks the point 567 years + 233 years since

the beginning of the last series in 1710. Backtracking

in time shows that the last complete series ended 1143

AD, preceded by 343 AD, 458 BC, etc. Note here, Ezra’s

7th year for king Artaxerxes was from October 2 458 BC

through September 20 457 BC. This was year 3304 in the

proleptic civil calendar which began October 1, 458 BC.

Most notably, 458-457 BC was a grand jubilee year that

always follows a 49th ecclesiastical “spring-to-spring”

year in which all of the land lays fallow by Torah law.

In Ezra 7:6-9 in the old testiment, 1 Abib was Tuesday,

March 26, 457 BC, on which day Ezra left Babylon bound

for Jerusalem--with achaemenid Persian king Artaxerxes’

decree in hand. The first day of the fifth month found

Ezra reaching Jerusalem, which was 1 Ab[Av] 3304, July

22, 457 BC which Ezra confirms is still in the seventh

year of the gentile king as reckoned by the priesthood.

The paramount importance plus astronomical historicity

of these ancient calendar dates is thoroughly analyzed

and documented in my book Historical Calendar Of Jesus;

which, like all of my other books and articles, is pub-

lished into the public domain on these usenet archives,

and also in the “PDF” format on my official website(s),

and in hardcopy books and CD-ROM where available.

Armageddon Cometh,

Daniel Joseph Min

http://www.angelfire.com/moon2/danieljosephmin/