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2007.07.16
- Southwest Spring 2007 Travel
Posts
2007.03.02 - Ancient
Peruvian Astronomical Observatory at Chankillo.
2007.01.30 -
The Three Major Neolithic Complexes page has the research
update ....
At Avebury,
when obliquity equaled precisely 24 degrees,
the level summer solstice sunset pointed precisely to Newgrange.
2007.01.14 -
The Thornborough Page is updated with
a study results summary. The results caused me to contemplate a new
perspective on eclipses, a heliocentric model. In the results, an eclipse
related module termed S22 is prominent. S22, my AeGeo programming
term for solar orbit per lunar nodal period, equals 26.820613 degrees.
We think of eclipses from a geocentric perspective for the obvious
reason. However, eclipse frequency is a function of two motions, earth
orbit of the sun and lunar orbit of the earth. The planes of these
two orbital motions do not match, they incline 1/70th of a circle,
sufficient to limit eclipses to when full moons and new moons coincide
with the moon crossing the illumination plane of the earth. The lunar
orbit nodes with the ecliptic are the points where the moon crosses
the earth's orbit plane.
Full moons and new moons are a geocentric
phenomena. Except during lunar eclipses, half of the moon is always
lit by the sun. Lunar orbit around the earth determines when we see
the illuminated half. Earth's heliocentric orbit factors in determining
how often we have a full moon. If the earth were stationary, of course
each lunar orbit would equal one full moon cycle. Instead, due to the
earth and moon orbiting the sun, solar angle changes 360 degrees each
solar orbit, or one less full moon than lunar orbits for each solar
orbit. Heliocentric perspective is integral to eclipse timing, and
a heliocentric cosmovision underlies the geometry and math. Knowing
about eclipses and predicting their timing is one thing. Knowing how
many degrees in solar orbit a nodal period equates to is an entirely
different order of understanding. Regarding the Thornborough builders,
I wonder, "How much did they know, and when did they know it?" And, "How
precise was their knowledge?"
As I'm writing about Thornborough and thinking about
the past (and future) at the henges, I'm wondering also if something
important related to eclipes is going on with geometry of the larger
regional complex. Maybe the import of the heliocentric perspective
is all that escaped me. Eclipses are, after all, the astronomer's cosmic
clock, important at least from our humble and fragile geocentric sphere.
To ancient astronomers,
all counts and measure may have hinged on these precise displays of
cosmic geometry. For ancient
geodesy, lunar eclipses may have enabled accurate longitude finding,
while half the world briefly sees the same clock and each person sees
the moon at a different location in relation to the celestial backdrop.
In prose, what is S22? Try to imagine from the solar
perspective the frequency wave of lunar nodal crossings, the moon inscribes
the wave on the celestial backdrop, passing the earth and being passed
in turn, quickening and slowing while moving up and down above and
below the earth's orbit path. S22 is a tick of the eclipse clock, the
length of the moon's nodal wave from a heliocentric perspective as
the moon orbits us. Enjoy the surfing. Thornborough
Page.
2007.01.11 -
Celebrating Twenty Years of Archaeogeodesy
Studies. On this date in 1987, I wrote down the quantification
of the analytic modules used in my archaeogeodesy studies. These are
now available as a new worksheet in archaeogeodesy.xls v2007.01.11.
The update includes an eclipse calculator using Excel's vlookup function,
so you only input the terse AeGeo
code terms to do calculations.
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2006.11.27 -
Big News: 