by neufer » Fri Dec 17, 2010 5:32 pm
dougettinger wrote:
How was a polar star recognized in ancient times - unless you randonly picked a new star each clear night and watched for no motion? When you found the star with no motion you found the polar star for those times. Maybe this was the method for determining a fixed position in the sky without compasses and clocks. Indeed, stargazing had to be a big pastime in ancient times.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://users.iafrica.com/m/mi/mikeyb/Orion_Fairall.html wrote:
<<
Khufu's pyramid contains four 'star shafts', aimed towards
. the meridian in the sky. When the pyramid was built
. (c. 2700 BC), these shafts aimed at the transit points of:
.
- . Thuban (Alpha Draconis - then pole star),
. Orion's Belt,
. Sirius and
. KOCHAB (Beta Ursa Minoris - pole star in 1100 B.C.)
clearly intentionally and not coincidentally. The shafts apparently
served to direct the ka, or spirit, of the dead pharaoh towards these
key stars. Thuban and Kochab were circumpolar "Imperishable ones"
(stars that never die), Orion represented the deity Osiris, and
Sirius his consort, Isis. Precession has since changed the transit
points, so the shafts no longer function in this manner.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/kochab.html wrote:
<<
KOCHAB (Beta Ursa Minoris - pole star in 1100 B.C.), an obscure Arabic name that might simply mean "star," is just barely the second brightest, and appropriately the Beta, star in Ursa Minor, and represents the top front bowl star of the Little Dipper. Only 15 degrees from the north celestial pole, middle northerners can see it every night as it plies its small circular path. Together with the other bowl star (Pherkad, the Gamma star), it makes a small asterism called the "Guardians of the Pole," the two seeming in myth to "protect" the pole star. Though we are quite familiar with the major two motions of the Earth, daily rotation and annual revolution, the third motion, precession, is more obscure. The Moon and Sun act on the Earth's rotational bulge, and cause the axis to wobble over a 26,000 year period. The result is that the axis continually moves in a small circle against the background stars. Polaris is thus only a temporary pole star that will get better into the next century and then will begin to shift away. About the year 1100 BC, the pole made a reasonably close pass to Kochab, and there are old references to THIS star being called "Polaris.">>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- . Jules Verne: _Journey to the centre of the earth_
Presently, after lying quietly for some minutes, I opened my eyes and looked upwards. As I did so I made out a brilliant little dot, at the extremity of this long, gigantic telescope. It was a star without SCINTILLATING rays. According to my calculation, it must be. Beta in the constellation of the Little Bear.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Meditations of evolution increasingly vaster: of the moon invisible in incipent lunation, approaching perigee: of the infinite lattiginous SCINTILLATING uncondensed milky way, discernible by daylight by an observer placed at the lower end of a cylindrical vertical shaft 5000 ft deep sunk from the surface towards the centre of the earth: of Sirius (alpha in Canis Major) 10 lightyears (57,000,000,000,000 miles) distant and in volume 900 times the dimension of our planet:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[quote="dougettinger"]
How was a polar star recognized in ancient times - unless you randonly picked a new star each clear night and watched for no motion? When you found the star with no motion you found the polar star for those times. Maybe this was the method for determining a fixed position in the sky without compasses and clocks. Indeed, stargazing had to be a big pastime in ancient times.[/quote]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://users.iafrica.com/m/mi/mikeyb/Orion_Fairall.html"][float=right][img3="[b][color=#FF00FF]Khufu's pyramid contains four 'star shafts'[/color][/b]"]http://www.soulsofdistortion.nl/images/Star%20alignment%20Great%20Pyramid.gif[/img3][/float]
<<[b][color=#FF00FF]Khufu's pyramid contains four 'star shafts'[/color][/b], aimed towards
. the meridian in the sky. When the pyramid was built
. (c. 2700 BC), these shafts aimed at the transit points of:
.
[list]. [b][color=#FF00FF]Thuban (Alpha Draconis - then pole star)[/color][/b],
. Orion's Belt,
. Sirius and
. [b][color=#FF0000]KOCHAB (Beta Ursa Minoris - pole star in 1100 B.C.)[/color][/b][/list]
clearly intentionally and not coincidentally. The shafts apparently
served to direct the ka, or spirit, of the dead pharaoh towards these
key stars. Thuban and Kochab were circumpolar "Imperishable ones"
(stars that never die), Orion represented the deity Osiris, and
Sirius his consort, Isis. Precession has since changed the transit
points, so the shafts no longer function in this manner.>>[/quote]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[quote=" http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/kochab.html "]
[float=right][img3="[b][color=#FF00FF]Pole Stars[/color][/b]"]http://www.carnaval.com/goddess/precession_north_pole.gif[/img3][/float]
<<[b][color=#FF0000]KOCHAB (Beta Ursa Minoris - pole star in 1100 B.C.)[/color][/b], an obscure Arabic name that might simply mean "star," is just barely the second brightest, and appropriately the Beta, star in Ursa Minor, and represents the top front bowl star of the Little Dipper. Only 15 degrees from the north celestial pole, middle northerners can see it every night as it plies its small circular path. Together with the other bowl star (Pherkad, the Gamma star), it makes a small asterism called the "Guardians of the Pole," the two seeming in myth to "protect" the pole star. Though we are quite familiar with the major two motions of the Earth, daily rotation and annual revolution, the third motion, precession, is more obscure. The Moon and Sun act on the Earth's rotational bulge, and cause the axis to wobble over a 26,000 year period. The result is that the axis continually moves in a small circle against the background stars. Polaris is thus only a temporary pole star that will get better into the next century and then will begin to shift away. About the year 1100 BC, the pole made a reasonably close pass to Kochab, and there are old references to THIS star being called "Polaris.">>[/quote]----------------------------------------------------------------------
[list][list]. Jules Verne: _Journey to the centre of the earth_[/list]
[b][i][color=#0000FF]Presently, after lying quietly for some minutes, I opened my eyes and looked upwards. As I did so I made out a brilliant little dot, at the extremity of this long, gigantic telescope. It was a star without SCINTILLATING rays. According to my calculation, it must be. [/color][color=#FF0000]Beta in the constellation of the Little Bear.[/color][/i][/b][/list]-----------------------------------------------------------------------
[list][list]. James Joyce: _Ulysses_[/list]
[b][i][color=#0000FF]Meditations of evolution increasingly vaster: of the moon invisible in incipent lunation, approaching perigee: of the infinite lattiginous SCINTILLATING uncondensed milky way, discernible by daylight by an observer placed at the lower end of a cylindrical vertical shaft 5000 ft deep sunk from the surface towards the centre of the earth: of Sirius (alpha in Canis Major) 10 lightyears (57,000,000,000,000 miles) distant and in volume 900 times the dimension of our planet:[/color][/i][/b] [/list]-----------------------------------------------------------------------