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There is a nice simulation of constellations changing over time in one of the episodes of Sagan’s Cosmos, where he explains parallax and some of the other impor

There is a nice simulation of constellations changing over time in one of the episodes of Sagan’s Cosmos, where he explains parallax and some of the other important phenomena.

aebtebeten 3y ago
H A Rey The Stars (1952) had a nice series of cartoons depicting a caveman, a grey-flannel-suit man, and a futuristic man all looking at their respective versions of the big dipper. The Barbers' When They Severed Earth From Sky (2004) hypothesises that the various kingship changes in heaven of several ancient mythologies correspond to the precession of the solstices and equinoxes through the zodiac. Eg, for Greek mythology, they give: Head God Summer Spring CHAOS Libra Cancer ~6480 BC OURANOS Virgo Gemini ~4320 BC KRONOS Leo Taurus ~2160 BC ZEUS Cancer Aries along with parallel tables for Babylonian, Hittite, Phoenician, and Norse mythologies, and reference a different work which should give Germanic, Finnic, Iranian, Indian, and Chinese mythological shifts. According to this hypothesis, when the fall equinox moved into Virgo and Saturn and Jupiter came into conjunction with Pisces in 6 BC, many ancients took it as marking the advent of a new Kingdom of Heaven ruling a New Age, making them more susceptible to picking up new religions emanating from the middle east around that time, eg Mithraism. Does Virgil, writing ca 40 BC, predict the New Age? [Fourth Eclogue 4-10] > Now is come the last age of Cumaean song; the great line of the centuries begins anew. Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new generation descends from heaven on high. Only do you, pure Lucina, smile on the birth of the child, under whom the iron brood shall at last cease and a golden race spring up throughout the world! (but note that by this counting the "Age of Aquarius" wouldn't be due to start until ca 2160; rather far off in human lifetimes from the 1960s)
- nickdothutton 3y ago
  This is tremendous. One could write a book relating well documented history and mythology with the changing constellations.
whartung 3y ago
I actually remember a couple of diagrams in a science book way back in elementary school, so we’re talking 70s here, showing the Big Dipper today and what it would look like in 50,000 years. It was a kind of weird feeling as a young boy “seeing” change to something considered so static, and all the deeper considerations from that.
- Tommstein 3y ago
  I've played with Celestia and had it draw the constellations, then zoomed around the galaxy and seen how they got distorted as I moved away from Earth and saw them from different angles. Really drove home that the constellations are three-dimensional arrangements, not flat.

There is a nice simulation of constellations changing over time in one of the episodes of Sagan’s Cosmos, where he explains parallax and some of the other important phenomena.

aebtebeten 3y ago

H A Rey The Stars (1952) had a nice series of cartoons depicting a caveman, a grey-flannel-suit man, and a futuristic man all looking at their respective versions of the big dipper. The Barbers' When They Severed Earth From Sky (2004) hypothesises that the various kingship changes in heaven of several ancient mythologies correspond to the precession of the solstices and equinoxes through the zodiac. Eg, for Greek mythology, they give: Head God Summer Spring CHAOS Libra Cancer ~6480 BC OURANOS Virgo Gemini ~4320 BC KRONOS Leo Taurus ~2160 BC ZEUS Cancer Aries along with parallel tables for Babylonian, Hittite, Phoenician, and Norse mythologies, and reference a different work which should give Germanic, Finnic, Iranian, Indian, and Chinese mythological shifts. According to this hypothesis, when the fall equinox moved into Virgo and Saturn and Jupiter came into conjunction with Pisces in 6 BC, many ancients took it as marking the advent of a new Kingdom of Heaven ruling a New Age, making them more susceptible to picking up new religions emanating from the middle east around that time, eg Mithraism. Does Virgil, writing ca 40 BC, predict the New Age? [Fourth Eclogue 4-10] > Now is come the last age of Cumaean song; the great line of the centuries begins anew. Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new generation descends from heaven on high. Only do you, pure Lucina, smile on the birth of the child, under whom the iron brood shall at last cease and a golden race spring up throughout the world! (but note that by this counting the "Age of Aquarius" wouldn't be due to start until ca 2160; rather far off in human lifetimes from the 1960s)

nickdothutton 3y ago
This is tremendous. One could write a book relating well documented history and mythology with the changing constellations.

whartung 3y ago

I actually remember a couple of diagrams in a science book way back in elementary school, so we’re talking 70s here, showing the Big Dipper today and what it would look like in 50,000 years. It was a kind of weird feeling as a young boy “seeing” change to something considered so static, and all the deeper considerations from that.

Tommstein 3y ago
I've played with Celestia and had it draw the constellations, then zoomed around the galaxy and seen how they got distorted as I moved away from Earth and saw them from different angles. Really drove home that the constellations are three-dimensional arrangements, not flat.