https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBclxF2zCPc
Having watched a PBS documentary on timekeeping and its relationship to ancient monuments and alignments of monuments to the cardinal points on Solstice/Equinox alignments, it is easy to criticise those involved in the programme but much better to draw
attention to the fact that these structures exist as working monuments. The criticism is restricted to the irritating habit of assigning to our ancestors superfluous beliefs for self-aggrandising purposes of contemporaries. Of course, most the
contemporary technical details are skewed towards celestial sphere conceptions which is only a recent arrival (RA/Dec).
It is true that the length of a shadow on the December Solstice can determine the length of the annual cycle as a rough estimate as the Sun stands still in its Southern most declination, at least in the Northern hemisphere before slowly moving North
again. Some of the older monuments don't align to midwinter, but register the 3 months from what in the present calendar is the end of October to the beginning of February with midwinter dividing the period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_of_the_Hostages
The more accurate system are the Decans which do not rely on what the Sun is doing, but rather the seasonal first appearance of a new grouping of stars every 10 days. It leads to the further refinement that the brightest background star Sirius skips an
annual appearance every fourth cycle of 365 days by one day. When I encounter this perspective, I get enormous satisfaction such as the magnificent Book of Job-
" Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion? Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the
earth?" Job 38
The present explanations, even before getting into the era of the Ptolemaic framework and solar system research, is far too untidy at the moment to be of any use to observers today. It is because of that deficiency, people who would normally find
contemporary observations of the annual transition of the stars from left to right of the Sun or from an evening appearance to a dawn appearance of a star using the older framework, now can't work with the necessary modifications to how we see our motion
and those of the their planets in a Sun-centred system.
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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