ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. ANNOUNCEMENTS • HOMEWORK #2 handed out TODAY. DUE NEXT THURSDAY • PLANETARIUM HELP SESSION AFTER CLASS TODAY • LUNAR PHASES AND HORIZON CALENDAR HELP SESSIONS AFTER CLASS TODAY JUST OUTSIDE. • NOTE ON CROSS QUARTER DAYS (THANKS TO SOMEONE IN OUR CLASS). The intervals are NOT QUITE EQUAL… the CROSS-QUARTER DAYS do not fall precisely half way between the solstices and equinoxes AUTUMN EQUINOX (+42 days) = SAMHAIN on NOV 1st (+50 days) = WINTER SOLSTICE (+43 days) = IMBOLG on FEB 2nd (+46 days) = SPRING EQUINOX (+42 days) = BELTANE on MAY 1 (+50 days) = SUMMER SOLSTICE (+42 days) = LAMMAS on AUG 2nd (+50 days) = AUTUMN EQUINOX

2. METHODS FOR SETTING A SOLAR CALENDAR • SHADOW OF A GNOMON (VERTICAL STICK) or PINHOLE IMAGE OF THE SUN ALONG A MERIDIAN LINE • {EGYPTIAN, CHINESE, EUROPEAN} • RISING OR SETTING POINTS OF THE SUN ALONG THE HORIZON • {HOPI, EGYPTIAN, CELTS, etcetc} • 3). “ZENITH PASSAGE DAYS” = THE TWO DAYS PER YEAR THAT THE SUN GOES EXACTLY THROUGH THE ZENITH IN THE TROPICS (-23.5O TO + 23.5O) • 4). DAY THE SUN FIRST BREAKS THE HORIZON IN THE FAR NORTH • 5). “HELIACAL RISING” OF CERTAIN KEY STARS (SIRIUS/SOTHIS, PLEIADES) We’ll take these one-by-one. ALL WERE USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLE BUT TRADITION DIFFERED IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AND CULTURES.

3. SEASONAL YEAR NOT AS CRITICAL TO MEASURE ACCURATELY. • LENGTHS OF DAYS AND NIGHTS DO NOT VARY SIGNIFICANTLY OVER THE YEAR AND THE SUN’S RISING AND SETTING POINTS DO NOT CHANGE SO MUCH DURING THE YEAR AS AT MID-LATITUDES. • BETWEEN THE TROPICS OF CANCER AND CAPRICORN THE SUN ATTAINS THE ZENITH AT NOON TWO DAYS PER YEAR. THESE “ZENITH PASSAGE DAYS” ARE LISTED IN THE NOTES ON PAGE 51. • ZENITH PASSAGE DAYS CAN BE USED TO SET A SEASONAL CALENDAR ACCURATELY…..BUT ONLY IN THE TROPICS. • IFSOMEONE COULD DETERMINE WHEN THE SUN GOES EXACTLY THROUGH THE ZENITH. THE YEAR IN THE TROPICS

4. See Eratosthenes Challenge Observing Project WELL OF SYENE IN EGYPT EXACTLY ON TROPIC OF CANCER 23½ DEGREES NORTH LATITUDE

5. MAYA TIMES and PLACES LATITUDE =14.5 N IN THE NEW WORLD THE MAYA PEOPLE LIVE IN THE TROPICS & ARE THE GREATEST CALENDAR MAKERS OF ALL COPAN, HONDURAS…CITY THAT MADE EARLY MAYA CALENDARS

6. AT MONTE ALBAN SUN REFLECTS IN POOL OF WATER

7. BELOW IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE ZENITH SUN EFFECT (AUG 2013 ISSUE OF NATIONAL GEO) CENOTES, SACRED WELLS, ABOUND IN THE YUCATAN. HERE ARE A COUPLE AROUND CHICHEN ITZA

8. METHODS FOR SETTING A SOLAR CALENDAR • SHADOW OF A GNOMON (VERTICAL STICK) or PINHOLE IMAGE OF THE SUN ALONG A MERIDIAN LINE • {EGYPTIAN, CHINESE, EUROPEAN} • RISING OR SETTING POINTS OF THE SUN ALONG THE HORIZON • {HOPI, EGYPTIAN, CELTS, etcetc} • 3). “ZENITH PASSAGE DAYS” = THE TWO DAYS PER YEAR THAT THE SUN GOES EXACTLY THROUGH THE ZENITH IN THE TROPICS (-23.5O TO + 23.5O) • 4). DAY THE SUN FIRST BREAKS THE HORIZON IN THE FAR NORTH • 5). “HELIACAL RISING” OF CERTAIN KEY STARS (SIRIUS/SOTHIS, PLEIADES) We’ll take these one-by-one. ALL WERE USED BY ANCIENT PEOPLE BUT TRADITION DIFFERED IN DIFFERENT LOCATIONS AND CULTURES.

9. TARAJUNGO IN MALI • MATARIKI IN POLYNESIA • IN JAPAN THEY ARE SUBARU • TO THE LAKOTA INDIANS : WINCHIALA SAKOWIN • TO THE INCA THESE STARS ARE CALLED COLCA PLEIADES “ WHEN YOU NOTICE THE PLEIADES RISING, START YOUR REAPING, AND ON YOUR SOWING WHEN THEY ARE SETTING. THEY ARE HIDDEN FROM YOUR VIEW FOR A PERIOD OF FORTY FULL DAYS, BOTH NIGHT AND DAY, BUT THEN ONCE AGAIN AS THE YEAR MOVES AROUND, THEY REAPPEAR AT THE TIME FOR YOU TO BE SHARPENING YOUR SICKLE.”HESIOD OF GREECE, 9th CENTURY, BCE

10. MACHU PICCHUHIRAM BINGHAM 1913

11. MACHU PICCHUHIRAM BINGHAM 1913 WINTER SOLSTICE SUNRISE

12. INTRODUCING THE Q’ERO, DIRECT DESCENDENTS OF ANCIENT INCAS OF THE ANDES

13. My Q’ero Astronomy Mentor, Santos the Elder At the Puno-level village of the HatunQ’ero clan HatunQ’ero has 3 village locations at different altitudes: Puno: 13,000-16,000 feet where Llama and Alpaca are herded Quechua: 7,000-10,000 feet where potatoes are grown and celebrations are held Yunga: < 5,000 feet in the Jungle where corn is raised and nobody lives

17. IMPORTANT DATES IN THE INCA YEAR • Mid-May: Pleiades (Colca or “Storehouse”) disappears from the Sky and calendar officially ends for 37 days while the Pleiades are not seen in the sky • Mid-June: Colca reappears in morning sky, a heliacal rising and the Qoyllur Rit’i (Star of the Snows) pilgrimage and celebration is held. Prognostication involving planting of crops at or around this time. • Winter Solstice (held on June 24th) Inti Rymi ceremony in Cusco at the Coriacancha, in Plaza de Armes and at Sacsayhuaman • FULL INCA YEAR IS 365- 37 = 328 DAYS • AFTER 328 DAYS THERE FOLLOW 37 DAYS WHEN PLEIADES ARE NOT SEEN IN SKY AND “MAMA PACHA” LIES FALLOW

18. Qoyllur Rit’i (Star of the Snows) pilgrimage Originally an Inca Festival and sacred pilgrimage to honor and bring back a small part of the glacier which provides the beginning of the rivers of life as they descend to Earth from Mayu. Held when Pleiades first visible in the Morning Sky Partly taken over by the Catholic tradition that a boy celebrating Qoyllur Rit’I witnessed a “miracle” seeing a figure of Christ in a rock underneath which the boy was buried.

19. PLEIADES PROGNOSTICATION: PLEIADES LOOK BRIGHT  GOOD CROPS PLEIADES LOOK FAINT  POOR CROPS THIS METHOD HAS A ~ 70% SUCCESS RATE AT PREDICTING EL NINO YEARS

20. OBSERVATIONS OF THE PLEIADES (COLCA) PREDICTS THE WEATHER ! NORMAL RAIEL NINO YEAR OF SPARSE RAINFALL: PLEIADES DIM & TWINKLING