Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Conflict between Archaeo-astronomy and Astronomy reveals new understanding of the Equinoxes (My article in Firstpost)

This article published in a leading web magazine, Firstpost, establishes by means of Archaeo-astronomy of ancient monuments that there is no change in the alignment between the earth and the sun, thereby indicating that the earth's axis doesn't precess. The precession theory of astronomy shows that there is a continuous change in the alignment between the earth and the frame of reference lying outside the solar system. In the absence of axial precession of the earth shown by archeoastronomy, this could only mean that the entire solar system is precessing with the inmates (at least the earth) retaining a constant configuration with the sun. 

This revelation from archeoastronomy is a game-changing concept that is going to be the basis for future Nobel winning research on the Theory of Precession of the equinoxes. 

Conflict between Archaeo-astronomy and Astronomy reveals new understanding of the Equinoxes-World News , Firstpost



Come 21 March and people are seen thronging certain places of the world — one among them being the temple of Lord Padmanabha Swamy at Trivandrum! The purpose is to see the spectacle of the equinoctial sun passing through the mid-point of the tower, known as Gopura.

Every year the equinoctial days — in March and September — attract many pilgrims and tourists alike wanting to catch a glimpse of the direct solar-rays splash through the openings located one below the other at the middle of the Gopura of the temple.

Equinox is the day the sun shines over the equator twice a year as it is seen to move from north and south. This year the northward crossing of the equator, popularly known as Spring Equinox starts at 15:33 hours, Universal Time (UT) on 20 March. The date of Spring equinox oscillates between 20 and 21 March depending on the leap year adjustment. The unique sighting of the equinoctial sun at the middle of the Gopura is hailed as an archaeological wonder of the ancient builders, though not very ancient because this Gopura was built 400 years ago.

Not so recent is the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia built in the 12th century whose central tower offers the fantastic sight of the sun touching its summit only on the days of the equinox. Back in time, four centuries before Angkor Wat was built, the Maya people had made the Temple of Kukulkan in the city of Chichen Itza that is also found to be aligned to the equinoctial sun. On both the equinoctial days, the shadow of the sun makes snake-like body from the head of the serpent carved at the bottom of the structure.

Another structure, the Stonehenge circle in Southern England, built farther back in time in stages between 3100 BCE and 1600 BCE was found aligned to the equinoxes when it was first reported by William Stukeley in his 1740 publication. The alignment continues to be seen even today, attracting a considerable crowd and a new evolving order of pagan worship.

Competing with the antiquity of the Stonehenge is the megalithic structure found on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea — the Mnajdra temple complex. One of its structures has a central passage exactly on the way of the equinoctial sunlight and the two edges of the passage align with the two solstices. This structure is perhaps the most researched but has also left researchers most bewildered. Graham Hancock is of the opinion that it could have been built 12,000 years ago, in the earlier precession cycle, but the archaeological evidence do not place it beyond 5,000 years ago.

A number of other structures of lost civilisations are found to be exactly oriented to the equinoctial sun. Some of them have been documented by the NASA website, while many others are being unearthed by archaeo-astronomers. To mention some of them, the giant rock on top of a mountain in Machu Picchu of the Incas in Peru built in the 15th century, the Grianan of Aileach of Ireland built around the 6th-7th century and the Ahu Akivi statues of the Easter Island built in the 15th century are found positioned in such a way that they face the equinoctial sun.

Many churches in Europe, built centuries ago, are also seen to have openings in strategic places on the wall to allow the sun’s rays to fall on the altar exactly on the equinox days.

Such perfect alignment of these structures with the equinox of today is astounding and unbelievable as per current scientific understanding of a phenomenon called ‘precession of the equinoxes” that is attributed to the precession of the earth’s axis.

Current science on precession of the equinoxes

It is true that the sun’s position in the backdrop of the star-studded sky does not come back to the same position at the time of equinox (sun shining on the earth’s equator). The equinox of every succeeding year falls 20 minutes short of the previous year thereby causing a shortfall of one day every 72 years. By this time, the sun moves one degree in the sky. This backward movement of the equinoctial point is known as the precession of the equinox.

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