[meteorite-list] 8000BC Big Dipper Petroglyph: Evolution of star positions

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:40:43 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: <8CE3FC4E793ED99-1824-26AB2_at_webmail-m090.sysops.aol.com>

Hello list members,

Here's an earth-view movie "starring" the big dipper for those who'd
like to see an accurate picture of the starry sky (less supernovae) for
over two hundred thousand years:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6618803/bd100c.avi

(88 MB)

Most list members probably don't have software that can do this, and
watching how the sky changes over such a long time period can have a
very humbling and soothing effect.

So ... Here's an accurate full color movie starting over 101,000 years
ago to 106,000 years way into the future to watch how the big dipper
(the Plough, el arado) evolves in all of its glory. You can watch all
of the stars around it like luminescent specks of plankton in the
celestial sea flocking around, some which can be speedy, appreciate how
change is in the air always...

It is a big file (over 200,000 years!), suggest you full-screen it so
you can read the years before or after the present in the lower left
corner.

Also, settle back into your Captain's chair on your starship; amazing
the tools we have available today at our finger tips. If you pause the
video at any point you can have the frame of what the big dipper looks
like at that point in time of interest.

All the while I was thinking how likely with all the action going on,
that particles and fragments of foreign stars could make it here.

Kindest wishes
Doug

PS I'm not sure that Starry Night or any of the better sky map
softwares have useful, decent animations of the evolution over such
large times of stars or whatever groupings of them.


-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
To: lebofsky <lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu>
Cc: meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 1:09 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] 8000BC Big Dipper Petroglyph: Evolution
of star positions


No apology necessary! I was just confused.

Yes, I know that some programs let you watch the evolution of
asterisms.
But nobody should be surprised if their particular star mapping program
has short enough time limits to not allow for this.

Chris

*******************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On 9/12/2011 10:54 AM, lebofsky at lpl.arizona.edu wrote:
> Hi Chris:
>
> VERY Sorry!
>
> Just pointing out (it was sort of in the back of my mind at the time),
> that Starry Night DOES have a special routine for looking at the
> constellations and asterisms back in time. That was all!
>
> If you use the Starry Night to go back 100,000 (actually the limit is
> 99,999 years, but who is counting), the diagram that Robert Juhl
showed of
> the 7 bright stars of the Big Dipper is sort of correct. But this is
> 100,000 years ago, not 8,000. I was somewhat confused by Robert's
comment
> that Wu Jiacai used "different assumption." What other assumptions are
> there that would significantly change the proper motion of the start
over
> this period of time (I think the program actually takes the distances
to
> the stars as well as their direction of motion, so some stars get
closer
> and move faster while others get farther away and appear to move
slower).
>
> Again, Chris, I apologize, I only meant that the program does let you
> "look back" 100,000 years.
>
> Larry
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Received on Mon 12 Sep 2011 08:40:43 PM PDT