The music of the spheres : $b A nature lover's astronomyGrondal, Florence Armstrong
Science
The music of the spheres : $b A nature lover's astronomy
Grondal, Florence Armstrong
Astronomy
Although there are a number of opinions as to just which dragon in
legend is represented by Draco, the constellation is a very important
one, for one of its stars, a star named Thuban, was at one time our Pole
Star. Indeed, in 2300 B. C. the Pharaohs of Egypt looked up at Thuban as
their Pole Star. As their _Pole Star_! But where was our faithful North
Star during 2300 B. C., and how could our earth's pole swing from this
point in the heavens to one half the way between the "Guards" on the
tiny bowl of the Little Dipper, and Mizar on the crook of the handle of
the Big Dipper? This strange phenomenon not only happened but
happens regularly, for the earth "reels like a top" as well as "whirls,"
although the reeling motion is so much slower than the whirling motion
that while it whirls once on its axis in a day, it reels around only
once in 25,000 years. During this time the earth's axis describes a
circle from Thuban, through the present Pole Star, around through Vega
and back again. Vega may be easily located for it crosses the zenith in
the late evenings of summer, a beautiful bluish-white star of the first
magnitude. It will be about 11,500 years or about 13,500 A. D. before
this blue star will again shine above the northern pole of our earth.
It was not an uncommon thing in olden times to build temples dedicated
to the observation of certain stars. It is believed that the great
pyramid of Cheops, built 4600 years ago, was so constructed that the
light of Thuban, then the Pole Star, would shine down its great stone
tube at the time the star was at its lower culmination. Olcott in
"Starlore of All Ages" tells us that the idea was to conduct the ray of
light from Thuban through the passage opening high up in the side of the
pyramid, to the eye of a god hidden far down beneath its foundations.
When viewed from the bottom of the tunnel, which ends in a room hollowed
out of solid stone, it is said that the mouth appears but little larger
than the moon's diameter. It is interesting to note that the pyramid of
Cheops is the mightiest structure the world has ever seen. According to
Herodotus, 100,000 men were employed constantly on this work for 20
years. But the rays of Thuban can no longer shine down the 380 feet of
stone tube to light the eye of the god hidden in its depths, for the
reeling of the earth has caused the tube to be out of the star's line of
light. It may happen again in 21,000 years, however—if the pyramid is
still there.
In China there is an observatory 4000 years old which Samuel G. Bayne in
his little book the "Pith of Astronomy" speaks of visiting. Here is
a slanting granite wall in which two eyeholes had been bored for the
sole purpose of sighting Thuban.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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