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serendipitypublishing
Skeptic Friend
60 Posts |
 Posted - 02/03/2005 : 04:24:52 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the description of the retrograde motion, it helped me visualise what is happening.
If this is a diagram illustrating Venus's cycle using earth as a frame of reference then it must also reflect the change in motion of the setting and rising sun at the solstices.
Mercury is the only other object I can think of in the sky that would have an observable pattern with Venus. |
'We're all in the gutter but some of us are looking up at the stars'
Oscar Wilde
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/freeflowpyramids/ |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 02/03/2005 : 08:29:14 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by serendipitypublishing
Thanks for the description of the retrograde motion, it helped me visualise what is happening.
It's one of those pesky details.quote:
If this is a diagram illustrating Venus's cycle using earth as a frame of reference then it must also reflect the change in motion of the setting and rising sun at the solstices.
If all you want to do is keep track of Venus' cycles through eight years, then the soltices are superfluous information. If you want to keep track of Venus' cycles relative to some other event (like transits of Venus across the face of the Sun), you'd need to keep track of Venus' apparent height above (or below) the ecliptic, and there'd be 2-and-7/12th cycles of that pattern through each and every synodic period, and it would precess by two days every eight years, uncorrectable by "holidays" (there are usually two transits of Venus, eight years apart, every hundred-and-something years). And how high the Sun rises above our equator doesn't make a bit of difference to that, either.
But if it did, you'll find that there are either three or four soltices in each synodic period of Venus, and whether its three or four changes on a centuries-long cycle. Nowhere in the Delphic calendar is such a pattern evident.quote:
Mercury is the only other object I can think of in the sky that would have an observable pattern with Venus.
Mercury's synodic period is 115.88 days, so it goes through 3.15 cycles per year, and 5.04 cycles for every cycle of Venus. But before you start wondering if the Delphic calendar tracks Mercury's position vs. Venus', all the same problems (bad ratios, no meaning to the upper and lower rings, etc.) exist. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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serendipitypublishing
Skeptic Friend
60 Posts |
Posted - 02/07/2005 : 09:17:06 [Permalink]
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Thanks Dave. You clearly have a very good understanding of astronomy.
To use the Delphic Calender then it would not have been used as a counter but as a visual guide to determine where in the Venus 8 year cycle we were at. I try to focus on this when trying to see if something fits.
quote:
Mercury's synodic period is 115.88 days, so it goes through 3.15 cycles per year, and 5.04 cycles for every cycle of Venus. But before you start wondering if the Delphic calendar tracks Mercury's position vs. Venus', all the same problems (bad ratios, no meaning to the upper and lower rings, etc.) exist.
I accept that the upper lower rings will need to be explained. But the 5 mercury cycles for each Venus cycle looks like a good ratio which needs to be looked at. What do you think ? |
'We're all in the gutter but some of us are looking up at the stars'
Oscar Wilde
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/freeflowpyramids/ |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 02/07/2005 : 10:08:18 [Permalink]
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I think that a coincidence between the number of rings in the figure and the ratio of synodic periods of Mercury and Venus is not enough to establish a meaning to the figure. It's just as accurate to say "God gave us five fingers on each hand to remind us of the orbital relationships between the two innermost planets." That is, not very accurate at all.
And speaking of accuracy, that 0.04 that the ratio is off by (from an exact 5.00) is devestating. After just 20 years, Mercury would be "off" by half an orbit relative to Venus. For every 25 synodic periods of Venus (almost 40 years), there are actually 126 synodic periods for Mercury, not 125. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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