A heliacal year is the interval between the heliacal risings of a star. It differs from the sidereal year for stars away from the ecliptic due mainly to the precession of the equinoxes.
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Implying hereby the heliacal ascent and Cosmical descent of those stars.
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These predictable heliacal re-appearances by the decans were eventually used by the Egyptians to mark the divisions of their annual solar calendar. Thus the heliacal rising of Sirius marked the annual flooding of the Nile. Eventually this system led to a system of 12 daytime hours and 12 nighttime hours, varying in length according to the season. Later, a system of 24 "equinoctial" hours was used.
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In 1904 Meyer was the first to note the Sothic cycle of the Heliacal rising of Sirius, which forms the basis for the traditional chronology of Egypt.
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Pleiades seen with the naked-eye (upper-left corner). High visibility of the star cluster Pleiades in the night sky and its position along the ecliptic (which approximates to the solar system's common planetary plane) has given it importance in many cultures, ancient and modern. Its heliacal rising, which moves through the seasons over millennia (see precession) was nonetheless a date of folklore or ritual for various ancestral groups, so too its yearly heliacal setting.Brad Schaefer (Yale University).
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When a planet has a heliacal rising, there is a conjunction with the Sun beforehand. Depending on the type of conjunction, there may be a syzygy, eclipse, transit, or occultation of the Sun.
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Constellations containing stars that rise and set were incorporated into early calendars or zodiacs. The Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Greeks all used the heliacal risings of various stars for the timing of agricultural activities. Because of its position about 40° off the ecliptic, the heliacal risings of the bright star Sirius occur over a "Sothic year" almost exactly synchronized with the solar year. Since the development of civilization, this has occurred at Cairo on July 19 on the Julian calendar.
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The Sothic year is the interval between heliacal risings of the star Sirius. It is currently less than the sidereal year and its duration is very close to the Julian year of 365.25 days.
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Stonehenge Aotearoa has various sculptures placed around the structure. The stone sculpture "the Fingers of Mother Earth" marks the place where the heliacal rising of Matariki can be observed around the winter solstice in June.
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The heliacal rising constellation at the vernal equinox is based on the last zodiacal constellation rising above the Eastern Horizon just before dawn and before the light of the approaching Sun obliterates the stars on the eastern horizon. Currently at the vernal equinox the constellation of Aquarius has been the heliacal rising constellation for some centuries. The stars disappear about one hour before dawn depending upon magnitude, latitude, and date. This one hour represents approximately 15 degrees difference compared to the contemporary method based on the position of the Sun amongst the zodiacal constellations.
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The cornices of the building have hundreds of masks of Chaac with Venus symbols under the eyelids.De Meis (2014) p. 159 Inscriptions De Meis has a table of 14 Long Count inscriptions that record heliacal phenomena of Venus.
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A series of symbolically royal celestial events, which were centered on the planet's annual cycle,Jupiter's synodic cycle is composed of the following: heliacal rising, the first station, the acronycal rising, second station, and heliacal setting. See Swerdlow, N. M. The Babylonian Theory of the Planets, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1998),24. could have been associated with Judaism and the Messiah. D. Hutchison has made a thorough analysis of the symbolically royal astronomical events visible from Babylonia.Elchert, Ken, “Prophecy, Jupiter, and the Dead Sea Scrolls,” Griffith (Observatory) Observer, Vol. 82, N° 6, June 2018, pp. 10-11.
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To the Māori of New Zealand, the Pleiades are called Matariki, and their heliacal rising signifies the beginning of the new year (around June). The Mapuche of South America called the Pleiades Ngauponi which in the vicinity of the we tripantu (Mapuche new year) will disappear by the west, lafkenmapu or ngulumapu, appearing at dawn to the East, a few days before the birth of new life in nature. Heliacal rising of Ngauponi, i.e. appearance of the Pleiades by the horizon over an hour before the Sun approximately 12 days before the winter solstice, announced we tripantu.
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Determining the date of a heliacal rise of Sirius has been shown to be difficult, especially considering the need to know the exact latitude of the observation. Another problem is that because the Egyptian calendar loses one day every four years, a heliacal rise will take place on the same day for four years in a row, and any observation of that rise can date to any of those four years, making the observation imprecise. A number of criticisms have been leveled against the reliability of dating by the Sothic cycle. Some are serious enough to be considered problematic.
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The FA Aldebaran alignment would have worked best between AD 1200 and AD 1700. Further, precession changes the date of first helical rise: Although today the first heliacal rise of Aldebaran is a few days after the summer solstice, between AD 1200 and 1700, the first heliacal rise of Aldebaran would have been just before the summer solstice, allowing an observer to predict the coming of this event. Astronomer Jack Robinson from the University of South Florida has further proposed that cairn pair FD was used to observe the rising of the star Fomalhaut, which would have lined up with its rising point between AD 1050 and AD 1450, when Fomalhaut had its first heliacal rise roughly a month before the summer solstice. A carbon date for the Bighorn Medicine Wheel comes from a piece of wood found in cairn F, corresponding to an age of no more than 220 years, roughly in the middle of the 18th century.
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The name of the Pleiades comes from Ancient Greek. It probably derives from plein ("to sail") because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: "the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising"."Pleiad, n." OED Online.
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Porphyry relies heavily on Antiochus for definitions of technical terms used by Ptolemy in Tetrabiblos. Antiochus made one of the earliest references to astrological reception, and discussed the twelves houses (topoi) of the astrological chart, heliacal risings and settings, and the Lots.
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In astrology, noted for making predictions and having written the Kitab bulugh al-umniyya ("On the Attainment of Desire"), a work concerning the heliacal risings of Sirius, and on predictions concerning what day of the week the Coptic year will start on.
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According to another suggestion Pleiades derives from πλεῖν (plein , "to sail") because of the cluster's importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea: "the season of navigation began with their heliacal rising"."Pleiad, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2014. Web.
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Further, he found that cairn pairs FO, FA, and FB correspond to the rising points of the stars Sirius, Aldebaran, and Rigel, respectively. Observing the first yearly heliacal rising of these stars would have been an effective tool for determining the progress of the solar year, as the first heliacal rise of a star occurs on the same date (relative to the solstices) each year. Rising positions of stars change very slowly over the centuries, due to the Earth's precession, so the directions of these cairn pairs can be used to project at what date they aligned best with the rising points of these stars.
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The Maya also followed the movements of Jupiter, Mars and Mercury. When Venus rose as the Morning Star, this was associated with the rebirth of the Maya Hero Twins.Foster 2002, p. 260. For the Maya, the heliacal rising of Venus was associated with destruction and upheaval.
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The ancient Aztecs of Mexico and Central America based their calendar upon the Pleiades. Their year began when priests first remarked the asterism heliacal rising in the east, immediately before the sun's dawn light obliterated the view of the stars. Aztecs called the Pleiades ' (; Classical Nahuatl for "marketplace").
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Oxford University Press, 2001. These dates, just as all the dates of the Eighteenth Dynasty, are open to dispute because of uncertainty about the circumstances surrounding the recording of a Heliacal Rise of Sothis in the reign of Amenhotep I.Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. p.202.
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The view was rejected by the philologist Franz Boll (1867–1924). Two modern translators of ancient astrological texts insist that the text does not use the technical terms for either a heliacal or an acronycal rising of a star. However, one concedes that Matthew may have used layman's terms for a rising.
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There is an analogous holiday in Hawaiʻi known as Makahiki.Hawaiian Voyaging Course The makahiki season begins with a new moon following the rising of the pleiades (or makali`i) just after sunset instead of the heliacal rising. The Hawaiian creation chant known as the Kumulipo also begins with reference to the pleiades (known as the makali`i).
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143f Harkhebi predicted the weather patterns of the heliacal risings of the fixed stars. He refers the winds and the omens to his prediction of meteorology. While Harkhebi was observing the north and south motions of the sun and Venus, he concluded that the Babylonians had some affiliation with the weather phenomena in Enuma Anu Enil.
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Although the link was known in Tibet, with names such as Genpo karpo (Rgan po dkar po) or Genkar (Rgan dkar) "White Old Man", the symbolism was not popular. Instead, Canopus was more commonly named Karma Rishi སྐར་མ་རི་ཥི།, derived from Indian mythology. Tibetans celebrated the star's heliacal rising with ritual bathing and associated it with morning dew.
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DeMeis 2014 p. 161 De Meis has a table of 11 Long Counts that record the greatest elongation of Venus.DeMeis 2014 p. 163 after Aveni & Hotaling 1994 The Bonampak murals depict the victory of king Chaan Muan with his enemies lying down, pleading for their lives on a date which was the heliacal rising of Venus and a zenith passage of the Sun.
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John H Rogers, "Origins of the ancient constellations: I. The Mesopotamian traditions", Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 108,1, 1998, p. 9 Each age is composed of 30 degrees. Therefore, 15 degrees represents about half an age or about 1080 years. Therefore, based on the heliacal rising method, the Age of Aquarius arrived about 1,080 years earlier than the modern system.
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242 Detailed records of astronomical observations began during the Warring States period (fourth century BCE) and flourished from the Han period onward. Chinese astronomy was equatorial, centered as it was on close observation of circumpolar stars, and was based on different principles from those prevailing in traditional Western astronomy, where heliacal risings and settings of zodiac constellations formed the basic ecliptic framework.
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It is a yellow-hued giant star of magnitude 3.1, 340 light- years from Earth. The secondary is a blue-white hued star of magnitude 6.1. The two stars are distinguishable in binoculars. β Capricorni's traditional name comes from the Arabic phrase for "the lucky stars of the slaughterer," a reference to ritual sacrifices performed by ancient Arabs at the heliacal rising of Capricornus.
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As the Earth orbits around the Sun, the north and south poles are alternately tilted towards the Sun. The Sun's altitude therefore increases and decreases during the year, producing seasons. Stonehenge Aotearoa's six heel stones mark the place where the Sun is rising and setting at solstices and equinoxes. This sculpture marks the place of the heliacal rising of Matariki around winter solstice at Stonehenge Aotearoa.
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Venus was closely associated with warfare, and the hieroglyph meaning "war" incorporated the glyph-element symbolizing the planet.Foster 2002, p. 262. Sight-lines through the windows of the Caracol building at Chichen Itza align with the northernmost and southernmost extremes of Venus' path. Maya rulers launched military campaigns to coincide with the heliacal or cosmical rising of Venus, and would also sacrifice important captives to coincide with such conjunctions.
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This is still reflected in the definition of J2000, which started at noon, Terrestrial Time. In traditional cultures and in antiquity other epochs were used. In ancient Egypt, days were reckoned from sunrise to sunrise, following a morning epoch. This may be related to the fact that the Egyptians regulated their year by the heliacal rising of the star Sirius, a phenomenon which occurs in the morning just before dawn.
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1100 BC. The MUL.APIN, contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and the settings of the planets, lengths of daylight measured by a water clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and thus measure right-ascensions or time-intervals, and also employs the stars of the zenith, which are also separated by given right-ascensional differences.
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The former, based on the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar with special emphasis on the 260-day tzolk'in count, was the source of the Argüelles' 13 Moon/28 Day Calendar. This calendar begins on July 26 (heliacal rising of the star Sirius) and runs for 364 days. The remaining date, July 25, is celebrated in some quarters as the "Day out of Time/Peace through Culture Festival". \- celebrated in over 90 countries around the world.
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Lilies in the late July heat, Lemnos, Greece Cooling-off in a heat wave The dog days or are the hot, sultry days of summer. They were historically the period following the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius, which Hellenistic astrology connected with heat, drought, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs, and bad luck. They are now taken to be the hottest, most uncomfortable part of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
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The heliacal rising (, ) or star rise of a star occurs annually when it briefly becomes visible above the eastern horizon at dawn just before sunrise, after a period of less than a year when it had not been visible. Historically, the most important such rising is that of Sirius, which was an important feature of the Egyptian calendar and astronomical development. The rising of the Pleiades heralded the start of the Ancient Greek sailing season, using celestial navigation.
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During a Sothic cycle, the 365-day year loses enough time that the start of its year once again coincides with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius ( or , 'Triangle'; , ) on 19 July in the Julian calendar. It is an important aspect of Egyptology, particularly with regard to reconstructions of the Egyptian calendar and its history. Astronomical records of this displacement may have been responsible for the later establishment of the more accurate Julian and Alexandrian calendars.
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In the lunar calendar, the intercalary month was added as needed to maintain the heliacal rising of Sirius in the fourth month of the Season of the Harvest. This meant that the Season of the Emergence usually lasted from January to May.. Because the precise timing of the flood varied, the months of "Emergence" no longer precisely reflected the state of the river but the season was usually the time for the planting and growth of Egyptian grain.
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Its position was critical to their civilisation as when it rose heliacal in the east before sunrise it foretold the flooding of the Nile. It is also where we get the phrase 'dog days of summer' from. Astronomy played a considerable part in religious matters for fixing the dates of festivals and determining the hours of the night. The titles of several temple books are preserved recording the movements and phases of the sun, moon and stars.
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With the Neolithic agricultural revolution new needs were also met by increasing knowledge of constellations, whose appearances in the night-time sky change with the seasons, allowing the rising of particular star-groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities.Hesiod ( 8th century BC). Hesiod’s poem Works and Days demonstrates how the heliacal rising and setting of constellations were used as a calendrical guide to agricultural events, from which were drawn mundane astrological predictions, e.g.: “Fifty days after the solstice, when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, is the right time to go sailing. Then you will not wreck your ship, nor will the sea destroy the sailors, unless Poseidon the Earth-Shaker be set upon it, or Zeus, the king of the deathless gods” (II. 663-677). By the 3rd millennium BC, widespread civilisations had developed sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and are believed to have consciously oriented their temples to create alignment with the heliacal risings of the stars.Kelley and Milone (2005) p.268.
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There is evidence that Capella was significant to the Aztec people, as the Late Classic site Monte Albán has a marker for the star's heliacal rising. Indigenous peoples of California and Nevada also noticed the bright pattern of Auriga's stars. To them, the constellation's bright stars formed a curve that was represented in crescent-shaped petroglyphs. The indigenous Pawnee of North America recognized a constellation with the same major stars as modern Auriga: Alpha, Beta, Gamma (Beta Tauri), Theta, and Iota Aurigae.
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A heliacal rising of Sothis was recorded in the reign of Thutmose's predecessor, Amenhotep I, which has been dated to 1517 BC, assuming the observation was made at Thebes.Grimal (1988) p.202 The year of Amenhotep's death and Thutmose's subsequent coronation can be accordingly derived, and is dated to 1506 BC by most modern scholars. However, if the observation were made at either Heliopolis or Memphis, as a minority of scholars promote, Thutmose would have been crowned in 1526 BC.Helk (1983) pp.
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The rising of a constellation just before sunrise (its heliacal rising) was considered the last hour of the night. Over the course of the year, each constellation rose just before sunrise for ten days. When they became part of the astrology of the Hellenistic Age, each decan was associated with ten degrees of the zodiac. Texts from the 2nd century BC list predictions relating to the positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.
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The rising of a constellation just before sunrise (its heliacal rising) was considered the last hour of the night. Over the course of the year, each constellation rose just before sunrise for ten days. When they became part of the astrology of the Hellenistic Age, each decan was associated with ten degrees of the zodiac. Texts from the 2nd century BCE list predictions relating to the positions of planets in zodiac signs at the time of the rising of certain decans, particularly Sothis.
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For the next few days, Sirius is visible at dawn as a glimmering star (doing battle with Apaosha). In the torrid summer months, as Sirius becomes more directly visible, the light of the star appears to grow stronger (Tishtrya gathering strength) until it is steadily visible in the firmament (Apaosha vanquished). With the defeat of Apaosha, the rainy season begins (in late autumn). A mythological explanation of the heliacal setting of Sirius is only alluded to in the Avesta: In Yasht 18.5-6,.
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This cycle was first noticed by Eduard Meyer in 1904, who then carefully combed known Egyptian inscriptions and written materials to find any mention of the calendar dates when Sirius rose at dawn. He found six of them, on which the dates of much of the conventional Egyptian chronology are based. A heliacal rise of Sirius was recorded by Censorinus as having happened on the Egyptian New Year's Day between AD139 and 142.Kitchen, K. A. The Chronology of Ancient Egypt. p.205.
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APIN contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and settings of the planets, and lengths of daylight as measured by a water clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and thus measure right- ascensions or time intervals, and also employs the stars of the zenith, which are also separated by given right-ascensional differences. There are dozens of cuneiform Mesopotamian texts with real observations of eclipses, mainly from Babylonia.
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Osiride statue of Amenhotep I, currently housed in the British Museum. In Amenhotep I's ninth regnal year, a heliacal rise of Sothis was observed on the ninth day of the third month of summer.Grimal, p.202. Modern astronomers have calculated that, if the observation was made from Memphis or Heliopolis, such an observation could only have been made on that day in 1537 BC. If the observation was made in Thebes, however, it could only have taken place in 1517 BC.Helk, Otto, Drenkhahn, p.969.
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The intercalary month or epagomenal days. of the ancient Egyptian, Coptic, and Ethiopian calendars are a period of five days in common years and six days in leap years in addition to those calendars' 12 standard months, sometimes reckoned as their thirteenth month. They originated as a periodic measure to ensure that the heliacal rising of Sirius would occur in the 12th month of the Egyptian lunar calendar but became a regular feature of the civil calendar and its descendants. Coptic and Ethiopian leap days occur in the year preceding Gregorian leap years.
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For example, the ancient Egyptians used the heliacal rising of Sirius to predict the flooding of the Nile. A study of temperature records over the past 300 years suggests that the seasonal year is governed by the anomalistic year rather than the tropical year. This suggestion is surprising because the seasons have been thought to be governed by the tilt of the Earth's axis (see Effect of sun angle on climate). The two types of years differ by a mere 4 days over 300 years, so Thompson's result may not be significant.
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Depending on the observer's latitude many stars are subject to annual heliacal risings and settings. Rising means the local latitude of the earth has moved along its orbit such that the star, star cluster or galaxy emerges for part of the year to within months be visible for the whole night and then for the early portion of the night. Thus the star's first emergence, an annual rise, is immediately before dawn. The risen status of each star is easiest considered day-on-day in the tropics where the time of dawn varies less.
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The Ebers papyrus, which is the main source for information on ancient Egyptian medicine, also seems to date to this time (the mention of the Heliacal rise of Sothis by which the early New Kingdom chronology is usually calculated was found on the back of this document). It appears that during Amenhotep I's reign the first water clock was invented.Helk, pp. 111-112. Amenhotep's court astronomer Amenemheb took credit for creating this device in his tomb biography, although the oldest surviving mechanism dates to the reign of Amenhotep III.
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The far more sophisticated pre-Hispanic Mayan astrology is mainly found in the Early Post-Classic Dresden Codex, and concerns lunar and solar eclipses and the varying aspects of Venus in the course of its cycles; animals and deities symbolize the social groups negatively affected by Venus during its heliacal rising as the Morning Star. The Paris Codex contains what some consider to be a zodiac.Love 1994: 89, 93ff Some of the Books of Chilam Balam testify to the great interest the colonial Maya had for the astrology of their conquerors.
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Although best seen in the evening in the northern hemisphere's late winter and spring, Regulus appears at some time of night throughout the year except for about a month (depending on ability to compensate for the sun's glare, ideally done so in twilight) on either side of August 22–24, when the Sun overlaps. Thus the star can be viewed the whole night, crossing the sky, in late February. Regulus passes through SOHO's LASCO C3 when the sun overlaps. For most Earth observers, the heliacal rising (pre- sunrise appearance) of Regulus occurs in the first week of September.
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The Nile flood at Cairo . Current understanding of the earliest development of the Egyptian calendar remains speculative. A tablet from the reign of the First Dynasty pharaoh Djer () was once thought to indicate that the Egyptians had already established a link between the heliacal rising of Sirius ( or Sopdet, "Triangle"; , Sôthis) and the beginning of their year, but more recent analysis has questioned whether the tablet's picture refers to Sirius at all. Similarly, based on the Palermo Stone, Alexander Scharff proposed that the Old Kingdom observed a 320-day year, but his theory has not been widely accepted.
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The tablet's engravings were believed to discuss the bull-formed Sopdet. During the early period of Egyptian civilization, the heliacal rising of the bright star preceded the usual annual flooding of the Nile. It was therefore apparently used for the solar civil calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rdmillenniumBC. Despite the wandering nature of the Egyptian calendar, the erratic timing of the flood from year to year, and the slow procession of Sirius within the solar year, Sopdet continued to remain central to cultural depictions of the year and to celebrations of Wep Renpet (), the Egyptian New Year.
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Tishtrya then complains to Ahura Mazda that he was weakened because humankind did not give him his due of proper prayers and sacrifices. Ahura Mazda then himself offers sacrifice to Tishtrya, who now strengthened reengages Apaosha in battle at noon and conquers the demon of drought. Tishtrya then causes the rains to fall freely upon the earth and all is well again. This legend has been interpreted to be a mythological conflation of a seasonal and astronomical event: The heliacal rising of Sirius (with which Tishtrya is associated) occurred in July, just before the hottest and driest time of the year.
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2087–2088, S.G.F. Brandon, BPC Publishing, 1971. Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire."History of the Later Roman Empire from the Death of Theodosius I. to the Death of Justinian", The Suppression of Paganism – ch22, p.
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In the Babylonian star catalogues, Triangulum, together with Gamma Andromedae, formed the constellation known as MULAPIN () "The Plough". It is notable as the first constellation presented on (and giving its name to) a pair of tablets containing canonical star lists that were compiled around 1000 BC, the MUL.APIN. The Plough was the first constellation of the "Way of Enlil"—that is, the northernmost quarter of the Sun's path, which corresponds to the 45 days on either side of summer solstice. Its first appearance in the pre-dawn sky (heliacal rising) in February marked the time to begin spring ploughing in Mesopotamia.
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Paul Rehak, Imperium and Cosmos: Augustus and the Northern Campus Martius (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), pp. 7–8. Augustus chose the Campus Martius as the site of his new Temple to Mars Ultor, a manifestation of Mars he cultivated as the avenger (ultor) of the murder of Julius Caesar and of the military disaster suffered at the Battle of Carrhae. When the legionary standards lost to the Parthians were recovered, they were housed in the new temple. The date of the temple's dedication on May 12 was aligned with the heliacal setting of the constellation Scorpio, the sign of war.
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The sidereal year of 365.25636 days is only valid for stars on the ecliptic (the apparent path of the Sun across the sky), whereas Sirius's displacement ~40° below the ecliptic, its proper motion, and the wobbling of the celestial equator cause the period between its heliacal risings to be almost exactly 365.25 days long instead. This steady loss of one relative day every four years over the course of the 365-day calendar meant that the "wandering" day would return to its original place relative to the solar and Sothic year after precisely 1461 civil or 1460 Julian years.
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In the lunar calendar, the intercalary month was added as needed to maintain the heliacal rising of Sirius in the fourth month of the season of the Harvest. This meant that the Season of the Inundation usually lasted from September to January. Because the precise timing of the flood varied, the months of "Inundation" no longer precisely reflected the state of the river but the season was usually the time of the annual flooding.. This event was vital to the people because the waters left behind fertile silt and moisture, which were the source of the land's fertility.
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Many of the roles Isis acquired gave her an important position in the sky. Passages in the Pyramid Texts connect Isis closely with Sopdet, the goddess representing the star Sirius, whose relationship with her husband Sah—the constellation Orion—and their son Sopdu parallels Isis's relations with Osiris and Horus. Sirius's heliacal rising, just before the start of the Nile flood, gave Sopdet a close connection with the flood and the resulting growth of plants. Partly because of her relationship with Sopdet, Isis was also linked with the flood, which was sometimes equated with the tears she shed for Osiris.
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Particularly dramatic is the disappearance as evening star and its reappearance as the morning star approximately eight days later, after inferior conjunction. The cycle of Venus is 583.92 days long but it varies between 576.6 and 588.1 days.Aveni 2001 p. 348, note 17 Astronomers calculate heliacal phenomena (first and last visibility of rising or setting bodies) using the arcus visionis – the difference in altitude between the body and the center of the Sun at the time of geometric rising or setting of the body, not including the 34 arc minutes of refraction that allows one to see a body before its geometric rise or the 0.266,563,88... degree semidiameter of the sun.
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Capella was seen as a portent of rain in classical times. Building J (foreground) at alt= some ancient stone ruins of buildings in a sandy area Building J of the pre-Columbian site Monte Albán in Oaxaca state in Mexico was built around 275 BC, at a different orientation to other structures in the complex. Its steps are aligned perpendicular to the rising of Capella at that time, so that a person looking out a doorway on the building would have faced it directly. Capella is significant as its heliacal rising took place within a day of the Sun passing directly overhead over Monte Albán.
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This cycle was so consistent that the Egyptians timed its onset using the heliacal rising of Sirius, the key event used to set their calendar. The first indications of the rise of the river could be seen at the first of the cataracts of the Nile (at Aswan) as early as the beginning of June, and a steady increase went on until the middle of July, when the increase of water became very great. The Nile continued to rise until the beginning of September, when the level remained stationary for a period of about three weeks, sometimes a little less. In October it often rose again, and reached its highest level.
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At one point he faces dissent even from an extension of himself, the Eye of Ra, which can act independently of him in the form of a goddess. The Eye goddess becomes angry with Ra and runs away from him, wandering wild and dangerous in the lands outside Egypt. Weakened by her absence, Ra sends one of the other gods—Shu, Thoth, or Anhur, in different accounts—to retrieve her, by force or persuasion. Because the Eye of Ra is associated with the star Sothis, whose heliacal rising signaled the start of the Nile flood, the return of the Eye goddess to Egypt coincides with the life-giving inundation.
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Some stars, when viewed from latitudes not at the equator, do not rise or set. These are circumpolar stars, which are either always in the sky or never. For example, the North Star (Polaris) is not visible in Australia and the Southern Cross is not seen in Europe, because they always stay below the respective horizons. The term circumpolar is somewhat localised as between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, the Southern polar constellations have a brief spell of annual visibility (thus "heliacal" rising and "cosmic" setting) and the same applies as to the other polar constellations in respect of the reverse tropic.
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Plan of a stone circle at Nabta, Egypt Egyptian astronomy begins in prehistoric times. The presence of stone circles at Nabta Playa in Upper Egypt dating from the 5th millennium BCE show the importance of astronomy to the religious life of ancient Egypt even in the prehistoric period. The annual flooding of the Nile meant that the heliacal risings, or first visible appearances of stars at dawn, were of special interest in determining when this might occur, and it is no surprise that the 365-day period of the Egyptian calendar was already in use at the beginning of Egyptian history. The constellation system used among the Egyptians also appears to have been essentially of native origin.
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Aboriginal calendars tend differ from European calendars: many groups in northern Australia use a calendar with six seasons, and some groups mark the seasons by the stars which are visible during them. For the Pitjantjatjara, for example, the rising of the Pleiades at dawn (in May) marks the start of winter.Clarke (2003) Stories enrich a custom-linked calendar whereby the heliacal rising or setting of stars or constellations indicates to Aboriginal Australians when it is time to move to a new place and/or look for a new food source. The Boorong people in Victoria know that when the Malleefowl (Lyra) disappears in October, to "sit with the Sun", it is time to start gathering her eggs on Earth.
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In Lower Egypt, priests built circular mud-brick walls with which to make a false horizon where they could mark the position of the sun as it rose at dawn, and then with a plumb-bob note the northern or southern turning points (solstices). This allowed them to discover that the sun disc, personified as Ra, took 365 days to travel from his birthplace at the winter solstice and back to it. Meanwhile, in Upper Egypt a lunar calendar was being developed based on the behavior of the moon and the reappearance of Sirius in its heliacal rising after its annual absence of about 70 days.Tyldesley, Joyce, Pyramids: The Real Story Behind Egypt's Ancient Monuments, Viking, 2003, p.
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Over 75% of Germia Park surface is covered by Hungarian oak, Turkey oak, sessile oak and common beech genus. Vegetation of Gërmia consists of four forest genera: Hungarian and Turkey oak (Quercetum frainetoo cerris scardicum Kras.), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), sessile oak (Quercus sessiliflora) and common beech (Fagus sylvatica). Five species of amphibians including fire salamander (Salamandra salamandra) and European tree frog (Hyla arborea), seven species of reptiles represented by wall lizard (Lacerta muralis) and Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermani), thirty-two species of birds - golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), imperial eagle (Aquila heliacal), woodpecker (Picidae) and nineteen species of mammals which include European hedgehog (Erinaceus europeus) and squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). Insects compromise the largest animal group on this massif.
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Papshukal is closely associated with the figure of a walking bird on Babylonian boundary stones, and on the star map the figure of the Rooster is located below and behind the figure of the True Shepherd—both constellations represent the herald of the gods, in his bird and human forms respectively.Babylonian Star-lore by Gavin White, Solaria Pubs, 2008, page 218ff & 170 In ancient Egypt, the stars of Orion were regarded as a god, called Sah. Because Orion rises before Sirius, the star whose heliacal rising was the basis for the Solar Egyptian calendar, Sah was closely linked with Sopdet, the goddess who personified Sirius. The god Sopdu is said to be the son of Sah and Sopdet.
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The traditional Egyptian calendar had 365 days: twelve months of thirty days each and an additional five epagomenal days. According to the reform, the five-day "Opening of the Year" ceremonies would include an additional sixth day every fourth year.Canopic reform The reason given was that the rise of Sothis advances to another day in every 4 years, so that attaching the beginning of the year to the heliacal rising of the star Sirius would keep the calendar synchronized with the seasons. This Ptolemaic calendar reform failed, but was finally officially implemented in Egypt by Augustus in 26 or 25 BCE, now called the Alexandrian calendar,Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science: A Source Book, Diane 1989, , p.
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It has generally been believed that the calendar was based on a heliacal (dawn) rising of Sirius but that view is now being questioned. According to the Ussher chronology, the creation of Earth happened on 22/23 October 4004 BC. This chronology was the work of James Ussher, whose basis was the dates in the Old Testament of the Bible. He estimated that the universe was created by God at either 18:00 on the 22nd (Jewish calendar) or 09:00 on the 23rd (Ussher-Lightfoot-Chronology). The only exact date in the 5th millennium is Monday, 1 January 4713 BC, the beginning of the current Julian Period, first described by Joseph Justus Scaliger in the sixteenth century.
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Until the the beginning of the months of the lunar calendar were based on observation, beginning at dawn on the morning when a waning crescent moon could no longer be seen. The intercalary month was added every few years as needed to maintain the heliacal rising of Sirius within the month. According to the civil calendar, the month fell in order with the rest regardless of the state of the moon. It always consisted of 30 days, each individually named and devoted to a particular patron deity, and was always followed by an intercalary month, although it slowly cycled relative to the solar year and Gregorian date owing to the lack of leap days until the Ptolemaic and Roman eras.
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It is logical to assume, however, that these dates had some relation to a great event, such as the jubilee celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the pharaoh's rule. In fact, according to calculations made on the basis of the heliacal rising of the star Sirius (Sothis) and inscriptions found by archaeologists, this date must have been October 22. This image of the king was enhanced and revitalized by the energy of the solar star, and the deified Ramesses the Great could take his place next to Amun-Ra and Ra-Horakhty. Because of the accumulated drift of the Tropic of Cancer due to Earth's axial precession over the past 3 millennia, the event's date must have been different when the temple was built.
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Thus he was able to compare the day on which Sirius rose in the Egyptian calendar to the day on which Sirius ought to have risen in the Julian calendar, count the number of intercalary days needed, and determine how many years were between the beginning of a cycle and the observation. One also needs to know the place of observation, since the latitude of the observation changes the day when the heliacal rising of Sirius occurs, and mislocating an observation can potentially change the resulting chronology by several decades. (Official observations were made at Heliopolis or Memphis near Cairo, Thebes, and Elephantine near Aswan, with the rising of Sirius observed at Cairo about 8 days after it is seen at Aswan.).
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APIN, contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and the settings of the planets, lengths of daylight measured by a water clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and thus measure right-ascensions or time-intervals, and also employs the stars of the zenith, which are also separated by given right-ascensional differences. A significant increase in the quality and frequency of Babylonian observations appeared during the reign of Nabonassar (747–733 BC). The systematic records of ominous phenomena in Babylonian astronomical diaries that began at this time allowed for the discovery of a repeating 18-year cycle of lunar eclipses, for example.
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Astrology, in its broadest sense, is the search for meaning in the sky. Early evidence for humans making conscious attempts to measure, record, and predict seasonal changes by reference to astronomical cycles, appears as markings on bones and cave walls, which show that lunar cycles were being noted as early as 25,000 years ago. This was a first step towards recording the Moon's influence upon tides and rivers, and towards organising a communal calendar. Farmers addressed agricultural needs with increasing knowledge of the constellations that appear in the different seasons—and used the rising of particular star- groups to herald annual floods or seasonal activities. By the 3rd millennium BCE, civilisations had sophisticated awareness of celestial cycles, and may have oriented temples in alignment with heliacal risings of the stars.
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The ancient Egyptians began dividing the night into ' at some time before the compilation of the Dynasty V Pyramid Texts in the 24thcentury. By 2150 (Dynasty IX), diagrams of stars inside Egyptian coffin lids—variously known as "diagonal calendars" or "star clocks"—attest that there were exactly 12 of these. Clagett writes that it is "certain" this duodecimal division of the night followed the adoption of the Egyptian civil calendar, usually placed on the basis of analyses of the Sothic cycle, but a lunar calendar presumably long predated this and also would have had twelve months in each of its years. The coffin diagrams show that the Egyptians took note of the heliacal risings of 36 stars or constellations (now known as "decans"), one for each of the ten-day "weeks" of their civil calendar.
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The Gospel of John 8:57 mentions in passing an upper limit of 50 for Jesus' age when preaching: "The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" Fifty years is a round number which emphasises the discrepancy to Jesus's claim he had existed before Abraham, that is, for more than a thousand years.Colin Humphreys, The Mystery of the Last Supper Cambridge University Press 2011 , page 72 Some commentators have attempted to establish the date of birth by identifying the Star of Bethlehem with some known astronomical or astrological phenomenon. For example, astronomer Michael Molnar proposed 17 April 6 BC as the likely date of the Nativity, since that date corresponded to the heliacal rising and lunar occultation of Jupiter, while it was momentarily stationary in the constellation of Aries.
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Its returns also roughly corresponded to the onset of the annual flooding of the Nile before it was ended by the Aswan Low and High Dams. The ancient Egyptians appear to have constructed their 365-day civil calendar at a time when Wep Renpet, its New Year, corresponded with Sirius's return to the night sky. Although this calendar's lack of leap years caused the event to shift one day every four years or so, astronomical records of this displacement led to the discovery of the Sothic cycle and, later, the establishment of the more accurate Julian and Alexandrian calendars. The Egyptians also devised a method of telling the time at night based on the heliacal risings of 36 decan stars, one for each 10° segment of the 360° circle of the zodiac and corresponding to the ten-day "weeks" of their civil calendar.
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Red granite fragment bearing the cartouche of Thutmose II. Probably from a throne of a seated statue. From Thutmose III Temple at Koptos, Egypt. 18th Dynasty Manetho's Epitome has been a debated topic among Egyptologists with little consensus given the small number of surviving documents for his reign, but a 13-year reign is preferred by older scholars while newer scholars prefer a shorter 3-4 year reign for this king due to the minimal amount of scarabs and monuments attested under Thutmose II. It is still possible to estimate when Thutmose II's reign would have begun by means of a heliacal rise of Sothis in Amenhotep I's reign, which would give him a reign from 1493 to 1479 BC, although uncertainty about how to interpret the rise also permits a date from 1513 to 1499 BC,Helk, Wolfgang. Schwachstellen der Chronologie- Diskussion. pp. 47–49.
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With the wider recognition, there have been proposals to make Matariki an official public holiday in New Zealand—in particular, former Māori Party MP Rahui Katene's member's bill Te Ra o Matariki Bill/Matariki Day Bill, drawn from the ballot in June 2009. The Bill would have fixed the date of a public holiday using the new moon in June;Tim Selwyn, Tumeke! blog 18 June 2009 Online however, this was later changed to the new moon of the heliacal rising of Matariki when the bill was drawn a month later and set down for introduction into Parliament. Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey supported the call to make Matariki a public holiday to replace Queen's Birthday, along with the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand, which found none of New Zealand's local authorities held celebrations for Queen's Birthday, but many held celebrations for Matariki.
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Various computations of the dog days have placed their start anywhere from 3 July to 15 August and lasting for anywhere from 30 to 61 days. They may begin or end with the cosmical rising or heliacal rising of either Sirius in Canis Major or Procyon (the "Little Dog Star") in Canis Minor and vary by latitude, not even being visible throughout much of the Southern Hemisphere. Sirius observes a period of almost exactly 365¼ days between risings, keeping it largely consistent with the Julian but not the Gregorian calendar; nonetheless, its dates occur somewhat later in the year over a span of millennia. In antiquity, the dog days were usually reckoned from the appearance of Sirius around 19 July (Julian) to relieving rains and cool winds, although Hesiod seems to have counted the worst of summer as the days leading up to Sirius's reappearance.
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Bricker and Bricker write: "The Venus table tracks the synodic cycle of Venus by listing the formal or canonical dates of planet's first and last appearances as 'morning star' and 'evening star'. The emphasis, both iconographic and textual, is on first appearance as morning star (heliacal rise), the dates of which are given quite accurately, This first appearance was regarded as a time of danger and the major purpose of the Venus table was to provide warnings of such dangerous days. The table lists the tzolkin days for the four appearance/disappearance events during each of the 65 consecutive Venus cycles, a period of approximately 104 years. The table was used at least four times with different starting dates, from the tenth through the fourteenth centuries AD."Bricker and Bricker 2001:163 Because the Maya canonical period was 584 days and the synodic period is 583.92 days, an error accumulated in the table over time.
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