this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2024
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Would the stars in Orion's belt even be in the same positions relative to our perception 4000-5000 years BP? I don't know enough about the astronomy side of things, but I know stars generally don't stay at a static position in the sky long-term.
Stars are not static, but slight movement is only detected after hundreds of thousands of years. Add into that the movement of the earth precession, it wobbles kind of like a top, one rotation every 10k years so that stars are not always in the same spot in our sky. This is why astrology and the zodiac symbols no longer line up with the dates allowed to them.
That's correct. The positions can be simulated, and IIRC, they do match from the time of their construction.
Of course, that just means they mapped out some stars and stuck the buildings in the same relative positions.
How could they match? Star positions in the sky are dependent on Earth's orbit and wobble. Their height to and from the horizon changes from Earth's tilt and position across the sky from Earth's rotation. The only constant (ish) stars are like Polaris and Little Bear because they're at the celestial poles, so appear in the same spot. Orion appears to move all over the place relative to time of day and time of year.