OBSERVED SPEED OF VENUS

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Ancient Mayan Naked Eye Astronomy How do we
predict the speed and motions of Venus?
Breanne Gagne, TESC Box 60143. Astronomy
Cosmologies, Spring 2004. The Evergreen State
College, Olympia, WA 98505.
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OBSERVED SPEED OF VENUS Point 2 04/29/04
Point 9 05/15/04 Time (t) 17
days Velocity (V) Distance Degrees
Time Day (Observed
Speed Venus 5 50/17 days ) (Motions of Earth
per day 1 /day) (VENUS) Arc Minutes 5 x
60300 50 350/17 days 20.6/day
2036/day (EARTH) Arc Minutes 1 x 60
60/day (V) Total Arc Minutes 8036/day
3.4/hr (V) 324/hr  CALCULATED TIME TO
TRANSIT SOLAR DIAMETER TRANSIT Time (T) SOLAR
Distance (D) VENUS Velocity (V) Distance
(D) ½ 30 Velocity (V) 324/hr (T)
30 8.82 hrs 084912 (FULL SOLAR
DIAMETER) 324/hr PROJECTED 2004
TRANSIT 2/3 SOLAR DIAMETER 2004 Transit .66 x
8.82 hrs 5.82 054912
1 60 (arc minutes) 1 60 (arc seconds)
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• 584 days for Earth and Venus to line up with
  respect to Sun.
• At inferior conjunction Venus is in the glare of
  the sun, invisible for 8 days.
• First morning visibility is called heliacal
  rising, the beginning of the cycle.
• 263 days as morning star, moving to superior
  conjunction.
• 50 days hidden in the glare of the Sun, on the
  opposite side from the Earth.
• 263 days descending toward the sun as evening
  star, where it becomes invisible again.
• Venuss actual orbital period is 224 days the
  motions of Earth (365 days) make it appear longer.

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Mayan Venus Cosmology
Translation of a portion of the first page of the
Venus Table of the Dresden Codex showing the
divisions of time over a single 584-day cycle.
Ancient Mayans worshipped and tracked Venuss
movements for hundreds of years. The named it
great star, red star, bright star, and
wasp corresponding its cyclic rhythm of 4
appearances over a 584 day cycle. Five 548 day
periods correspond to 2920 days, which is also 8
Solar (365 day) years, and 99 lunar months. It
takes 2922 days for the Sun, Earth, Venus and
Stars to all agree from a defined point. This
number is very important in cyclic time, and the
Mayans were fully aware of this alignment. These
movements were recoded in the Venus tables of one
of their 4 surviving books, the Dresden Codex 5
distinct patterns in 8 Solar years. Dividing
Venuss yearly motions into 4 distinct unequal
parts (see Venus table at left), the intervals
that the Mayans recorded are off from their true
values. It has been asserted that this was for
religious and ritual reasons. Vast importance
was given to Venus at the rebirth or heliacal
rising, the first appearance of the planet in the
east as a morning star after its 8 day
disappearance. This is the beginning of its
cycle. According to Anthony Aveni, a leading
Mesoamerican archaeoastronomer, the observations
of the Venus tables were taken at the tower of El
Caracol, a monument dedicated to the Venus deity
Quetzalcoatl-Kukulcan at Chitzen
Itza. Hieroglyphs on astronomically aligned
buildings indicate that a pair of notched sticks,
and vertical markers on the horizon were used to
record positions and determine cycle lengths. El
Caracol is aligned 10-12 degrees off of North,
South, East, West, and the window slots align to
the extremes of Venuss celestial path.
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Method Each day my observations and orientation
in the sky became increasingly accurate. I
learned what I was looking at, and at the same
time researched Venus's motions. I tracked Venus
in comparison to the bright star in Taurus,
Elnath. For my calculations, I have thrown out
the data from my first and last days for a total
of 17 days. I found a 550 change in position.
Taking into account the motions of the Earth,
360 in 365 days, for a movement of 1/day, I
calculated the observed speed of Venus. Using
this speed I calculated, the amount of time that
it will spend in transit across 2/3 of solar disk
this June 8, 2004.
http//home.catv.ne.jp/nn/yamagami/2003CANCUN4.fil
es/caracol.jpg
El Caracol at Chitzen Itza
Figure 2.1 NASA Fred Espanak