• Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
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    5 months ago

    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.

    • LordCrom@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      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.

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      4 months ago

      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.