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.
Calculations
Observations
I recorded these observations in the19 days between April 28, 2004 and May 16, 2004 from the
northwest corner of the Library Building on the Evergreen campus.
1
Venus Transit
From my naked eye observations, I can find Venus’s speed to
predict the amount of time that it will spend in transit June 8, 2004
Summary
•Venus must be at inferior conjunction
•Venus’s orbit is faster than Earth, it will pass in front of the sun from EAST
to WEST.
•Venus will appear in silhouette crossing the sun as a black disk 1/32 as
wide as the Sun.
6
Motions of Venus
Approx. Angular
Separation = 5˚ 50’
Elnath
2
7
Naked eye astronomy can produce very fruitful
results. By plotting Venus against the background
stars, and calculating its speed, I was able to
predict the time that Venus will spend in transit
across the Solar disk. In order to fully understand
the importance of Venus to the Ancient Mayans, I
attempted to witness their most important celestial
event through their eyes. Many of their
mythological stories about Venus are symbolic of
Venus’s movements and appearances at certain
times or brilliancy. The Mayans intensely
worshipped the heavens and associated
astronomical events with their own lives and
affairs. “A principal of cosmic harmony pervaded
all of existence in Mesoamerican thought.” (Aveni
1980, 320) For this reason, I chose to study the
connection between Venus and the Mayans.
Acknowledgements
OBSERVED SPEED OF VENUS
Point 2 = 04/29/04
Point 9 = 05/15/04
Time (t) = 17 days
Figure 3.1 Carter Emmart
Velocity (V) = Distance = Degrees
Time
The orbits of Venus and Earth
1˚ = 60’ (arc minutes)
Day
(Observed Speed Venus 5˚ 50’/17 days )
1’ = 60” (arc seconds)
+ (Motions of Earth per day ~ 1˚ /day)
3
8
I wish to thank Don Noe for all of his hours of help, Julie
Almeter for assistance with writing, Freya Goetz for help
with studying, April Noble for being supportive, Anthony
Aveni for the bountiful information, E.J. Zita for all of her
assistance and guidance, Lorna Porter and the Evergreen
State College Library, the CAL staff and Scientific
Computing at Evergreen, and Labstores, for use of the
Orion telescope.
(VENUS) Arc Minutes = 5 x 60’=300 + 50’ = 350’/17 days = 20.6’/day
= 20’36”/day
Venus’s 5 Evening appearances for 8
years. Morning appearances are
nearly mirror images of these on the
Eastern horizon. The cycle repeats
perfectly every 8 years.
References
Figures 3.2-3.7 Mark Bullock and Carter Emmart
(EARTH) Arc Minutes = 1 x 60’
= 60’/day
 584 days for Earth and Venus to line up with respect to Sun.
(V) Total Arc Minutes = 80’36’’/day = 3.4’/hr = (V)= 3’24”/hr
 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.
CALCULATED TIME TO TRANSIT SOLAR DIAMETER
TRANSIT Time (T) = SOLAR Distance (D)
VENUS Velocity (V)
4
9
Distance = (D) = ½˚ = 30’
 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.
Figure 2.1 http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus
Figure 3.1–3.7 Venus Revealed, David Harry Grinspoon, 1997.
Figure 4.1 Stairways to the Stars, Anthony Aveni, 1997.
June 8, 2004 Venus in Transit, Eli Maor, 2000.
Skywatchers of Ancient Mexico, Anthony Aveni, 1980.
The Cosmos of the Yucatec Maya, Merideth Paxton, 2001.
Sky and Telescope Magazine, May-June 2004.
30’
 263 days descending toward the sun as “evening star,” where it becomes invisible again.
D
 Venus’s actual orbital period is 224 days; the motions of Earth (365 days) make it appear longer.
Velocity = (V) = 3’24”/hr
(T) =
30’ = 8.82 hrs = 08:49:12 (FULL SOLAR DIAMETER)
3’24”/hr
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.
20’
5
10
Mayan Venus Cosmology
Ancient Mayans worshipped and tracked Venus’s movements for hundreds of years.
2/3 D
The named it “great star,” “red star,” “bright star,” and “wasp” corresponding its cyclic rhythm of
4 appearances over a 584 day cycle.
PROJECTED 2004 TRANSIT = 2/3 SOLAR DIAMETER
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.
2004 Transit = .66 x 8.82 hrs = 5.82 = 05:49:12
Path of Venus across Sun’s disk on June 8, 2004 and June
6, 2012. Total predicted time is 06:07:00  :07 min.
Dividing Venus’s yearly motions into 4 distinct unequal parts (see Venus table at left), the
intervals that the Mayans recorded are off from their true values.
My own prediction is just shy of the NASA prediction.
It has been asserted that this was for religious and ritual reasons.
Figure 4.1 Anthony Aveni
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.
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 5˚50’ 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.
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.
http://home.catv.ne.jp/nn/yamagami/2003CANCUN4.files/caracol.jpg
El Caracol at Chitzen Itza’
Figure 2.1 NASA Fred Espanak
El Caracol is aligned 10-12 degrees off of North, South, East, West, and the window slots align to
the extremes of Venus’s celestial path.