Page 231 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
P. 231
Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS
Precession.
In the process, little by little, as you slowly sweep the extended axis
around the heavens, its two tips will point to one star after another in the
polar latitudes of the southern celestial hemisphere (and sometimes, of
course, to empty space), and to one star after another in the polar
latitudes of the northern celestial hemisphere. We are talking here, about
a kind of musical chairs among the circumpolar stars. And what keeps
everything in motion is the earth’s axial precession—a motion driven by
giant gravitational and gyroscopic forces, that is regular, predictable and
relatively easy to work out with the aid of modern equipment. Thus, for
example, the northern pole star is presently alpha Ursae Minoris (which
we know as Polaris). But computer calculations enable us to state with
certainty that in 3000 BC alpha Draconis occupied the pole position; at
the time of the Greeks the northern pole star was beta Ursae Minoris; and
in AD 14,000 it will be Vega.
18
18 Skyglobe 3.6.
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