Hi ILTTATT,
I thought I’d write this up to help you with your research.
Disclaimer: I am not a scholar but just a dude that has been interested in
astronomy for 30 odd yrs. Its just a brief overview of basic, simplified
astronomy to help, as you mentioned that your grasp of the motion of planets is
not as strong as your understanding of eclipses. I hope it helps. So here we
go…
Observed from earth, the Sun travels through the sky, along
a path above the Earths equator. The path that it follows in the sky is known as
the celestial equator. The Moon follows the same path and so do the planets.
Constellations of stars are in fixed positions in the sky
and some occur along the path of the celestial equator. As the Sun travels
through the sky during the year, it passes through some of these
constellations. These constellations are the ones we know as the Zodiac- Aries,
Pisces, Scorpio etc.
Because the constellations of the zodiac lie along the
celestial equator, the moon and planets also pass through them.
As observed from Earth, the planets appear to move at
different speeds through the night sky, along the celestial equator and through
the zodiac constellations. For example,
Saturn takes about 29 years to complete a ‘lap’ of the sky. Jupiter takes
almost 12 years, as a comparison.
To an astronomer, knowing the positions of SEVERAL planets
on any given night is like marking a date on a calendar. The reason is that a
particular arrangement of planets in the night sky may only have occurred in
the same way ONCE in recorded history.
I would think that pinpointing the positions of planets in
the sky to determine any given year, or month, is far more compelling evidence
than using lunar eclipses.
To give a brief example, lets imagine tonight that you see
Jupiter and Saturn close together in the constellation Scorpion. Without using
any fancy astronomical instruments, even a Neo- Babylonian work experience kid
could describe the relative positions of these planets in respect to a
prominent star in Scorpio. This is position A.
Fast-forward 29 years and Saturn has completed its ‘lap’ of
the sky and is back in position A. Jupiter, having taken only 12 years to
complete a ‘lap’ has now done 2.4 ‘laps’ and is nowhere near position A, in
fact, it is on the opposite side of the sky. This example only takes 2 planets
into account. There are still 3 other planets visible in the sky that are all
changing positions at different rates to the others. In VAT 4956, it
consistently describes Saturn as being ‘ahead of the Swallow’. The Swallow is
apparently the constellation that corresponds to what we know as Pisces. But
that’s all the information we need to pinpoint the year that Saturn was in this
position. If it was 588, Saturn would be nowhere this position.
There are downloadable star chart programs that allow you to
view the night sky by simply entering any date.
Interestingly, the 2nd article about 607 in the
2011 WT tries to cast doubt on VAT4956 based only on the Lunar observations. Like a magician
using mis-direction, it asks us to focus only on the Lunar events and ignore
the over-whelming planetary evidence. There are 2-4 Lunar eclipses in any given
year, so they are quite common and some occur after the moon sets, and some
aren’t visible because of cloud cover, so personally, they seem a little less
reliable than planets that can be observed gradually changing position over
weeks, months and years.
