Sun nears the galactic equator, ending a calendar?

Event Date: December 6th

Time: 12:00(.07) PM

Brief

   Mayan calendar alert!

You got that right-- we are only about two weeks away from not only the December solstice; the end of the Mayan calendar.  There are countless links about them and the calendar's ending when it does.  I will let you find which makes the most sense to you, rather than list several here.  To put it in a little more perspective, let us take a look at where our Sun is on the ecliptic, relative the the longitude of the solstice.  Along with that, I will include the grid for our [Milky Way] galaxy: the equator with latitude lines on each side, and longitude lines running perpendicular.  The sky is darkened despite being daylight, to show the lines more easily.

click on image to enlarge: courtesy of Starry Night Pro Plus, version 6.4.3, by Simulation Curriculum Corp.

Detailed

Notice that where the winter solstice (northern hemisphere) marker is: the ecliptic [equator], the eclitpic longitude 270º line, and the galactic equator all meet...almost anyway; the galactic equator is very close, yet not quite meeting with the others.  While I was not aware of that at first, I referred back to an old link to a Starry Night Times article I read a few years ago, by my colleague Geoff Gaherty; he explains the following a little better than me, so refer to his writing here for more on this topic.

   Getting back to my image above, the galactic equator is not labeled by lettering, yet can be detected with the lines on either side more "bent".  The Mayans--with their spectacular methods--calculated this year, as that for such to happen; they did so with unfathomable precision during those years, so long ago.  However, what many of the people today don't know, is that there is one key line in the image above that does not intersect with the others: the galactic meridian (labeled).  The Sun misses this meridian every year by about 6º.  As a result, even with a huge black hole there, any rumored "apocolypse" on Earth is nothing but just that-- a rumor.  The Sun and Earth will not line up with this galactic intersection, which may overall be a good thing!

   As we get closer to the solstice, I will magnify the point of intersection with the Sun getting closer.

Finally, look at the time for this entry: the Sun transits closest to noon local time for our location, of 37º 49. 09" N, 122º 10' 54" W; only 7 seconds away.  Some years, the Sun transits at exactly noon on the nose, although that is rare.  It depends where a person is longitude-wise in a time zone, while some locations without observing daylight savings, have near-noon transits of the Sun more often.