December solstice/Mayan calendar ends

Event Date: December 21st

Time: 3:06(.56) AM

Brief

Happy December solstice (calendar is over)!

I admit, a song by the late, great John Lennon with a similar name--yet different meaning--inspired me to write that first line.  The Mayan calendar--of reference--comes to an end, and we are still around to acknowledge the solstice, rain or shine. warm or cold.   The time above reflects the image below where the Sun crosses ecliptic longitude 270º, and the galactic equator crosses both very close to where that line and the ecliptic do; the closest that they do on the December solstice since the last time Earth's axis precession brought the solstice this close to it many thousands of years ago.  Since then, the solstice has circled the sky, happening in each zodiacal constellation. This is how the Mayans determined the end of their calendar, despite likely having interesting ways to do so!

The image is magnified, to show the galactic equator crossing close, and the galactic meridian 6º away.

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

Detailed

  As mentioned in Geoff Gaherty's Starry Night Times column that I included the link for earlier this month in an entry, notice how the galactic equator (purple-horizontal) is not quite intersecting the solstice cross-hair, marked by the ecliptic gridlines.  Actually, the last time that the galactic equator crosses this crosspoint was May 7th, 1998.  Of course, this is months away from the December solstice, and the Sun was close to the opposite side of the sky.  Therefore, the Mayans would have had no reason to mark this as the end of their calendar...or would they??  We have seen stranger things happen in history! 

In any case, getting back to this date, the galactic meridian (vertical) is 6º away as mentioned from the ecliptic grid crossing, and doesn't intersect the solstice cross-hair until November, 10th...2918(!).  This date, using time-bending on the software, happens as a result of precession of the Earth's axis.  However, at this time, the galactic equator is more than 11º from the cross-hair.  Therefore, regardless of what the Mayans did to calculate and what they based them on, there will no date that both galactic and ecliptic meridians and equators, all cross very close to the exact same spot.  For such to happen, it would require our ecliptic grid to be altered, which would require something to cause our Earth to have a slightly different tilt...not likely--if at all--to happen anytime soon!