Sun, moon and stars.

The plane of the lunar orbit is inclined to the ecliptic by 5.1°. The ecliptic (marked in red) is the apparent path of the Sun over a year - so it takes the sun one year to complete the circle. Meanwhile the moon follows a similar path, completing it in one month. Because the paths of the sun and moon are at an angle to each other, the moon crosses the path of the Sun twice every month. These points of crossing are called, lunar nodes, and they move gradually westward, performing a complete circle around the ecliptic in approximately 18.6 years - which is known as a  draconitic or nodical period. Why is it a Draconic cycle? There is an ancient idea of destruction and danger lurking in the sky. The older Egyptian Book of Gates, describes the solar journey through The Amduat. Every night the God Ra travels through the twelve gates to be rejuvenated and reborn. But the journey is always perilous and the Solar boat - the solar barque -  is in danger: Hour 7 : Regenerating t...

From Wiki: Uriel's Machine: The Prehistoric Technology That Survived the Flood is a best selling book published in 1999 by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas.The book's name is derived from a character of the same name in the Book of Enoch. In Knight and Lomas's interpretation of the Book of Enoch, Uriel warns Enoch about the impending flood, giving him instructions for building a form of solar observatory for the purpose of preserving advanced knowledge into a time of global disaster by teaching him the movement of the Sun against the horizon over a period of time, which Enoch then records in detail in the Book of the Courses of the Heavenly Luminaries. According to  Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, Uriel's machine is a 'horizon declinometer'. The fundamental premise is, an asteroid or comet approaching earth is more likely to hit us, if it is in the plane of the ecliptic. As the position of the sun, moon and planets show us where the ecliptic is, an U...

The Epic of Gilgamesh.  "I have come on account of my ancestor Utanapishtim,  who joined the Assembly of the Gods, and was given eternal life.  About Death and Life I must ask him!" The scorpion-being spoke to Gilgamesh ..., saying: "Never has there been, Gilgamesh, a mortal man who could do that(?).  No one has crossed through the mountains,  for twelve leagues it is darkness throughout-- dense is the darkness, and light there is none. To the rising of the sun ... To the setting of the sun ... To the setting of the sun ... They caused to go out..." [67 lines are missing, in which Gilgamesh convinces the scorpion-being to allow him passage.] "Though it be in deep sadness and pain,  in cold or heat ...    gasping after breath ... I will go on!  Now! Open the Gate!" The scorpion-being spoke to Gilgamesh, saying: "Go on, Gilgamesh, fear not!  The Mashu mountains I give to you freely (!),  the mountains, the ranges, you ma...

The Mesopotamians seemed to regard the sky as solid, separated from the earth and possibly supported by mountains.   [+] The name given to the east wind was kur.ra 'mountain road'.  The west wind was mar.du referring to the Amorites, who arrived from that direction.  The north wind may have meant 'straight wind'  The south wind 'shu.u.tu is described as the wind that sank Lord Adapa's boat.   Most southerly winds in Mesopotamia were calm, but a strong and violent wind would blow from the south west (the suhaili) and sink boats...

Vitruvius (Roman architectural writer, late 1st century B.C.) gives us the names of the Winds that blow from the direction of the cardinal points. There were four, main winds: Septentrio from the north. Solanus from the east. Auster from the west and... Favonius from the west. Vitruvius added four more winds to the above. Eurus from the south-east. Africus from the south west. Corus from the north-west and Aquilo from the north-east. The history of what kind of winds may arise from the directions isn't easy to decipher. A crow wind in the north-west, or an eagle wind from the north-east for instance.

The easiest way to imagine the movement of the sky is to think of an umbrella. The umbrella pole is the North/South pole, and all the stars spin around that central, still point. If you were standing  under the true North or true South still points in the sky, it would be as you were  holding an umbrella in the usual way, with the handle, or pole straight up and the umbrella above your head. But if you were at the equator? The pole star is now on the horizon as if you were holding the umbrella at 90 degrees to your body.  The latitude of the North pole is 90 degrees. And the latitude of the South pole is also 90 degrees. And so the latitude of The Equator (90 degrees to the Pole) is 0 degrees. How to determine latitude using the Pole star. A protractor is securely fixed to a pointer - the pointer is a long piece of wood that is attached and able to pivot from the centre of the protractor on a vertical bar pushed into the ground. A plumb line is fixed to the middle of ...