Thanks for replies.

Perhaps I should have put this in Q&A with a question as to whether there is any astrophysical possibility of a causal relation between Canopus and the precession. Clearly the answer is no. I already raised this to some extent in a Q&A thread on Binary Sun Theory, but the status of Canopus was niggling at me due to its proximity to the Pole and close match to the Yuga cycle.

The against-the-mainstream idea embedded in this material is primarily that the Great Year of Precession of the Equinox provides a long term structure for the nature of terrestrial time, as depicted at the linked diagram of the Yuga and the Age (below). I have raised earlier versions of this before, and worked out that claims in this area are more about an imaginative matching between terrestrial events and the stars than a demonstrable scientific case, although there is more science in it than the mainstream credits.

The movement of Canopus towards and away from the Pole so closely matches the old Vedic idea of ascending and descending ages that I wanted to explore if there could be any physical basis. Clearly, correlation is not causation, but some correlations have an interesting shape. I don't know if this linkage between Canopus and the Yuga has been noted before in modern times, although I am sure it must have been known in ancient India.



I read an essay at the Sirius Research Project kindly linked by hhEb09'1 and it made the bizarre claim that the date of the heliacal rising of Sirius has not precessed due to binary relation between Sirius and the sun. It seems pointless to me to make such claims and then refuse scientific peer review, as the advocates can only become laughing stocks. The tragedy is that this essay also makes some worthwhile comments about Egyptian thought, but these are inevitably lost due to the advocacy of a false astronomy.

My view is that there are astronomical mysteries embedded in the Great Year, but we will not find them unless the speculative imagination is tethered by evidence from observation. As Hornblower noted, my aim is primarily an imaginative attempt to find some sense in the idea of a binary star governing precession. I posted it here to get a reality check and help me confine any claims to what is possible.

I remain of the view that Canopus is a much better candidate as a perceived governor of precession than Sirius just from the imaginative outlook, due to the close orbit of Canopus around the Pole. Clearly this 'governing' of precession by Canopus is solely an artifact given the distances and relative motions. However, it raises questions for archaeo-astronomy, especially how ancient Egypt and India had more detailed astronomical knowledge than is now acknowledged, and how Canopus could have had a central role in their cosmology of the Great Year.

Further on the archaeoastronomy of mythology, the story of Jason and the Argonauts seems to embed some interesting ideas about Canopus, which is not visible north of Athens. The Argonautica of Apollonius discusses the loss of the prow ornament of Argo as it enters the Black Sea, a story which seems to symbolise how Canopus was the main star at the prow of Argo as viewed from Egypt but was mostly invisible from Greece. In my imaginative reconstruction, the Golden Fleece itself is the star Canopus, and the protecting dragon is the constellation Scorpio. There may be a northern correlate with Draco. The psychological underpinning is that the capture of the Golden Fleece symbolises the link to the Golden Age, which in the Hindu myth of the Yuga was the ancient time when Canopus was close to the Pole.