I'm an amateur reader of the Mayan culture and other "end times" prophecies just for entertainment. I was wondering though, if someone might have a credible link to information regarding the "alignment" between the "center of the galaxy" and our sun.

About 95% of the reading I've done is written by hacks trying to get their own agenda out there but I'm wondering if there is any true astrological truth to the matter. I'm new here as a member to universe today but I've been reading the news on this site for a couple of years. So I know that someone on this site will be able to point me in the right direction, if there is such a direction.

Thanks

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DEUCE

The center of the galaxy is in the constellation Sagittarius. The rotational axis of the Sun never points at Sagittarius. What alignment are you thinking of? Just simply when Earth passes most closely to the line defined by the two points (The Sun and Sgr A*)?

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he's asking about the alignment that's going to bring the end of the world as we know it, as foretold by many prophets looking to make profits.

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There are about fifty threads on this topic already.
It so happens, in the current epoch, that the position of the sun in the sky at winter solstice aligns with the plane of the galaxy, in approximately the direction of the galactic centre. This happens every year, with no noticeable effect. Precession of the equinoxes moves the alignment gradually so that there is a moment of "best alignment". We don't need to wait until 2012 for it to occur, however: it happened a few years ago.

Grant Hutchison

According to my starry night software the sun passes though the galactic longitudinal equator on December 9, 2012 at 12:47:29 AM Eastern US Time. On that day absolutely nothing will happen. The world and solar system will continue to exist as they always have. There is no empirical evidence to state otherwise that something bad will happen. Other stars have passed though the galactic equator and nothing happened to them. The sun moves though the equator every 2 or 3 years and we are all still alive.

Alignments with the galactic equator, and with the zero meridian of galactic longitude happen every year, not just in 2012. I'm not sure what you mean by "longitudinal equator", but it's perhaps worth pointing out that the sun is not passing through the equatorial plane of the galaxy at that time; we're well away from it, and moving farther.

Grant Hutchison

"Astrological truth" is an oxymoron.

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One more for The 2012 Collection!

2003 no, 2012 si
2012
Pole shift / Planetary alignment 2012?
2012 alignment question
about the Mayan 2012 item
2012 Debunking?
Possible asteroid impact in 2012?
2012 asteroid?
We don't have to worry about 2012!
More on 2012 from India Daily
2012 Completion of conspiracy?
Here's what's REALLY going to happen in 2012...
crop circles, Planet X and 2012
Planet X, crop circles and 2012 cataclysma
According to the Mayans, what will happen on 23rd Dec. 2012?
More 2012 Nonsense
NEO 2012?
Dangerous NEO in 2012?
Christmas 2012
2012 mayan calender end of world
Regarding the supposed polar shift/new ice age in 2012
New 2012 threat?
2012 look at this thing on the sun
Russian Expert Predicts Global Cooling from 2012
Pole shift idea origins
Dec 20 2012
2012 Stuff
Horizon Project-New End of World Scare?
Date: December 21st 2012
Earth passing thru Galactic center in 2012 - didn't that already happen?
2012: What do you think well happen (if anything)
So what will we see in 2012?
Galactic Tsunami?
Plane of the ecliptic of the galaxy?
Earth's Magnetic Field & 2012
2012?
Any truth to this?
How can the sun be aligned with Galactic centre?
the whole 2012 poles flip nonsense
Planet X Official Advertisement
What year are we in
Quick question about the sun
Galactic Alignment

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Thanks for the input... Like I said, most of the info I've read is written by hacks trying to get their own agenda out there. I'm not a believer that time is going to stop in 2012 or that we will all be transformed into hippies but I just wanted to see if I could look into the sky and watch an event that supposedly only happens every 13,000 years. If so, I guess I have a few years.

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DEUCE

Yes, you have a few problems :
1) To watch it happen, you'd need to be able to see the Sun, in which case you wouldn't be able to see the Milky Way.
2) It happened a few years ago, so you'll have a very long wait until the next time.
3) The alignment with the winter solstice happens every 26,000 years or so, in time with the precession of the equinoxes; the 13,000-year figure presumably relates to a solstice: the next alignment will be with the summer solstice.

Grant Hutchison

The last doomsday date that I remember the nuts making a big deal about was the 1999/2000 date. After it became clear that nothing was going to happen on that date, the nuts fell back to the ole Mayan Calendar 2012 date. I wonder if anybody knows the date of their next fall back date? I know we have that asteroid heading our way in 20 to 30 years, but surely these guys must have something to be worried about before then.

I don't know of any such before the various asteroid encounters, but one that I know is coming up is Sir Isaac Newton's "prediction" of the apocalypse in 2060. It's never too early for doomsday, you know! Five decades worth of pot-boiler books. Whoopee!

As for computer-generated mayhem, the next date will be sometime in 2038 when the UNIX time flips back to 1901. (Number of seconds stored as a 32-bit signed quantity; rolls from +2 billion and something to -2 billion and something.) I'm sure most UNIX/Linux systems will be storing the number of seconds from 1970 January 1 as 64-bit numbers by then. Darn!

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Trantor,

You forgot Planet X! The BA mopped the floor with Nancy (Lieder) on C2C (Coast to Coast)! Of course, that didn't stop her, but she did lose many of her followers.

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Interesting! I didn't think her followers were capable of that kind of change. Well, that is good news. I guess there is hope after all. Of course, that is assuming that some of them didn't just quit Nancy Lieder's group and then joined up with some other far-out cult/doomsday group.

The entire Maya culture or just the "end times"?
'Cause the rest of the Maya culture is pretty cool, too.

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Here is a 26 second YouTube clip that actually explains it all without saying a word. I get it now.

Basically, the Galactic plane runs through our sky. Because the galaxy is really big, and we're not (thank you Warners), the Galactic plane extends far above and below the Solar plane, but does not actually cross it, in a physical sense. At two points along the ecliptic (Solar plane), the Galactic plane seems to cross it, as seen from Earth. It's a perspective thing. The Galactic plane just extends out so far that it's long enough to look like it dips below the ecliptic. On the Winter Solstice, from 1994, to 2012, the disk of the Sun will cover that spot where the Galactic plane seems to cross the ecliptic.

Maybe someone else can say it better, but basically, it's an event about like an airplane blocking out the light from Venus from where you're standing. And just about as significant.

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A Geek with think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

were they the ones that ripped the still beating hearts out of people on top of pyramids to please the gods and killed the losing team of that game where they threw the rubber ball thru the hoops?

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OK, but I think "cool" has a different meaning in this sense. We sometimes call lions and spiders and sharks "cool" but they also do a variety of not-so-nice things to their meals.

Mayans certainly didn't have a monopoly on cruelty among ancient cultures. I think you have to sort of accept it as part of the territory. There's a difference between saying an ancient culture is "cool" and saying you actually would have wanted to live there.

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Those would be the Aztecs.
They had a real death-cult thing going on.
They sacrificed prisoners of war, so they started a lot of wars.

Gods don't want second best, the winning team was sacrificed.

The Mayans are still around, some 6 million of them.
And some of them still practice a form of that old time religion.
(Sans human sacrifice that is.)

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