Episode 22
Ultima Thule (Episode 7) - The Dynamic Heavens
In the last couple of episodes we focused on how we understood time in terms of the Sun and the Moon, using them to guide us through the annual seasons and celebrating their solstices and equinoxes. But there are other seasons as well - deep seasons - that take thousands of years for just a single cycle. In this episode we focus on the deep season of the precession, how it was discovered, and how it changes our sky. While we can trick ourselves into believing the sky above is static, one only needs to go as far back as the Roman Empire to find a powerful civilization that did not look toward Polaris as their north star - but instead a star called Kochab. How could the sky change so much that the north star wasn't even the same less than 2,000 years ago? Finally, we look at what Earth was like 26,000 years ago - the last time the Earth's precession was in its current spot pointing out toward Polaris. This is the first episode dedicated to the deep seasons of Earth and their subtle, yet powerful, impact. (7/29)
