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Hi! I've posted this in the Shared World section as well (isn't that the area reserved for timelines written by committee?)
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I've got an idea for a POD for a timeline I was wondering you could help create with me. It all hinges on something interesting I saw on Wikipedia:

"From 1995 to 2006, Uranus's apparent magnitude fluctuated between +5.6 and +5.9, placing it just within the limit of naked eye visibility at +6.5..."

THE SCENARIO:

An ancient astrologer in Egypt or Mesopotamia ca. 2000-1500 BC is teaching his young apprentice the tools of the trade. He orders his apprentice to study the skies and understand the motions of seven known planets. The apprentice can see how Mercury, Venus, the Sun, the Moon, and Mars move because they move relatively quickly. However, he's dubious that Jupiter and Saturn move. So the master instructs him to take a look at all of the stars around Jupiter and Saturn and jot down, with meticulous precision, how Jupiter and Saturn are moving in relation to the fixed stars. He tells the apprentice to do so for three months, enough time for the two planets to move appreciably.

Unknown to the astrologer's aged eyes (indeed, to anyone), Saturn or Jupiter is having a close conjunction with Uranus. We'll say Saturn for now.

Three months later, the master summons the apprentice and asks for his report. Now keep in mind that younger people often have better eyesight than older ones.

The apprentice explain that he definitely saw Jupiter move. However, he noticed that two objects seemed to move in the area around Saturn. The bright object seemed to move about 3 times as much as the faint object. Which one of them is Saturn? It sure looks to him that there are two planets out there.

The master starts laughing at him but then notices the apprentice's work. It sure sounds like there's something out there. So he helps the apprentice continue on with his experiments. Sure enough, there's a second planet out there near Saturn, one which is almost impossible to see! What's more, that planet seems to be a star! It sure LOOKS like an ordinary star. And if that's a planet, are any of the other "fixed" stars moving as well?

The master naturally decides that this planet can be used to improve the accuracy of his astrological predictions, so he starts using it in his charts. Its existence starts out as a trade secret.

Can you think of the ramifications of this? Here are a few:

1. Astrologers will need to develop better maps of the heavens in order to pinpoint this new planet. After all, there are lots of stars whose magnitude is comparable to Uranus. Astrologers will need to pinpoint all the fixed stars find which one of them is the planet. I am assuming improved optics are out at this time period, so no Neptune, rings of Saturn, or moons of Jupiter.

2. Eight day weeks develop. This divides evenly into the 360 days of the Babylonian year. This can easily be seen as a sign of the god's perfection: obviously, each season is associated with a god and/or planet. Lots of 8's will start showing up in history where we have 7's.

3. Lots more astrologers start looking for planets. After all, it sure looks like a fixed star can be a planet. So they look for others to improve their chances. (If they're lucky, they find asteroid 4 Vesta but that's a long shot). After all, any planet you find will make your predictions more reliable! And kings are more likely to want to hire you!

4. A long shot, but bear with me: As the maps of the heavens get better and better due to people trying to track down Uranus among the faint stars, they get accurate enough to determine the distance in degrees between two points on the celestial sphere. It is not out of the realm of possibility (though it is unlikely) that this could yield primitive longitude values (at least for Mediterranean travels) once people determine Earth is a sphere via the lunar distance method or something like that.

5. The existence of Uranus could alternatively become a serious trade secret which only the elite astrologers (and/or maybe kings) know about. If you don't meet certain qualifications and/or join the right guilds, you don't learn about it and your predictions stay faulty. And if the predictions fail, well it's their fault because they didn't use Uranus. And even the gods won't be able to help you if you let the BAD GUYS across the border find out about this planet (especially where it is...)

6. It may be possible for novae and supernovae to be detected ("what, this star DISAPPEARED?") as maps are compared. Someone says, "Hey, look, a planet appeared out of nowhere" and becomes the laughing stock of the community when the "planet" suddenly fades away.

What do you think? You may assume that with the limited light pollution in the ancient times and the dark skies in deserts (in Egypt and so forth) that under rare circumstances limiting magnitude can hit 7.0 at the zenith. Objects this faint can be seen when they are relatively high in the sky, albeit on rare occasions, atmospheric conditions permitting.

ACG
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P.S. Here's some info on Vesta. It is indeed possible to see Vesta with the naked eye on rare occasions. However, it's very difficult. You may assume that Uranus is found before Vesta. It will be easier to detect movement with Vesta than it will be with Uranus (Vesta will orbit about 3 times faster than Jupiter)

"Asteroid 4 VESTA (magnitude 6.5) is at opposition on October 29th. See above...Have you ever seen an asteroid? If not, your best chance this year [I don't know which year the post is from] is coming up in October. Vesta, the fourth asteroid to be discovered, is at opposition this month, on the 29th. When a body is at opposition, Sun, Earth and the body are in a straight line, with Earth in the middle. At this time the object is up all night and about as close to Earth as it can get."
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