VMs: A Search for Planetary Conjunctions

["Robert Teague" <rteague@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The diagram of f67v2 has never conveyed anything at all
to me, except looking unfinished. But while reading the
list archives for 1997, I came across Rene's post where
he interpreted the faces in the corners as planetary
conjunctions, and was going to investigate with his
planetarium software. I never did see a follow-up on it,
at least through the end of '97.

But I did decide this was something I could investigate
myself, as well. Astronomical interpretations need to
be confirmed by others.

The three-planet conjunction in the northwest corner
could happen at any time of night, but the four-planet
conjunctions could only be morning or evening events,
as they would involve Mercury and/or Venus. I
decided to look for them first.

Setting my viewing location at Prague, I watched to
the west at 7 PM, letting time go by in one-day
increments. A month passed in one second, a year
in twelve, and a century in about twenty minutes.
I started from 1 Jan 1200, and let it run until
31 Dec 1600.  Afterwards, I looked east, set the
time to 4 AM, and repeated the run. Then I set it
to Midnight, looking south and up for the third run.

During the first run, the configuration in the southeast
corner occurred on 10 September, 1577, and was
a unique event. The four planets (from closest to the
center out) Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Mars
matched the diagram. A conjunction on 26 April, 1267
was similar, but not exact.

As might be expected, three-planet conjunctions were
more common, but none matched the diagram during
the first run.

During the second run, no four-planet conjunctions 
matching the diagram occurred. Several three-planet
conjunctions came close, but only one matched exactly,
on 16 May, 1549.

During the third run, a three-planet conjunction almost
matching the diagram occurred once, on 19 October, 
1503.

The four-planet configurations in the northeast and
southwest corners are essentially the same, but it never
occurred during any run. Further runs are planned
to confirm this.

Considering my earlier research with f68r3, I looked
for matching configurations during the 1500s, and
found one at midnight on 14 September, 1554.

I have available ~30k jpegs of the three events, with
labels. 

Robert
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