Discrepancy between Archaeolines Solstice Path and Sun's position in 8000 BCE #5017
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I am using Stellarium 0.22.2 with the Archaeolines plugin in connection with a site at 57°N that I'm researching for potential archaeoastronomical aspects in 8000 BCE. I've set the date and time to when the Sun has ecliptic longitude 270° (or near enough), ie winter solstice in that year, but the Sun appears approx 0.5° below the Archaeoline solstice path (as shown below). Is this an expected result? Is it because my version of Stellarium is not up to date? Or am I missing something that may be obvious to others? I'd appreciate it if my misunderstanding (if that's what it is) could be corrected. 
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Replies: 1 comment 1 reply
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Dear Simon, I hope you are familiar with Appendix F of our User Guide which describes issues important for archaeoastronomy. I can only guess, you have not activated the DE441 ephemeris. Then you only see VSOP87 which has a recommended date range of -4000...+6000 (IIRC). Before -4000 the planets will have extrapolated positions, but e.g. the sun will derail from the ecliptic. And generally, your version is 4 years old. It's really more than high time to update. |
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Doh! Of course, how stupid of me. I used to have DE441 set up, but it was on a different machine. Thanks! |
Dear Simon, I hope you are familiar with Appendix F of our User Guide which describes issues important for archaeoastronomy. I can only guess, you have not activated the DE441 ephemeris. Then you only see VSOP87 which has a recommended date range of -4000...+6000 (IIRC). Before -4000 the planets will have extrapolated positions, but e.g. the sun will derail from the ecliptic. And generally, your version is 4 years old. It's really more than high time to update.