Introduction
Continuing my series on Planet X and 2012, I already addressed the claim that the sun will be aligning with the galactic center on December 21, 2012 (the winter solstice). However, it occurs to me that I made some vague remarks of this galactic alignment not actually being any alignment what-so-ever, despite people saying it is, without actually going into the details of the situation. I wanted to clarify this with a diagram that, in fact, there is no alignment on December 21, 2012, with even the central plane of the galaxy, let alone the center of the galaxy.
What The Sky Looks Like
The Sky on December 21, 2012 (Click to Enlarge)
The above picture (click to enlarge it) shows what the sky looks like on the winter solstice on December 21, 2012 at 11:12 AM GMT (note that the time often quoted is 11:11, but that is not the case). In this section, I’m going to explain what is shown, while in the next section I’ll explain what it means.
The bright white object on the left side that intersects the green line is the sun.
The green line is the line of the ecliptic, which is the line traced out by the sun in the sky. Alternatively, it is the plane of Earth’s orbit through the solar system.
The red grid is the celestial coordinate system, which I briefly alluded to in the previous post. It is really an extension of Earth’s latitude and longitude system projected into space. Declination is the equivalent of latitude, while Right Ascension is longitude. Unlike longitude, which is measured in degrees (360°), right ascension is measured in hours (24 h in the sky). This is because it takes one hour for an object to move one hour of right ascension.
The purple grid is the galactic coordinate system. The horizontal lines are lines of galactic latitude, where the galactic equator (running through the middle) is really the, well, galactic equator – the plane of the galaxy. The vertical lines are the lines of galactic longitude, with the galactic meridian going through the center. Where the galactic meridian and the galactic equator intersect is defined as the center of the galaxy.
The definition of the winter solstice is when the sun is on the 18th hour line of right ascension. That occurs – in 2012 – at 11:12 AM GMT. (Summer solstice is when it is on the 6th hour of right ascension. Spring equinox is when it’s on the 0th hour line while autumnal is when it’s on the 12th hour line. By definition, it is always on the ecliptic.)
What Do We See from This Diagram?
No galactic alignment.
First off, the sun isn’t anywhere near the galactic center. So strike that one right off the list.
Second, the sun isn’t even on the galactic equator. It is 10.86 arcmin (0.181°) away from it. Though in the interest of full disclosure, the sun’s limb will be on it since the sun does have a finite size in the sky.
But, the closest approach to when the 18th hour of right ascension intersected with the galactic equator intersected with the ecliptic was the winter solstice of 1:50 AM December 22, 1998. The sun was only 0.30 arcmin (0.005°) off of the galactic equator. Funny … I don’t remember any doomsday happening then. Granted, I was in high school and not paying much attention to the news at the time, but I think I would have noticed if the world had ended.
Final Thoughts
As you can clearly see, there is no galactic alignment on this date. It already happened. And nothing happened. And in reality, the winter solstice has absolutely no relative importance in astronomy, just like alignments have no importance in astronomy (in the context of affecting Earth in a doomsday-like scenario). So, even if there were going to be an alignment – which there isn’t – it would have no importance anyway. It would happen every year. In fact, the sun crosses the plane of the galaxy twice every year … and yet nothing happens.
I know I’ve berated this claim many times now, but it’s important. I still see people making the claim. Please take note: It is baseless! And even if it weren’t, it wouldn’t matter anyway.
All Posts in This Series
The main blog posts:
- Planet X and 2012: The Real and Historical Story of Planet X
- Planet X and 2012: Primer on the Mayan Calendar
- Planet X and 2012: The PseudoAstronomy (or Just Plain Wrong Astronomy) About a Galactic Alignment
- Planet X and 2012: The Pole Shift (Magnetic) Explained and Debunked
- Planet X and 2012: Proof Earth Is Not Experiencing a Pole Shift
- Planet X and 2012: The Pole Shift (Geographic / Spin Axis) Explained and Debunked
- Planet X and 2012: Why Planet X Is NOT Coming in 2012
- Planet X and 2012: What The Sky Looks Like On December 21, 2012
- Planet X and 2012: Why a 3600-Year Planet X (Nibiru) Doesn’t Exist
- Planet X and 2012: Could Planet X Be a Planet Around a Binary Star to Our Own – a “Dark Star?”
- Planet X and 2012: The “Institute for Human Continuity” Is NOT REAL
- Planet X and 2012: “Even the Maya Are Getting Sick of 2012 Hype”
- Planet X and 2012: Why Gilbert Eriksen’s “Wormwood” Won’t Be Showing Up
- Planet X and 2012: When Is “2012,” Anyway?
- Planet X and 2012: The Myth of the Southern Approach
- Planet X and 2012 and Astrology: Exploring the Claims of Astrologer Terry Nazon on 2012, Part 1
- Planet X and 2012 and Astrology: Exploring the Claims of Astrologer Terry Nazon on 2012, Part 2
- Planet X and 2012 and Astrology: Exploring the Claims of Astrologer Terry Nazon on 2012, Part 3
I have also written a few posts that are tangentially related to the 2012 subject:
- Planet X and 2012: Young-Earth Creationists Actually Can Do Real Science Reporting
- What Happens When All the Planets Line Up Against Us?
- The Sun’s Binary Companion, Nemesis – Fact or Fiction?
- Astrologers Take Note – We Are Nowhere NEAR the “Dawning of the Age of Aquarius”
- Planet X and 2012: Sun Returns to Greenland … Two Days Early!? And a Major Fail by Time Magazine
- The New-Age Conspiratorial World of Gregg Braden
- Mike Bara’s New-Agey Anti-Science Beliefs, from Bad Geometry to Astrology to Exploding Planets
- New Nostradamus Quatrain for 2012 Discovered (my April Fools 2012 post)
- Some Boring New Results Show We’re Still Not Going to Cross the Galaxy In December 2012
- Planet X and 2012: The Myth of Completing a Precessional Cycle
And my podcast episodes so far on 2012 and Planet X:
- Episode 14: The Mayan Calendar and What the Mayans Think of 2012
- Episode 15: Galactic Alignments, Part 1
- Episode 16: What the Sky Looks Like on December 21, 2012, Part 2
- Episode 21: The Geographic Pole Shift, Part 1
- Episode 22: Proof We Are Not Experiencing a Pole Shift, Part 2
- Episode 25: The Magnetic Pole Shift
- Episode 57: Doom from the Sun on December 21, 2012
- Episode 13: The True Story of Planet X
- Episode 23: The Fake Story of Planet X, Part 1 (Zecharia Sitchen)
- Episode 28: The Fake Story of Planet X, Part 2 (Gilbert Ericksen’s Wormwood)
- Episode 43: The Fake Story of Planet X, Part 3 (The Myth of the Southern Approach)
- Episode 51: The Fake Story of Planet X, Part 4 (Nancy Lieder)
- Episode 54: The Fake Story of Planet X, Part 5 (IRAS Discovery in 1983)
And podcasts on which I have been interviewed on 2012:
- Conspiracy Skeptic: 2012 and Planet X (10/03/2009)
- Point of Inquiry: The End of the World as We Know It (26/12/2011)
