Refutation of Nilesh Oak’s Astronomical Dating of Mahabharata to 5561 BCE
Part 6 of 18 — The Distance between Arundhati and Vasishtha over past 14000 years
In the previous article, it was shown that the right ascension (RA) difference between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha was as high as 48.94 arcminutes in 2500 BCE. The distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha has been around 12 arcminutes over past 14,000 years. So, we need to understand the cause of this and its implications. First step is to provide the data for the variation in the distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha. In this article, I will show how to calculate the distance between stars and apply it to calculate the distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha over past 14,000 years.
6.1: Angular distance between stars
The angular distance (d) between two stars is calculated by this formula [1]:
cos d = cos δ1 cos δ2 cos (α2 − α1) + sin δ1 sin δ2 (1)
where α1 and α2 are the right ascensions and δ1 and δ2 are the declinations of the two stars.
If you know the right ascensions and declinations of two stars, you can also calculate the distance online by providing these values as shown in Figure 6.1 [2]:
Due to the large amount of data, it was not convenient to do it online, so I used Excel to perform these calculations.
6.2: RA and declination data
As the formula requires the right ascensions and declinations data, I compiled this data using Stellarium 0.20.4 software and converted to degrees using Microsoft Excel. The data is shown in Tables 6.1 and 6.2.
6.3: Angular Distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha
The angular distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha was calculated using equation (1) in Microsoft Excel. The data is shown in Table 6.3 and Figure 6.2.
The data shows that the distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha is currently 11.8 arcminutes and has only changed by 0.62 arcminute over last 14,000 years according to Stellarium 0.20.4 software. Thus, the maximum value of the distance between Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha has been only 12.43 arcminutes over last 14,000 years. However, the right ascension (RA) difference Arundhatī and Vasiṣṭha was as high as 48.94 arcminutes in 2500 BCE. This means that RA difference presents an exaggeration and does not truly represent the phenomenon of Arundhatī walking ahead of Vasiṣṭha. What is the cause of this overestimation and how does this affect our understanding of this phenomenon? We will delve deeper into these issues in the next article.
References
1. “Angular distance between stars”, https://stjerneskinn.com/angular-distance-between-stars.htm.
2. “Calculate Angular Distance Between Two Stars”, http://celestialwonders.com/tools/starAngleCalc.html.
Note: The content of this series of articles is based on the three-part presentation author made on Sangam Talks on the refutation of the 5561 BCE dating of the Mahābhārata War. Here are the links to these presentations.
1. Refutation of the 5561 BCE dating of the Mahabharata War, Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2YuGQRmZ9c
2. Refutation of the 5561 BCE dating of the Mahabharata War, Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DiLSUFrTx8
3. Refutation of the 5561 BCE dating of the Mahabharata War, Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eop31blDa2c
Here are three other presentations refuting Mr. Nilesh Oak’s dating of Surya Siddhanta to 12000 BCE and Ramayana to 12209 BCE.
1. Dating the Surya Siddhanta: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55pvrTUWi94
2. Dating the Ramayana — Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0PO3SzqBc&t=5s
3. Dating the Ramayana — Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKNkrgm1Tu0
More about the author
I am a seeker of historical truths and am deeply interested in the heritage of India. I have earned a B.Tech. in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University, USA. I have a deep interest in ancient Indian texts. My research besides Materials Science covers several different areas: Vedic cosmology, Vedic astronomy, Jain astronomy, and ancient Indian history.
Email: rajarammohanroy108@gmail.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RamMohanRoy108
Coming up:
Refutation of Nilesh Oak’s Astronomical Dating of Mahabharata to 5561 BCE: Part 7 of 18 — Was there an epoch of Arundhati?
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