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Ancient Maya: Astronomy or Astrology

The ancient

The Sun

The creation of the

The

Venus was known as chac ek, or noh ek, the great star and is the only planet named. This star is the third brightest object in the sky, after the sun and moon, and observations of this star are very detailed and accurate.^[1] The Maya viewed the sideral cycle of Venus as approximately 584 days, observing it as morning star and evening star for an average of 260 days each.^[1] The period between these events is approximately sixty-four days. In the Dresden Codex the cycle of Venus is laid out over five pages of one 584 cycle per page.^[3] The synodic period of Venus is five complete cycles of Venus, or approximately eight solar years. The accurate record keeping of this planet over the years, led to the observance of its' complete cycle. This is evident in the Temple of the Jaguars at Chichen Itza, which shows the five cycles of Venus, with eight scenes of battles. This shows the division of the synodic cycle into eight solar years. With a star-war being fought in accordance with Venus cycles. Also, the data shows that they fought in the dry season and avoided fighting when Venus was invisible during superior conjunction.^[3][1] The helical rise of Venus seemed to be the most important to the Maya for they aligned it with 1 Ahau on the Tzolkin.^[3] They noticed that this rise took place, blindly, or during the retrograde period, the time when the planet goes in the opposite direction the rest of the planets.^[3] The feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl at Chichen Itza may be linked to Venus as the morning star, as stories tell of his transformation into this star.^[3]

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