Re: starship-design: Massively Distributed Computing for SETI

[Ben Franchuk <bfranchuk@jetnet.ab.ca>]

Steve VanDevender wrote:
> 
> Ben Franchuk writes:
>  > But alas the program has the limit of about 5,000 BP ( or what ever
>  > year 1 is for astronomers). Part of the time range I am looking
>  > for is to 35,000 BP. No real reason other than I wonder what things
>  > looked like during the last ice age.
> 
> There's a fairly high uncertainty in proper motion measurements for most
> stars.  Even if you got a program to show you the sky adjusted for
> stellar proper motion in 35,000 BP, it might not be that accurate.
> Apparently the program you tried limits the time range it will display
> to avoid going outside the range where the uncertainty would accumulate
> to undesirable levels.

While 35,000 BP I expect to be the limit of any program,
astronomical calculations to say 15,000 BP would be very useful
of common astronomical events like sun/planetary movements and near
by star motion in understanding possible pre-history and the events in
the heavens at that time.
Here is the link that got me thinking about pre-history.

http://www.astrologyworldnews.com/go/offsite.asp?url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_871000/871930.stm

" prehistoric map of the night sky has been discovered on the walls of the
  famous painted caves at Lascaux in central France. 
    The map, which is thought to date back
   16,500 years, shows three bright stars
    known today as the Summer Triangle. 
"
    I want to know if such group of stars could be seen during the summer?
    Maybe it was a some other time of year that it could be seen.
    While one can't check if it was a star map, one can indeed check if the
    heavens did look that way.

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 We borrow it from our children."
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