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Old December 14th 04, 04:24 PM
Chris L Peterson
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On 14 Dec 2004 06:38:27 -0800, "Zague" wrote:

Would it be safe to say that, except for the Milky Way, the Moon and
planets, the nightsky would have looked totally alien to us because
nearby stars would be in much different positions in the sky?


Yes, the sky would have been completely different. Some familiar objects hadn't
even formed yet, and proper motion and the rotation of the galaxy would have
radically altered the constellations.


Is there any big feature that would be noticeable then that I'm
missing.


I don't think so. Naked-eye galaxies like M31, LMC, etc would still have been
visible, but not locatable with respect to any modern star positions.


Is there a place on the web where simulations, as imprecise as they can
turn going that far in time, can be run just to give me an impression
of what it could have been.


I doubt it. The proper motions of most stars isn't that accurately known, and
over this period the position of even very slow stars will change significantly.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com