How did the Mayan Civilization know the exact distances between the planets and the...

Q

Quential

New member
...exact positions? I mean seriously..... Galileo,Copernicus proposed their heliocentric models only after the 1400s...
I mean the telescope was invented by Galileo in the 1600s.
Maybe the Mayan Civilzation had their own telescopes ...? which hasn't been found to this date?
haha the mayan telescope thing was just a speculation...
but i saw a youtube video that they had the correct positioning of all planets....but obviously i'm not sure if it's right or wrong
 
The Mayans had no telescopes, their observations were made with the naked eye. One thing to remember is that in Mayan times, the air was much clearer than it is today - no industrial pollution, etc.
And their astronomers were very patient. They watched the night skies, made endless notes and calculations and were very good mathematicians, as well as astronomers. The Mayan calendar, by the way, is more accurate than our modern calendars. So - by using reasoning, observation, and mathematics, they were able to come up with astonishingly accurate calculations.
 
Not sure where u are getting your info:

"Venus held a particular attraction for the Mayans. It was considered to be connected with the major deity Quetzalcoatl. It was called Xux Ek, the "Great Star," and the Mayans knew that it is the same object that appears in both the morning and the evening at different times of the year. The priest-astronomers determined the synodic period of Venus (how long it takes to orbit the sun) to be 584 days, which is again incredibly close to the actual period of 583.92 days. When Venus rose in the mornings, it was considered bad luck, and everyone would stay inside their homes and block their chimneys so that the evil light from Venus could not enter. The Mayans also calculated the synodic periods of Mars as 780 days (actual = 779.936 days) and Mercury as 117 days (actual = 116 days), but they seemed uninterested in Jupiter and Saturn, the other bright planets. None of the planets were actually seen as objects different from the rest of the stars, which is unusual considering that they move significantly in relation to the fixed stars."
 
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