The Dresden Maya Codex


The Dresden Maya Codex from about 1200 to 1250 is one of the very few written documents of the pre-Columbian Maya culture that have survived to the present day. It contains 3 astronomical tables:


Eclipse Tables

On page 52 we find the numbers (red frame):

17.14.8 = 6408
18.5.5 = 6585
18.14.2 = 6762
19.4.19 = 6938

The difference of subsequent numbers is 177, wich is the duration of 6 lunations of 29.5 days (synodic period of the Moon from New Moon to New Moon).

Dresden Codex
                              page 52 moon eclipse
Wikipedia


Dresden Maya Codex Eclipse Tables
http://uknowledge.uky.edu/world_mexico_codices/2/

On the left page (53) in the upper left part we find 177 = 8.17, the multiple 2·177 = 354 = 17.14, and 502 = 1.7.2, which is the sum of 354 and 148, 148 beeing about 5 lunations (148 ≈ 147.5 = 5·29.5):

page 53

and, at the right of the glyphs:
1.15.14 = 679 = 502 + 177,
2.6.16 = 856 = 679+177,
2.15.13 = 1033 = 856+177


From 1001 to 1099 the are 239 solar eclipses. The frequency of the intervals (rounded days) between subsequent solar eclipses is:

solar eclipse intervals 1001 to
                              1099

A solar eclipse occurs when the passage of the Moon through a node coincides with the new moon within ± 17° 25' of a lunar node. As the Sun moves about 1° per day, an eclipse at e.g. -13° and +17° with an interval of 30 days is possible, or at +17° and -13° with an interval of 178-30=148 days or 177-30=147 days.



Books
Grube, Nikolai: Der desdner Maya-Kalender. Der vollständige Codex; Herder, Freiburg 2012; ISBN 978-3-451-33332-3

Grube, Nikolai (Hg.): Maya, Gottkönige im Regenwald; h.f. ullmann, Potsdam 2012; ISBN 978-3-8480-0033-3
Links

Heliacal rising (Wikipedia)

Show Me a Dawn, or "Heliacal," Rising (QuickTime required)

Introducing the Venus Cycle

Planetary Phenomena of Venus from 2000 through 2100 (Astrodienst)

The "Arcus Visionis" of the Planets in the Babylonian Observations (C. Schoch)

The Dresden Maya Codex (SLUB)

Dresden Codex (Wikipedia)

(*)  Maya Astronomy: Venus

(**) The Evening and Morning Star

Maya Observations of very long periods of Venus

The Dresden Codex (Andreas Fuls)

Bricker, Harvey, and Victoria R. Bricker (1983) Classic Maya Prediction of Solar Eclipses. Current Anthropology. Vol. 24, pp. 1-23.

The Dresden Codex - Eclipse Tables (M. J. Finley)

Five millennium catalog of solar eclipses (NASA, Fred Espenak)

Lunar node (Wikipedia)

PlanetObserver Applet

To the Limits (David Dearborn)

Mayan Calendar Description (Stephen P. Morse)

Mayan Calendar Conversions in One Step (Stephen P. Morse)

Ancient Maya documents concerning the movements of Mars




Updated: 2015, Feb 14