OT: BSG Discussion

[Randallw]

correct me if I'm wrong, but don't constellations change as time goes by. I may be going off in the wrong direction but it would be harder for them to find the exact position of earth if the stars have moved.

[Suicide Junkie]

Map making is a simple matter of using a telescope, taking pictures and writing things down.

Add in long term observation to take note of velocities, and you can plot the map long into the future.

[Hunpecked]

Randallw: "... don't constellations change as time goes by."

Depends on the constellation and the time period. As seen from Earth, in 50,000 years Cassiopeia will change significantly, Orion hardly at all.

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/~scharein/applets/#ProperMotion

As I recall from the series, the Twelve Tribes supposedly left Kobol about 2,000 (Earth?) years ago. Assuming the Thirteenth Tribe left at the same time, it would have to reach Earth and send back a sky map before Kobol fell into ruins, i.e. no more than 2,000 years ago. So the constellations should still be recognizable from the vicinity of Sol. If the Thirteenth Tribe left before the others, then all bets are off.

On the other hand, real-world paleontological evidence and the Colonial racial mix make it pretty clear that humanity originated on Earth. That means that humans voyaged from Earth to Kobol (bringing their sky map) some unknown time before the migration of the Twelve Tribes, and we have no way of knowing if Earth's constellations are still recognizable. BTW, Earth-to-Kobol migration is consistent with the Colonials' discoveries on Kobol: apparently there are no sky maps from any of the Twelve Colonies, meaning that Kobol's inhabitants considered Earth more important for some reason.

[Azselendor]

True stars do move, but we are talking about stellar drift of only 3000-4000 years (date of the scrolls of pythia). Something that the Galactica would be equipped to do. We know the galactica has to generate new star fixes every time she jumps, so I would assume they are trying to use those star fixes to figure out where earth is.

Humpecked brings up the valid point that humans originated on earth. Perhaps we need to stop looking at the new BSG as something running in our past/present like the original series and something that might be running in out future.

At some point, Earth was abandoned for Kobol, we repeated our crap on earth, and moved on to the 12 colonies while a group went back to earth. You never know.