Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Declination
mum Declinations are about +18° and -19°. Yet these, of
course, are modern values. It is interesting to compare prehistoric
declinations.
SUN’S DECLINATION AT SOLSTICES AND POSITIONS OF THE MOON
Present-day values of the solar and lunar extreme positions
have changed slightly over the centuries, because
of the Precession of the Equinoxes – the top-like ‘wobble’
of the Earth as it spins on its axis. The wobble has been
caused by the Moon’s gravitaional proximity. Each Earth
wobble takes about 25,920-years to fully complete. The
Sun and Moon do not now move quite as far to south and
north at their limiting positions as they did in the prehistoric
past.
Did they know all this thousands of years ago? That
the Moon is on an 18-19 year maximum-minimum-maxi-
mum declination cycle was known in ancient times. Tally
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