The Dendera Zodiac

Mercury


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This website animates the sculpture using the NASA DE441 and DE431 ephemerides, which contain the highly accurate positions of the solar system planets, as its data sources for the angular rotations that are applied to the sculpture's component parts. This data is available in the right panel of this page in the 'technical data' tab. The animation can be reset at any time by clicking the button below and the zodiac carvings on the inner circle of the sculpture can be viewed at any time by clicking on the other button.

(Click and hold)
This particular webpage, on the right side panel, explains the sculpture's Mercury model and follows on from the previous page which explained the Saturn system. It is advised to read that page before reading this one.

Mercury carving


Explanation
Technical data

Mercury

Zodiac signs Libra and Aries

The sculpture of the God that represent Mercury has been identified through scholarly research and its identification is not under question. It is shown on the left panel of this page in detail and is highlighted on the central circle of the main dynamic illustration.

The geometric alignment line of this God is shown on the left panel image by the yellow line. On the main image the dashed alignment line is shown coming from the top of the God's staff and at the point where this line intersects with the line coming from the principal alignment God's staff it is rotated clockwise by exactly 44 degrees. This is half the angle that was defined on the Moon page when the zodiac was calibrated using the Moon's astronomy data and half the angle that was used for the planets Venus and Saturn. The alteration to this angle is the reason for the order in which the planets need to be solved because the angle varies in logical steps, which dictates that order.

At the end of the 44 degree line, a small image of Mercury can be placed on the circular section of the static outer part of the carving and two small white circles can also be placed on this line either side of the zodiac section of the central circle, for clarity.

On the illustration the dynamic model has already been aligned so that the principal God is pointing to the Vernal equinox at the top of the outer frame, but importantly the Zodiac outer section of the inner circle has not yet been rotated into position. This is because the Libra zodiac division line is marked out by the Mercury God's alignment line in this configuration as can be seen on the illustration. This can be checked by showing the zodiac carvings of the inner circle by clicking the button on the left panel.

Once this has been identified, the zodiac portion of the inner circle can be rotated into its correctly aligned position in the same manner that was explained on the earlier page regarding the Moon.
With the zodiac correctly aligned the extension line of the God's staff marks out the first point in Aries and the segment division line of this zodiac sign.

The first of the astronomy angles can now be applied to the dynamic illustration.
The second of the astronomy angles that defines the periapsis point is the next angle to be applied.
The true anomaly can finally be applied to Mercury and the planet ends up in the winter solstice alignment circles correctly positioned as the first planet from the Sun.
The technical data from the NASA ephemerides that is used to perform the astronomy rotations along with technical notes regarding the rotations is listed in the technical data tab at the top of this panel.


Due to the logic used in the design the planets have to be solved in a particular order, the next of these being Jupiter.

Click here to be taken to the Jupiter page.