COURTESY OF David Levy
The El Caracol observatory in Chichen Itza looks like its dome could house a telescope , but it just provided a space for viewing ports .
Mayans kept a close eye on Mars
Have you ever taken a voyage through time ? Have you had a chance to visit an earlier time and place ? I hope that you will have the chance someday to visit Chichen Itza . This issue of Sky ’ s Up is about Mars — a planet of wonder and mystery . And in this article , I want to provide some insight about how an ancient culture from more than a thousand years ago observed Mars . We arrived at the city of Chichen Itza on the afternoon of Feb . 16 , 2018 . The site was jammed with tourists and people wanting to sell crazy souvenirs , but none of that took away from the idea that here was a visit to a distant and all-but-forgotten time . The observatory , El Caracol , was not visible from the front entrance . But when we walked down a trail through shrubbery , we encountered it — the largest structure in all of Chichen Itza . Larger in area than the two pyramids , larger in area even than the sports stadium , El Caracol faces the sky with the questions , answers and ideas of a great civilization . All of this brings us to the theme of this issue of
4
A David Levy Sky
by David Levy
Sky ’ s Up — the planet Mars . The planet has an extraordinary history , but what many readers might not be aware of is how far back humanity ’ s fascination with the planet goes . That story goes back at least as far as the Mayan civilization . More than 1,300 years ago , men , women and children were looking at the sky from there . They were asking questions like we do and wondering . If these people from long ago lived at Chichen Itza then they knew about an observatory building there . Although we know that this observatory specialized in Venus , it also was set up to study Mars . El Caracol was built no later than 900 AD , more than 1,100 years ago , and long before that the people were looking at the sky . The observatory provided a way for the Mayan people to observe changes in the sky . By climbing the steps and looking through viewing portals , observers could view the sky above the dense local vegetation . Mayan astronomers were excellent record keepers . Their records were necessary to develop and to perfect their solar calendar , which consisted of 360 days plus five extra days set aside for celebrations . But I imagine an additional reason for their records . These Mayan astronomers believed that writing things down
Sky ’ s Up