Arcadia Discussion Zone

In this part the focus will be on the staff Castor (the shepherd in white robes) is holding. As the image below shows, this staff does not follow a straight line.



I will once more take the large X I have drawn as the starting point. Below we can see that the line headed diagonally upwards from the D in “ARCADIA” creates a triangle with castor’s hand and the staff.



I have argued that Castor’s crossed legs represent the letter χ and that his bent arm represents the letter υ. Since the line making the triangle passes through a D, and the uppercase Greek equivalent of D (delta) is a triangle, I think both the triangle and the D in “ARCADIA” represents the Greek letter delta (δ, Δ).

If we look at Bayer’s star chart for Gemini, we find that Castor is holding something in his left hand, with a grip corresponding to the grip around the staff in Poussin’s painting. The star located there is θ Geminorum (Theta Geminorum).



I think the D in “ARCADIA” and the triangle made by the line from this D, Castor’s hand and Castor’s staff represents the star δ Cygni (delta Cygni), and that the point is that we should draw a line from θ Geminorum to δ Cygni. The significance of θ Geminorum will be explored further in the next posts.

I have now found a critical edition of Tycho Brahe’s 1004-star catalog, the one Bayer used as the basis for his Uranometria, and which Kepler published in his Rudolphine Tables. The critical edition, by Dennis Rawlins, can be found here: http://www.dioi.org/vols/w30.pdf. In this edition all the stars are identified with their conventional Bayer designation. I will use the calculations Rawlins presents in this edition from now on. (There are some small differences between his calculations and mine, but Dennis Rawlins is a much merited astronomer (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Rawlins) so I assume that he knows what he is doing).

The coordinates for θ Geminorum to δ Cygni are



Using this application (http://www.taygeta.com/misc/gcircle.jsp) to calculate the bearing from θ Geminorum to δ Cygni, we find that it is 12.00⁰ counter clockwise from North. Below we can see that a line making an angle of 12.00⁰ with the vertical line Pollux is pointing at is perfectly aligned with the lower part of the staff Castor is holding.



If we draw this 12.00⁰ line from the 1601 position of θ Geminorum we find that it passes through δ Cygni, but that it also passes by very close to Albireo (β Cygni) at the beak of the swan. The coordinates in the Rudolphine tables for Albireo, as found in Rawlins’ critical edition, are



The bearing from θ Geminorum to Albireo is 12.10⁰, only 0.10⁰ more than the bearing from θ Geminorum to δ Cygni. Below I have drawn the line from θ Geminorum passing through δ Cygni. When the stars are projected onto a globe like this, the line passes by only 10 km west of Albireo. Below, I have drawn the line, and marked the 1601 positions of δ Cygni, Albireo and three other stars in Cygni.



The five stars I have marked in the image above are the five most luminous stars in Cygnus. We can see that they make a cross, and together these stars form an asterism called the “Northern Cross”. I will soon return to the significance of the Northern Cross, but I will first present one other important point.

The fact that the line from θ Geminorum to δ Cygni has the same slope as the staff Castor is holding, together with the observations presented above should convince us that the D in “ARCADIA” is meant to represent δ Cygni (Delta Cygni). To get “CARDIA” the R was placed next to this D. According to the logic I have been following in these puzzles, we should therefore draw a line connecting a star represented by the R and a star represented by the D. If the R once more represents ρ Cygni (Rho Cygni) and the D represents δ Cygni, we get the line I have drawn below.





The bearing from δ Cygni to ρ Cygni can be calculated here: http://www.taygeta.com/misc/gcircle.jsp, and is 81.75⁰. The bearing to Oak Island is 81.69⁰. The difference is only 0.06⁰. In the image below we see how close the line is to Oak Island. The distance to Oak Island is less than 1km.



I don’t think one should place to much weight on the fact that this line came this close to Oak Island, since there is nothing in Poussin’s painting indicating that the line from δ Cygni to ρ Cygni is more important than the other lines.

I have now presented my argument for how ε Herculis, δ Cygni, ρ Cygni, ρ Geminorum, υ Geminorum, ε Cygni and also other stars are pointed out in Poussin’s painting, and that lines should be drawn connecting these four pairs of stars:

ε Herculis and ρ Cygni
δ Cygni and ρ Cygni
υ Geminorum and ε Cygni
ρ Geminorum and ε Cygni

Below you can see the four lines drawn in Google Earth with different backgrounds (the lines from υ Geminorum and ρ Geminorum to ε Cygni cannot be distinguished).







The image below gives a more detailed view. The white circle has a radius of 15 km.



I want my findings to be as easy as possible to inspect. Below I have given the coordinates for the 6 stars making up the four pairs. The “Rudolphine coordinates” below are the coordinates found in Dennis Rawlins edition of Tycho Brahe’s star catalog. (Those in parenthesis are what you find in Rawlins’ tables on page 30, 39 and 40 in the columns marked αD and δD. The coordinates above are the same converted to decimal notation). You get the Google Earth longitude for ρ Geminorum and υ Geminorum by subtracting 17.66⁰ from the longitude, which will give a longitude where Paris is at - 20⁰ (and Ferro at approximately 0⁰). To get the Google Earth longitude for the other stars (with longitudes between 180⁰ and 360⁰) you have to do the calculation x – 360⁰ – 17.66⁰, where x is the Rudolphine longitude. An example: the Google Earth longitude for δ Cygni is 293.177⁰ – 360⁰ - 17.66⁰ = -84.483⁰. The latitudes are the same in both columns.



See the explanation at the bottom about the coordinates for ρ Cygni. The coordinates for Oak Island found above are the ones used by Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island, converted to decimal notation.

The Google Earth coordinates (in decimal notation) can now be used to calculate the bearings here: http://www.taygeta.com/misc/gcircle.jsp with these results



This was what I had intended to present in this series of posts. I thought the differences in the bearings, and therefore the distance between Oak Island and where the lines intersect, resulted from a lack of precision caused by insufficient knowledge about the longitude of Oak Island. I now think that the four lines only give a rough indication of where Poussin is guiding us, and that other features of his painting guide us more accurately to Oak Island. The main point in that part of the puzzle is that the painting is guiding us to the Northern Cross, the asterism consisting of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon Cygni. This explains why Albireo (β Cygni), which is at the bottom of the Northern Cross, is so prominent in the puzzle.

We have seen that the slope of Hercules’ staff directs us to Epsilon Cygni; that Castor’s staff directs us to Delta Cygni and Beta Cygni (Albireo) and that also the vertical line Pollux is pointing to directs us to Albireo. Below I have drawn these lines and the Northern Cross. The line to the point called υ’ is the line indicated by the vertical line in the painting, from υ Geminorum through the North Pole to the point corresponding to υ Geminorum on the other side of the pole.





In my next posts I will explain the connection between Poussin’s painting, the Northern Cross and Oak Island.

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ρ Cygni is not found in the Rudolphine Tables. The coordinates for ρ Cygni is therefore found by taking the 2000 coordinates (21h 33m 58.9s +45° 35m 31.0s) and convert them to 1601 coordinates here: http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/toolbox/tb_coordconv.cfm (Input Coordinate System: Celestial, Coordinate Format: Decimal, Longitude: 21:33:58.9, Latitude: 45:35:31, Input Coordinate Epoch: 2000, Output Coordinate Epoch: 1601. Multiply the resulting celestial longitude by 15 to get degrees instead of hours) or here: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/forms/calculator.html (Input parameters: System: Equatorial, Equinox: J2000, Observation epoch: 2000, Longitude: 21:33:58.9, Latitude: 45:35:31, PA: 0.0, Output parameters: System: Equatorial, Equinox: 1601).

Hi Franck,

You use the dimension "KM", what tells me, that you are not from the island.

I follow your theorie all the way to Oak Island.

Some questions :

How many people in the 17. century are able to find, what you found ?
If they found it, how did they find the correct place on the island ?
Is it possible, that other paintings from Poussin are needed to follow the trail ?

You're right. I'm not.



I would think no one in the 17. century could have found it. In the well-known letter from Louis Fouquet to Nicolas Fouquet, Louis writes that "according to him [Poussin], it is possible that nobody else will ever rediscover in the centuries to come". So I don't think it was meant to be discovered in the 17. century. I also doubt that one could find Oak Island by using the painting without already knowing that there is something peculiar about Oak Island. The painting confirms that there is something of importance on Oak Island, but I don't think it is a coincidence that people have been digging on that island for 200 years already.



To find the correct place on the island one has to go by the megalithic cross, and see the correspondence between this and the Northern Cross in Cygnus. I will deal with this in my next posts. I don't think other paintings are needed; it is all there in this one. But it is quite possible that Poussin has made other paintings related to this.

I agree, Franck

awaiting your next posting.

regards Hans

Yep reading away Franck

So Franck what century are we talking about with Oak Island ....

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, Lovian.

I’m very busy now, workwise. It will probably take a couple of months until I continue the argument.

Sorry to hear that, Franck.

I'm jumping into this very late obviously, so much to discuss. The geometry I was not too convinced that there is too too much involved with that. Painters are brilliant but they were not mathematicians Although the alternate painting makes reference to Aquarius, there could be something about the geometry indeed. Maybe they painted certain points to represent mythical features which refer to constellations in the sky. Since the bible is a giant astro theological story, I find a lot of the mysteries are tied into this as well.

Have you looked at the alternative Arcadia picture's geometry?