Expert: Courtney Seligman - 12/3/2009

Question
How is it possible that the Mayans could have accurately predicted the aligning of plants? What systems could they have concievable tracked without even basic telescopes that would allow them to predict the atronomical events that will occur in 2012. And last but not least since I'm not sure if the planets will align as popularly predicted in Hollywood on Dec. 21st 2012, is there in fact any validity to their predictions?

Answer
The planets will not be aligned at all in late 2012, but will be scattered all along the Ecliptic (not that it would make any difference if they were aligned, as only the Sun and Moon have any significant effect on the Earth).

As far as predicting the positions of the planets, any ancient civilization which paid some attention to their positions over a period of time would be able to calculate how long it takes them to complete one circuit of the heavens (a) relative to the stars and (b) relative to the Sun. Given that, you can approximately predict their future locations relative to the Sun, stars, and each other by comparing the time interval involved to the periods determined by those observations. Depending upon how accurately the periods are determined, you could predict future planetary positions over hundreds or thousands of years. I don't know how accurately the Mayans knew the periods involved, so I don't know how accurately they could predict the current positions of the planets, but it doesn't make any difference, for two reasons -- (1) as noted above, the planets will not be aligned in 2012 and (2) 2012 merely represents the end of the current long count calendar (like going from 999 AD to 1000 AD, or from 1999 AD to 2000 AD), and has nothing to do with the positions of the planets. Statements that the Mayans predicted such an alignment, and considered it and the end of the long count calendar to be of cosmic significance, are outright lies.