<p>There are different timescales, with different amounts of motion</p>
<p>Daily, the stars move due to the motion of the Earth. But all places at the same latitude see the same stars at the same local solar time.  You see the same sky in New York as in Bordeaux.</p>
<p>Over a period of a few thousand years the positions on the globe won't have changed significantly (continental drift is slow) but precession will change the position of stars at a particular local solar time and date. Any good star chart app will account for precession.</p>
<p>Over a period of a million years, continental drift will still not have made much difference, at least not much compared to the changes that will result from the proper motion of many stars.  Many stars will have moved, some will have become brighter, some dimmer, some will vanish.  Over about a million years the sky will have completely changed.  Some of this motion can be <a href="https://sci.esa.int/web/gaia/-/gaia-s-stellar-motion-for-the-next-1.6-million-years" rel="nofollow noreferrer">modelled</a>, but not all of it. So we don't actually know what patterns the stars made in the sky a million years ago.</p>
<p>Over 100 million years continental drift will have moved the rocks on which New York is built by a significant amount, but the Sun will have orbited halfway around the Galaxy in that time, and there are essentially no stars that we can see in the sky now that would be visible then, and conversely, there are no stars that were visible then that we can see now.  Most of the stars that we could see in the sky 100 million years ago have reached the end of there lives by now and become white dwarfs, (or neutron stars) and we have absolutely no idea where those white dwarfs are now. This is because most of the stars that we can see are brighter and more short-lived than the sun.</p>
<p>So if your question is about precession, then any star app will do.  Try Stellarium.  If it is about proper motion, there are limits on how far we can extrapolate. And if it is about continental drift, forget it the other changes to the sky happen far faster.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-24T13:56:21.873Z
Thank you James, your response gives me an idea of what is out there. Reading a variety of books on the way ancient temples were built across the world by many civilizations, and the theory that they "mirrored" the position of the stars visible to them,
S T
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-24T13:56:37.370Z
I was hoping to see if I could extrapolate a similar "intelligence" from various mythologies across the world, based on how the landmass evolved at a given locale and the stars visible to them and the relation of those two parameters to the narration and meaning of the mythologies, and obvious incorporation into those tales through previous relations of realities of their environment( landmass, stars). Beyond my capabilities without such tools to show those relations over the billions of years of our existence - a task for future generations then. 
Thanks again James, 
Stan
S T
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-01-23T11:32:37.830Z
2022-01-23T21:49:27.053Z
2022-01-23T21:49:27.053Z
James K
<p>I have read many books which reference star locations in reference to specific world locations in ancient times. But is their an app/website which will show where a location was on the planet at a certain time in prehistory, and what the star chart visible at that location was? E.g. Rome, Athens, New York a million years ago and what the stars would look like from that spot?</p>

<app>
App? for star charts compared to ancient world landmass locations
S T
# App? for star charts compared to ancient world landmass locations

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-01-22)

I have read many books which reference star locations in reference to specific world locations in ancient times. But is their an app/website which will show where a location was on the planet at a certain time in prehistory, and what the star chart visible at that location was? E.g. Rome, Athens, New York a million years ago and what the stars would look like from that spot?

**Tags:** app

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-01-23. Score: 2

There are different timescales, with different amounts of motion

Daily, the stars move due to the motion of the Earth. But all places at the same latitude see the same stars at the same local solar time. You see the same sky in New York as in Bordeaux.

Over a period of a few thousand years the positions on the globe won't have changed significantly (continental drift is slow) but precession will change the position of stars at a particular local solar time and date. Any good star chart app will account for precession.

Over a period of a million years, continental drift will still not have made much difference, at least not much compared to the changes that will result from the proper motion of many stars. Many stars will have moved, some will have become brighter, some dimmer, some will vanish. Over about a million years the sky will have completely changed. Some of this motion can be [modelled](https://sci.esa.int/web/gaia/-/gaia-s-stellar-motion-for-the-next-1.6-million-years), but not all of it. So we don't actually know what patterns the stars made in the sky a million years ago.

Over 100 million years continental drift will have moved the rocks on which New York is built by a significant amount, but the Sun will have orbited halfway around the Galaxy in that time, and there are essentially no stars that we can see in the sky now that would be visible then, and conversely, there are no stars that were visible then that we can see now. Most of the stars that we could see in the sky 100 million years ago have reached the end of there lives by now and become white dwarfs, (or neutron stars) and we have absolutely no idea where those white dwarfs are now. This is because most of the stars that we can see are brighter and more short-lived than the sun.

So if your question is about precession, then any star app will do. Try Stellarium. If it is about proper motion, there are limits on how far we can extrapolate. And if it is about continental drift, forget it the other changes to the sky happen far faster.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you James, your response gives me an idea of what is out there. Reading a variety of books on the way ancient temples were built across the world by many civilizations, and the theory that they "mirrored" the position of the stars visible to them,  
> **username_0**: I was hoping to see if I could extrapolate a similar "intelligence" from various mythologies across the world, based on how the landmass evolved at a given locale and the stars visible to them and the relation of those two parameters to the narration and meaning of the mythologies, and obvious incorporation into those tales through previous relations of realities of their environment( landmass, stars). Beyond my capabilities without such tools to show those relations over the billions of years of our existence - a task for future generations then.  Thanks again James,  Stan  

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