<HTML>Dave and Stephen:
The ecliptic is a circle (it's oblateness is irrelevant to the point) which center is the pole of the ecliptic, not the NP. When I said 'cover' I merely meant that the sun most move along its path at a rate consistent with the formulae of 71.428* per 1*, measured of course, from the pole of the ecliptic itself.
If you place the vernal equinox near Beta Verginis, as you have, the sun will have 'covered' , or moved 148* along its path, whereas it should have moved, or covered, 177* of the total circle to be consistent with 10450 B.C.
As for your point, Dave, on the eclipitic not being a straight line like the RA,
has really nothing to do with it. In spherical geometry which governs the RA and Dec. of the stars, the earth is taken, like the stars, to be an invisble point from which all co-ordinates spring. These have been applied to planispheres and star maps for centuries, now, and however you look at it, the sun must cover 177* to be retrograded to 10450 B.C., and not 148* as your co-ordinates give.
Bent</HTML>
