Ogygos Wrote:
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> >>Looking along the shaft then the angle
> deflection from the north precessional circle is
> only +/- 3.37 degrees.
> Setting this angle onto the circle you can see
> that Alioth is far from view.<<
> I don’t follow you here.

Ogy:
The pyramid site is near the 30 d lat and the descending passage is 26.5 degrees.
To view the north star at Giza you must look 30 degrees up from the horizon, but the passage is only 26.5 degrees from the horizon, therefore if you are in the passage looking out then you are seing 3.5 degrees from true north. Since the Earth rotates then you will view all stars within the 3.5 degrees inscribed circle. You would be unable to view any other objects in the sky. That would leave Thuban as the brightest star visible.
The next time this would occure is the "present". If you venture to the site and look upward from inside the pyramid you will see Polaris...no other star...just Polaris.
We could change the name from the DP "descending passage" to the NPSVP "north polar star viewing passage".

Best.
Clive

> The shaft angles might have been planned with
> other things in mind.

Actually it is designed around mathematics more than any other possible astro-feature.

Best.
Clive