2012 Feature in Sky and Telescope

:: Movie 2012 for Feature in Sky ::

Hollywood movie 2012 is providing the 2012 meme with a lot of attention, from such diverse magazines as Playboy (last month) and now Sky and Telescope:

Noted archaeoastronomer E. C. Krupp explains all the details, and the history of this mania, in the cover story of the November 2009 issue of Sky & Telescope, now available at a newsstand near you.

At Space Daily we get a larger taste of what the article covers:

If you believe what you hear, writes Krupp, “The ancient Maya of Mexico and Guatemala kept a calendar that is about to roll up the red carpet of time, swing the solar system into transcendental alignment with the heart of the Milky Way, and turn Earth into a bowling pin for a rogue planet heading down our alley for a strike.”
Krupp explains the realities, the many falsehoods, and the mixed exaggerations of astronomy and the Maya calendar system that supposedly combine to predict catastrophe. Krupp also reviews other recent end-of-the-world astro-manias: the “Jupiter Effect” doomsday of 1982, the “Harmonic Convergence” overthrow of the old world order in 1987, and the “5-5-2000″ planet-alignment catastrophe predicted for 2000. Interestingly, some of the same people and their notions were behind these erroneous predictions too.
“As we approach 2012, more and more professional and amateur astronomers are being asked about the doomsday scenario, so we want to help educate them, so they can inform the general public,” says Sky and Telescope Editor in Chief Robert Naeye.
“Dr. Krupp’s article thoroughly demolishes this pseudoscience drivel, and serves as an outstanding resource for scientists, educators, and the media.”