December 2012: astronomy, solstice; perihelion, aphelion, equinox 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and the 25,725 year cycle

Relax: The Maya calendar extends 4000 years into the future; for 2760 years after December 2012, and beyond.
What a wonderful world: What's really interesting is the Mayan calandar has the same start date as the Hindu calender and the start of Egyptian record-keeping, and Sumerian calender-systems. So in ancient times some folks knew a great deal, and agreed on what they knew.

It looks like a totem pole. You see, instead a calendar pole. The 'faces" Mayans carved were letters in an alphabet.
25,725 year re-start on 21 December 2012: The Mayans knew the calendar of the Earth and the Sun goes on, and on. They recorded the patterns.
Mayans carved calendars, on stone to mark the end of periods: Like the Maya, we know solstice, perihelion, aphelion and equinox dates for 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 form part of the long cycles.
For example, the Earth orbits around the Sun - sometimes close, sometime near; and the angle of the Earth relative to the Sun changes in long cycles.
The Maya observed and recorded these things, in stone:

1. 25,725 year wobble of the spin of the Earth, relative to the constellation Draco; so
2. the 2012 Mayan Long Count forms a Mayan Calendar.

Have faith: Like the Maya, we can have faith a 4-year cycle of leap years; and the 7-day week cycle will go on, for example: here's some factoids about our reliable world:

• In a leap year, the first day is Saturday and the last day is Sunday; and
• non leap years will begin and finish at the same day of week; and
• days of the week and the dates of the year repeat in cycles of 28 years

Mass hysteria over 2012 end times: This page explains how the world will not end at the Solstice, on Friday 21 December 2012.
Something could happen: A higher possibility of big earthquakes may exist; as it does at each December Solstice
Mayan Calendar will re-set to a new start date: And "something" happens, according to the Maya. The Great Lord Bolon Yokti descends;
"The Thirteenth Bak'tun" will be finished (on) Four Ahaw, the Third of K'ank'in. ? will occur. (It will be) the descent(?) of the Nine Support (?) God(s) to the ?."
This translation comes from Department of Anthropology, Brigham Young University.

Earth axis - from the North Pole points around this place in the stars - see right. Here and every day the pole of the Earth rotates around the North Celestial Pole which appears very close to the star Polaris
Find Polaris the Pole Star: See it at the tail of the Lesser Bear (Ursa Minor) - also know as the Little Dipper".

In a 27-year "wobble": In terms of the precession cycle, an around 27,000-year "wobble"; this "rotates" around a point near the star Aldhibah ( Arabic to "two Hyenas", in Draco (the dragon). There is no physical reference that defines a beginning point in that cycle. The Mayans used 25,725 years

The Mayans counted in a 25,725 year cycle.
Ice ages form at one end of this cycle: The Mayan counted the cycle of a giant, predictable wobble of the Earth, called precession. DNA shows the Mayan peoples came from Eastern Siberia, probably pushed southward by successive ice ages.

New ice core data shows:

1. the Earth heats and cools in a 25,725 year cycle;
2. in a cool phase, ice creeps in from the poles towards the equator; and
3. we live in a warm phase.

Result of more than 26,000 years of knowledge: For example, the Mayan Long Count needed prior theory and knowledge. Maybe another 26,000 years of sky-watching before they carved their 25,725 year in to the rock; about 52,000 years. That thought gives me comfort. Life goes on. And on. We know the Mayans knew, life went on.
We live in a reliable world: Calendars and almanacs to help us plan. They list things we know will happen; like Sun rise, Moon rise and star-rise.
Sun rises, Sun sets: So Solstice, perihelion, aphelion and equinoxdates help us mark the seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter at the place on Earth, where we live.

The solstice of December 2012 marks a special date; (when measured in a calendar); as

1. the end of a 25,725 year wobble of the spin of the Earth;
2. (note this wobble goes on forever, practically);
3. the start of a new, giant wobble;
4. alignment with the black hole at centre of the Milky Way (Sagittarius A)
5. a mark on a calendar. Not the end of the world.
6. a sort of giant birthday; and
7. December solstice also brings higher statistical risks of big earthquakes.

The pre-computer world needed priests, shamans and persons with knowledge - sky-watchers - in sky-watcher towers and temples. Experts watched the sky. So they do today. Now we call such experts; spherical mathematicians, astronomers, or heliophysicists
When to plant, when to migrate, when to move animals to pasture: Vital information. In places with very cold winters: For example, the six month-long night and day at the poles.
Solstice: twice a year. Date of the maximum and minimum tilt of the Earth, relative to the Sun.
Perihelion: once a year, Sun and Earth at shortest distance apart. A hotter time.
Equinox: Two times in the year, six month apart when the day and the night have equal hours.
Astrologers use the equinox a reference and study tropical astrology - planetary positions referenced to the vernal (spring) equinox position along the ecliptic.
Astronomers study in a spherical polar coordinate system of right ascension and declination.

Aphelion: once a year. Day when Sun and Earth at longest distance apart. A colder period
Ice ages: Major glacial periods are controlled by the Earth's orbit. Summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere have been on a slow decline for the last 8,000 years as the orbital precession cycle pushed summer closer to aphelion, the point in Earth’s orbit where it’s farthest from the Sun.

Coordinated Universal Time (UTC): A 24-hour time set with atomic clocks. Time zones work as plus or minus UTC. To convert to U. S. Eastern Standard Time, subtract 5 hours.

Native American tribes carry four distinct mtDNA haplogroups called A, B, C, and D.

1. These haplogroups were also found in native populations in Central and South America.
2. Three of these haplogroups, A, C, and D come from Siberian Asia.
3. The B haplogroup,appears only in aboriginal groups in Southeast Asia. China, Japan, Melanesia, and Polynesia.

On a new topic: The Mayan legends of creation mirror ancient middle east myths.
So the world is one, and does not end in December 2012.
The longest single hieroglyphic record of the Maya Creation Myth shows the Mayans believed the world began 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ahaw, 8 Kumk’u, (August 13, 3114 BC).

1. the first Egyptian dynasty started around 3100 BC;
2. the first 'city,' Uruk, in Mesopotamia, around 3100 BC;
3. Hindu Kali Yuga, calendar starts 3102 BC;
4. around 3100 BC, in Sumeria, the division of time was set into 24 hours of 60 minutes each and each minute into 60 seconds and the division of the circle into 360 degrees.