The Mayans followed the cycles of the sun and the planets. They were able to precisely predict the date and time of both the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice. They mapped out the stars, following them in large groups, and being one of the first peoples to ever identify a constellation. The Mayans had long identified the Milky Way before it was the Milky Way and had given it the name, The Tree of Life. They were also able to find and identify two celestial spirits, Itzam Ye and One Hanahpu, clustered up in a constellation of stars. But in order to do this they had to build some sort of telescope that would reach far enough into the sky to identify such constellations. They did just that. The Mayans were the first to build ancient observatories where they were able to wee up into the heavens and its glory of star clusters, and planets, and constellations, and the sun and the moon.
Using their excellent skills, the Mayans were able to correctly predict the Summer Solstice of 1998, which only comes around every 76,000 years. They also predicted the Winter Solstice, which is to come in 2012. According to the Mayans, on December 21, 2012 on the Winter Solstice, the planets will align with the sun and the world will end and begin again. But the only flaw of this was that the Mayans were calculating in the Yucatan Peninsula, and the ending of the planet will most likely not occur as the Mayans predicted. The Winter Solstice will come on their predicted date, but life will continue on as it did when the Summer Solstice of 1998 came and went.
The Mayans used their astrology in order to predict the perfect dates for their priests to perform religious rituals with the heavens above. Astronomy was an important factor in predicting if or when there would be a famine or a flood or if their crops would be bountiful or less than so. They would know when the best times to plant their crops and the best times to harvest them, as well.
Because the Mayans were destroyed when the Spanish conquistadors arrived, there is little known about Mayan astronomy and how, in other ways, they used it. But without a doubt, astronomy was a very important part of their day-to-day life.
