Is it possible to use the stars to determine the passage of time? I'm writing a science fiction short story which involves a group of people being in suspended animation for a very long period of time, on the order of thousands of years.

My question is, would an astronomer on waking be able to determine that a significant period of time has passed purely by making observations in the night sky? How accurate would they be?

For the purposes of the story, I'm more interested in what an astronomer could observe unaided or with a primitive telescope of the sort Galileo might have had early in his career (around 3X magnification).

Thanks!
In the night sky in 10,000 years, two things will have changed in relation to the stars. The first, the rotational axis of the Earth will have changed, shifting the celestial sphere. The second, the stars themselves will have moved a bit relative to each other due to proper motion. So, the night sky will be quite different in 10,000 years, but still recognizable, particularly the constellations which will have changed somewhat but will still be identifiable. I would posit that as long as the person or persons were at least casual star gazers or astronomy enthusiasts (not even necessarily professionals) they could estimate how much time has passed in the course of their slumber, I'd say with a margin of error of about +/-2000 years. Should they be trained astronomers that margin of error should fall.