SarahTheCoat

 British Christmas    day 22        HAPPY SOLSTICE!

Officially, solstice happened overnight, but this photo above is the sunrise at Stonehenge this morning, in case you missed the live stream. Cloud diffused the moment when the sun was visible through the stones. BUT, remember that it would not be a perfect alignment because the stones were placed to capture winter solstice SUNSET, not sunrise.

On a clear day, this is what our neolithic ancestors would have witnessed last night. 

Now because of the missing stones on the far side, the aperture is wider. 

If you are interested in Stonehenge as an astronomical clock, take a look at this map. Who said astronomy is a modern human development?

More Stonehenge Solstice Secrets

I was curious this morning about why the camera angle set up by English heritage to capture the sunrise was so different from yesterday’s photos of the sunset. Obviously, the difference is between east for sunrise and west for sunset, but… there is more to it than that. 

Although the key alignment for Stonehenge is the winter solstice SUNSET, in the last 20 years, entirely as a result of the work by Professor. Gordon Freeman of the University of Alberta, a secondary alignment has been suggested that runs between the Winter Solstice SUNRISE.

This alignment makes use of a sightline that goes through a “notch” in the edge of one of the stones of the western Trilithon, skims the edge of one of the stones of the south eastern Trilithon and passes between the stones on either side of the Sarsen Circle.

The “notch” has puzzled scientists for years, because it is clearly a cut rather than some accident. The Canadian team investigated further. Here’s the view from the visitor path closest to the Sarsen Circle, looking southeast along this secondary alignment.

The close-up view below shows the horizon over Coneybury Hill and this is exactly where Winter Solstice Sunrise occurred 4,500 years ago:

Why had it taken so long to unlock the secret? Because the Earth’s axis has changed its tilt slightly the Winter Solstice Sunrise now occurs two sun-widths to the left of where it did when Stonehenge was built. This means that the original precise alignment is now a little off.

Even so, you only have to wait a few minutes after sunrise for the Sun to shine straight along this line.

And the view from slightly further back is breathtakingly beautiful.

British Christmas     Day 21/22   Winter Solstice

When you have the world’s best/oldest astronomical clock, you tend to make a big deal of it.  I live less than 20 miles from Stonehenge so perhaps that makes me more aware of it than most. 

This year, based on advice from the druid and pagan communities, the Solstice will be marked at Stonehenge on the morning of Wednesday 22 December - the first sunrise following the astronomical solstice which occurs after sunset the previous day.  This is also when the days begin to get longer again. Both the sunset on Tuesday and the sunrise on Wednesday are part of the “winter solstice”. 

In normal years, there are gatherings of pagans, druids, and the simply curious onlookers who want to mark the shortest day and longest night of the winter. In non-Covid times, the rules that keep tourists out of the middle of the standing stone circle are often relaxed. 

Stonehenge was built between 3000 and 2000 BC, and it is aligned to capture the setting sun on the winter solstice, more precisely than the dawn the following morning. Archaeologists think that the sunset of winter solstice was more important to the people who built it than the dawn. Both the sunset and sunrise at the winter solstice were more important to the builders than the summer solstice. 

Because of COVID restrictions, English Heritage is asking only those people who have had a negative lateral flow test result to attend on Wednesday morning.  The sun will rise around 8:11am on Wednesday 22 December and the monument field will be open as soon as it is light enough for people to go in safely - usually around 7.45am.

English Heritage is live streaming the solstice. It all starts at sunset at 16:01 GMT TONIGHT on Tuesday 21st December. English Heritage will be live for about 45 minutes before and after both the sunset and the sunrise. 

You can watch it live here.  

After the events English Heritage will have a video of both. 

This post is a gift to @anyawen, who celebrates the Solstice!