[time-nuts] Solstice question, about 5000 years ago

Steve Rooke sar10538 at gmail.com
Mon Dec 22 03:19:19 UTC 2008


Michael,

2008/12/22 Michael Sokolov <msokolov at ivan.harhan.org>:
> Bill Hawkins <bill at iaxs.net> wrote:
>
>> The passage grave at New Grange, Ireland, is one of those astronomical
>> wonders where the rising sun at winter solstice shines down a relatively
>> long tunnel to shine on carved stone at the far wall of a chamber.
>>
>> We know that solstice has the shortest day and the longest night.
>>
>> How'd they know that?
>
> I'll abstain from answering the last question, but I'm more interested
> in a different question: from what I understand, the exact shape of the
> analemma depends on the misalignment between the line of apses (aphelion
> and perihelion of Earth's slightly eccentric orbit) and the solstices
> and equinoxes defined by Earth's obliquity.  These things do change very
> slowly over the course of millennia, don't they?  Isn't that change
> significant enough that the correct stone alignment would be different
> between today and 5000 y ago?  If they got it right 5000 y ago for their
> epoch, why does it still work now?  Hasn't the analemma shifted far
> enough to break the alignment?

This is a very interesting point, of course, so this is my 2c worth:-

1) We talk about nano/pico/femto second differences here but I wonder
just how far the analema has shifted in the 5000 years and just how
much difference it would make physically to this location in Ireland.
I assume the slit of light that shines through the passage is not
microns wide and the target, similar. It may be that the change only
makes a small physical difference and is within the accuracy
percentage of the measuring instrument, being The Passage Grave.

2) Is it possible that any shift in the analema may be circular over
that time and has reverted to it's position of 5000 years ago.

3) Bill said that this alignment is noted at rising sun on the winter
solstice. Is it possible that originally the alignment was at a
different time of the day, say, mid-day which would seem to be a
better target to aim for.

4) Stonehenge dates from about the same time and there is a suggestion
that this has an astronomical connection. If that is the case, it
would also be affected by any shift in the analema but I wonder how
much physical difference that would make considering, what appears to
me, to be an instrument with quite a degree of accuracy latitude.

73, Steve - JAKDTTNW (yes, I got it right this time, said I was a troglodyte :-)
-- 
Steve Rooke - ZL3TUV & G8KVD
Omnium finis imminet



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