Category: Stonehenge
Introduction: Stonehenge
DIGITAL EFFECT: Go to EveningFast forward to approximately 90 minutes after sunset.Fade out music as stars, Moon and planets appear. Good evening. The sky above us may look like an ordinary nighttime sky, but for today’s presentation, entitled “Stonehenge,” we have transported you to southern England, on today’s date, but about 3500 years ago. Has […]
Gerald Hawkins, Astronomer and Tourist, Makes a Guess
Hawkins started with an observation, discovered a few hundred years ago: on the first day of summer—the longest day of the year—the Sun will rise just over this stone when observed from the central area. Indicate the stone on the far right with a pointer. VISUAL 5 (still): Heelstone Closeup. Fade on and scale up […]
Predicting Today’s Sunset
DIGITAL EFFECT: Sun Rise to Set Fade scene off and reset time to approximately one hour before sunrise on -1500/10/31 with cardinal points on before fading the scene back on. Audience may predict where along the horizon the Sun will rise. Also, if possible turn on a 2D trail for the Sun for tracking the […]
Reconstructing Stonehenge
Gerald Hawkins guessed that if Stonehenge marked one alignment with a celestial object, the Sun, it might mark others as well, like the sunrise and sunset we just recorded, or the risings or settings of stars or planets. To test that suspicion, his hypothesis, Hawkins first had to “reconstruct” Stonehenge, at least on paper, to […]
Marking More Risings and Settings
We can give our planetarium the same information that Dr. Hawkins gave his computer. Right now the stars, Sun, Moon, (and planets, if you are using them) are positioned as they would be on today’s date, about 3500 years ago, about the time when the giant trilithons were erected. The first stages of Stonehenge were built […]
Tracking the Migration of Sunset
Well, there we are. We know what doesn’t work. It may be discouraging, but scientists who have an idea usually keep trying until they have exhausted every possibility. Optional: If you have time, you can call for other suggestions and try them now, like the Moon in different phases, or the planets.We have considered alignments […]
Hawkins’ Conclusion
DIGITAL EFFECT: Slow Sunset. Slow diurnal motion so that sunset can be marked accurately. Will whoever is closest to the sunset point mark it for us please? We have now marked the four most extreme risings and settings of the Sun, the farthest north and the farthest south. We are now ready for the final […]