Greetings fellow dialists, Further to the equinox problem I am supposing that finding the date of solstice is possible by watching the point of sunrise or sunset against the foresight of a distant mountain mark. While there are only slow changes in declination at this time obsrving sunrise or sunsetset on days sufficiently before and after solstice at a subsidiary mark and dividing the interval by two will give the solstice. As to the equinox (and I am not sure how much this interested stone age man although Martin Brennan has a picture and account of sunrise lighting a cairn passage at equinox at Loughcrew, Ireland: Brennan, M. The Stones of Time, 1994, ISBN 0-89281-509-4) again I believe ancient man would have made use of outlying markers, either stone pillars or features on the horizon. Outliers are so common in neolithic structures that I am sure their use was fundamental. I cannot imagine shadow methods were used at all. The great distance to mountain markers and even outliers leads to an accuracy not otherwise obtainable. Accuracy is, of course, increased by observations over many years.
Frank 55N 1W --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.820 / Virus Database: 558 - Release Date: 20/12/2004 -
