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Callanish Moon Skim SOON - some answers

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I intend to be at Callanish for the 'southern moon skim' in June. Like some other contributors, I'll be on the Saturday evening ferry (10th) from Uig to Tarbert and will be staying for four nights; hoping for clear skies on the nights of 11/12th or 12/13th. It would be great to meet up with those of you opting for June rather than July.

This is going to be quite a long post, as, apart from contributing to current threads and clarifying moon dates, I felt that I should introduce myself and explain why I have not been involved in TMA threads on Callanish before. I do contribute, from time to time, to the Stones Mailing List and, less frequently, to Andy Burnham's Megalithic Portal. I tried to get a joint visit to Callanish in June organised, but it does not look as though more than four or five of us from the List will be there. However, I have the feeling that it may be quite crowded those nights (including, I understand, a BBC TV crew and an American 'Sacred Sites' tour group).

Scroll down if you just want my comments on moon timings !

I expect many contributors to this forum, seeing the name Gerald Ponting, may think of me as 'Margaret Curtis's ex-husband' even though it's 22 years since we split up (and there is still no contact between Margaret and myself). I lived on Lewis 1974-1984 and, sadly, I've only been back once since. I don't want to bring up old resentments, but the best way that I can explain why I have not felt inclined to use the TMA site in the past is to quote a rant which I posted on the Stones List some time ago … see the bracketed paragraph at the end of this post. Clearly, however, things Julian Cope wrote years ago are no responsibility of the present TMA 'community' … water under the bridge.

I hope I'm not being too egotistical when I point out that the suggestion that there was a possible link between the Sleeping Beauty, the southern extreme of the moon and the alignment of the Callanish avenue was first put forward by Margaret and myself at a conference in 1980.

I'm no longer directly involved in megalithic studies, my interests now being centred on local history in Hampshire. However, I have slide presentations on Callanish, on stone circles in general and on 'Artists and Antiquarians at Stonehenge' which I give to local societies; and in 2002 I compiled a little book on Callanish for Wooden Books.

My web-page on the 2006 southern moon skim http://home.clara.net/gponting/page42 has been referred to in recent threads – and I have an apology to make. When putting that page together last November, I slipped up over GMT / BST conversion (subtracted rather than added an hour!!) so the BST times are actually two hours later than stated. Sorry! This and other small errors have now been corrected - please go back to that page if you had been placing reliance on it.

In the 'Debatable' thread, there has been some doubt about which nights are 'best'. Some of the confusion is no doubt due to the fact that if the date for due south is soon after midnight, you need to stay up to see the moon rise on the previous day!
I have no specialised knowledge of the moon's timings, and I based everything on figures in Margaret and Ron's 'Callanish 2006' publication – which should be correct.
There is very little to choose between the nights of 11th/12th June and 9th/10th July. The moon is a little lower in July, it's marginally (probably not observably) closer to Full in June. The moon is only slightly higher on June 12th/13th and on July 8th/9th – so in either month you get two chances of clear skies. Go in June if you are prepared to stay up half the night and have it fully dark; go in July if you don't mind the possibility of a little post-sunset light still in the sky, but want to get some kip earlier! Late September is the nearest to the true southern extreme, so the moon's at its lowest, but it's a half moon in daylight – not exactly spectacular. I hope that helps. (June is also a good time to go to Lewis if, as I do, you hope to photograph some of the wild flowers on the machair.)

I look forward to meeting any other 'megalithic enthusiasts' at Callanish around June 11th-13th. Those going may be interested in this page http://www.jill-smith.co.uk/events.html Those not going might like to keep an eye on Victor's webcam http://www.iol.ie/~geniet/callanish

Gerald Ponting

Explanatory rant, for information only!
[ When I read TMA, years after it was first published, especially pages 66-67 in the chapter 'Margaret at the Stones', I was absolutely seething with annoyance and it upset other members of my family. I had a lengthy argument by post with Thames and Hudson about Cope's comments. I argued that it was totally unacceptable for him to refer to our divorce and, publishing this totally without my knowledge and never having met me, to say that I had 'returned shell-shocked to the conurbations of the south'. Quite apart from his totally incorrect assumption about my state of mind, I actually returned to one of the most delightful villages in Hampshire. There are other incorrect assumptions in his notes about Callanish; in several instances, he attributes to Margaret and Ron pre-1984 discoveries in which I was involved and Ron was not. I did eventually get an ex-gratia payment out of T&H, because I objected to the copyright of one photo being attributed to 'Margaret R Curtis' when it was actually my shot - she is in the picture (the raising of stone 33A on page 72). ]

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