Re: A clean slate? (or should that be granite?) | Forum

stonefree May 2, 2011 16:19:05

Replying to Rhiannon

Rhiannon wrote:

Well that's my point, surely? That noon is an objective thing, when the sun's at its highest. And therefore, if you were going to carve a notch to indicate when it was, you'd think you'd carve it where the light indicates noon, not a small time before that.

Forgive me Rhiannon, I obviously still haven't made it clear.

The notch is in such a perfect position that when the sun is at it's highest point in the sky, the shadow of the capstone falls exactly on it... you have to forget the time as indicated by modern clocks.

We had an expert mathematician calculate from charts at what time the sun would be at it's highest point in the sky at 4.2 degrees west of the Greenwich Meridian. He told us that would happen at 13.19 - and that's exactly what time it was when the shadow fell across the notch!

Resonox May 2, 2011 17:06:12

Replying to stonefree

stonefree wrote:

Can I ask...did the mathematician work this out prior to and separately from your timings and the two results compared afterwards or did he give you a time and you worked from this? Also did you film this event...I'd like to see footage of it...not for critique or analysis but just out of curiosity.

Rhiannon May 2, 2011 17:50:42

Replying to stonefree

Oh I see! sorry. I was looking at the wrong shadow. I was looking at the pointy one going across the stone. Because that points to it in the first photo.
I didn't notice the line going across the notch itself in the second photo.

So that's more convincing.

It was your mention of the 'needle' that confused me.

But what time of year was this? I know that noon is always the highest point the sun gets too. But it doesn't always get to the same angle from the ground does it, that depends on the time of year does it not?