StoneGloves wrote:
No - I didn't suggest that the sunset was visible behind Amos Hill from the Thornhope stone row, just that that was the roughly calculated declination. There's no line of sight nowadays, anyway, due to trees and a wall. There is an open sightline, but it's further north, to the edge of Glendue Fell, where there's a cliff edge - which is not resolved in GoogleEarth. The builders, to get a good view of the summer solstice sunset, made one a hundred feet higher up the hill, where the horizon is Black Rigg.
You also said "I've calculated the declination between the middle of this line of stones and the mound called Amos Hill, which is about four hundred yards away. Using a longhand method I get the result + 22.9.
That's very close to the summer solstice sunset "
Seems a bit contradictory .
Why bother working out a declination for something that would never have been seen ?
I imagine you believed that it might have been salient despite being 12 days out and didn't consider the horizon or the fact that the sun will never be seen to set over Amos Hill as seen from any of the stones in the line .
