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I’m old enough to remember a long family holiday trip from Newcastle to Cornwall stopping off at Stonehenge. There was no visitor centre back then, just a parking spot at the side of the road. You could enter the site freely and wander around the stones without any restrictions. Fast forward to today and the queues of crawling passing traffic as everyone aims their phones out of the car windows WITH THE WRONG ASPECT RATIO commenting on how small and unimpressive it all is.
 
Frankly, if they’re going to make the site a museum and charge admission, they should make it truly authentic and erect the stretched tented roof over its frame and restore the rides and the hook-a-duck stall.

Edit : …and have huge Marshall stacks blasting out Hawkwind with the interpretive dance of naked ladies. You want your money’s worth.
 
Yes and the wig needs raw shampoo applied but not washed out, just to 'gunk' it out a bit.. then a quick fly by with a hair dryer to complete the unwashed hair look. Soak yourself with heavy amounts of patchouli oil, a couple of spots of petrol or oil flicked about on their clothes here and there. Most of them are full of shit. never trust a hippy.
Patchouli oil. Is that still around?
Quite liked the smell to be honest.
 
When I get "schooled" about paganism by an ex-GF, when I'd been into or 'enlightened' before I knew her, then I get a tad irritated.
She'd never gone to any solstice celebration at Stonehenge ... yet gladly posts about going to Glasto.
She tells me about when the solstice happens,
It never ceases to amaze me how so many people don't even understand the basic principals of solstices and equinoxes even though they know it's the shortest/longest day etc.

Some can't even get their heads around GMT/BST (GMT+).
 
Patchouli oil. Is that still around?
Quite liked the smell to be honest.
Yes, yes it is.
It's one scent I can't stand. To the extreme, the smell of Play-Doh made child-me instantly vomit and get a headache. Dunno if the scent is different but I don't want to test it.
 
Yes, yes it is.
It's one scent I can't stand. To the extreme, the smell of Play-Doh made child-me instantly vomit and get a headache. Dunno if the scent is different but I don't want to test it.
Your Play-Doh smelt of Patchouli oil? eh? The stuff that my boys played with in the late 70's early 80's (the branded variety) was almond scented . So whenever I made it for them, I added a few drops of almond oil. If I tried another scent it just didn't seem right!
 
Nah. Play-Doh had a smell all of it's own. If it smelled like patchouli I wouldn't have had the violent reaction. Patchouli isn't gut-wrenching to me, I just find it revoltingly sickly and sweet.
 
Nah. Play-Doh had a smell all of it's own. If it smelled like patchouli I wouldn't have had the violent reaction. Patchouli isn't gut-wrenching to me, I just find it revoltingly sickly and sweet.
We should band together, wear high viv and sit in roads and that .. JUST STOP PATCHOULI OIL!.
 
Researchers are investigating whether Stonehenge aligns with the positions of the Moon, as well as the Sun.

English Heritage and experts from other organisations are studying the connection between the ancient monument and a major lunar standstill, which happens every 18.6 years.

The term refers to the point when moonrise and moonset are furthest apart along the horizon, and next takes place in 2024-25.

The theory is that these lunar movements might have been noticed in the early phase of Stonehenge and gone on to influence its later design.

Night-time with some of Stonehenge and the Moon visible


Dr Silva from Bournemouth University said around the time Stonehenge was constructed people might have gathered to see the Moon too.

Due to major lunar standstills occurring relatively infrequently, academics have jumped at the chance to study it.

English Heritage is working with experts from the universities of Oxford, Leicester and Bournemouth, as well as the Royal Astronomical Society.

"So we could be talking about a generational event that people might have come to Wiltshire for," said Dr Fabio Silva from Bournemouth University.

"We'll never be able to prove this, but the greater understanding we can get of these monuments and the Moon, the stronger the argument will be."

Lecturers and students from Bournemouth University will document the Moon's movements and relationship with the stones.

"It's rising further to the north than it has done and a fortnight later, it rises further to the south and we believe places like Stonehenge might have aligned to the Moon when it's doing this," Dr Silva continued.

"It will add a much more diverse nuance to the answers we already have."


Summer Solstice at Stonehenge is a very popular event that attracts thousands of visitors every year.

Stonehenge is widely known for its connection to the movements of the Sun, in particular at summer solstice, when thousands flock to the monument in the early hours to witness the sunrise.

Archaeoastronomer (someone who studies how people in the past understood phenomena in the sky) Prof Clive Ruggles from the University of Leicester said: “Stonehenge's architectural connection to the Sun is well known, but its link with the Moon is less well understood.

"The four Station Stones align with the Moon's extreme positions, and researchers have debated for years whether this was deliberate, and—if so—how this was achieved and what might have been its purpose.”

English Heritage is inviting the public to be involved in a series of events, including talks, a pop-up planetarium, stargazing and a new display in the exhibition space.

It will also livestream the southernmost moonrise at Stonehenge.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80zexkvenko
 
I'm starting to wonder whether the Stonehenge ancestors made life more complicated for themselves by utilising the stones for different ceremonial purposes, each unique to the beliefs at the time. The original creators could have made it for Sun worship and then came along another mindset based around the Moon, then the Stars, then Deities, and so on. To the point it's original intended purpose was overcomplicated and they simply gave up on it.
 
I'm starting to wonder whether the Stonehenge ancestors made life more complicated for themselves by utilising the stones for different ceremonial purposes, each unique to the beliefs at the time. The original creators could have made it for Sun worship and then came along another mindset based around the Moon, then the Stars, then Deities, and so on. To the point it's original intended purpose was overcomplicated and they simply gave up on it.
As the article says though, it's whether the alignments were deliberate or not.

I would think that if the four stones do align with the moon's extreme positions, that it has to be more than mere coincidence.
 
I can't remember the details, but I think Professor Timothy Darvill suggests it started as lunar based and then became sun based later:
 
I'm starting to wonder whether the Stonehenge ancestors made life more complicated for themselves by utilising the stones for different ceremonial purposes, each unique to the beliefs at the time. The original creators could have made it for Sun worship and then came along another mindset based around the Moon, then the Stars, then Deities, and so on. To the point it's original intended purpose was overcomplicated and they simply gave up on it.
The possible religious usage of the Stonehenge landscape over the millennia since its initial 'construction', long before the stones were first erected, forms a major theme of Francis Pryor's 2016 book 'Stonehenge'. Which I wholeheartedly recommend, just like I recommend all of Pryor's books. Currently halfway through 'Seahenge', and counting the hours til I can get back to it tonight!
 
If the moon rises and sets in the same position on the horizon...what is this extreme positioning thing. I'm at a loss here.
 
If the moon rises and sets in the same position on the horizon...what is this extreme positioning thing. I'm at a loss here.

It wanders (like my mind)

I found this explanation:

The Moon's rising and setting points wander back and forth between the extremes, but not over an annual cycle like the Sun. Instead, the Moon performs this cycle every month (overlaid on a slow 18.6-year cycle as well), and with a swing relative to the Sun that can reach plus or minus 5.1°.1 Nov 2006
 
It wanders (like my mind)

I found this explanation:

The Moon's rising and setting points wander back and forth between the extremes, but not over an annual cycle like the Sun. Instead, the Moon performs this cycle every month (overlaid on a slow 18.6-year cycle as well), and with a swing relative to the Sun that can reach plus or minus 5.1°.1 Nov 2006
Thanks P.C. - I've never noticed this before.

I do admit to finding this very interesting (seriously).
 
No worries mate

If you haven't already done so look up "earth/moon barycentre" on youtube
So it's like hammer tossing - there is a constant pivot point....But the barycentre is a constant, whereas this extreme positioning is variable?

My apologies - I'm looking at these explanations on web pages but it just bounces off. I can't see the connection, unless it is the perigee and apogee of the moon in it's orbit, and if it is, then I do understand.
 
This is another page that looks like it might help

https://www.iop.org/explore-physics/moon/phases-and-orbits-moon

And as for


Me neither, or I get it in a flash of understanding that usually disappears as fast as it came.
Thanks P.C., I studied that page but there is no explanation for what I'm after, which is a discernible extreme in side movement in moon rise, or moon set - either monthly or seasonally.

The only thing to do is set the alarm clock for moon rise through a lunar month, stake it, and take note of any travel.
 
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