If you're in the southern hemisphere, the summer and winter solstices are reversed.
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But one possibility is that it was used to mark solstices and equinoxes.
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Stonehenge was likely used to mark solstices While much about the Stonehenge, the famed stone monument located in the United Kingdom, remains a mystery, some scientists believe it was used to mark solstices when it was built about 5,000 years ago.
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For those in the southern hemisphere, however, the winter and summer solstices are reversed.
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The solstices occur because most planets do not spin upright, or perpendicular to their orbits.
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Solstices happen because the earth gradually moves around the sun and is tilted on its axis.
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There are approximately 14 years between Titan's solstices, or the times each pole receives the most sunlight.
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The term references Stonehenge, at which the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices in England.
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Solstices occur because of the earth's gradual movement around the sun, and the tilt on its axis.
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But, between eclipses, solar seasons, solstices, and other astrologically relevant dates, there's a lot to keep track of.
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The whole tradition of festivals in this country goes back to Druid times—back to Stonehenge and the solstices.
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According to EarthSky, solstices occur because of the Earth's movement around the sun and how it tilts on its axis.
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We have solstices and seasons thanks to the earth's tilt The earth's axis of rotation is tilted approximately 23.5 degrees.
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The pillars are a visible link to Inti, the sun god, who was thought to "sit" on saywas at solstices.
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During the solstices, the sun either rises or sets in line with the layout of the 5,000-year-old-monument.
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First off, it isn't one of the eight sabbats (the equinoxes, solstices, and festivals that Pagans celebrate on a yearly basis).
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Some theories suggest that Stonehenge was designed in alignment with the solstices, but The Old Farmer's Almanac says that these are still unsubstantiated.
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HUMAN SACRIFICES SURROUND ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN TOMB Pömmelte henge, however, has its four entrances aligned with dates half way between the equinoxes and solstices.
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The view through the tunnels frames the vast desert and is perfectly aligned with the setting sun during the summer and winter solstices.
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To honor the occasion, we share with you some colorful — even poetic — coverage of winter solstices past published by The New York Times.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson gave Manhattanhenge its name in reference to Stonehenge, England's historical monument which was built to align with the winter and summer solstices.
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You might want to feel thankful for the solstices and seasons we do have, or we might not be here to witness them at all.
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Author Wendy Pfeffer and illustrator Linda Bleck, whose "A New Beginning" taught me about some spring holidays, created four good children's books about the equinoxes and solstices.
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Equinoxes happen twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall, while the solstices occur once in the summer and once in the winter.
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Solstices occur twice a year, one in the winter and once in the summer, while the equinoxes occur once in the spring and once in the fall.
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Stonehenge draws over a million tourists a year as well as hippies, druids and pagan worshippers who flock to its stones to celebrate the summer and winter solstices.
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Had we evolved on Venus, it's likely that we would not have noticed solstices or seasons at all, said David Grinspoon, an astrobiologist at the Planetary Science Institute.
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So not only is it the start of summer, but these solstices only happen twice a year, in June and December, giving us more than enough reason to celebrate.
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Although it is debated whether the ancient Celts actually celebrated their solstices at Stonehenge, many modern-day Druids will still return to the sacred site for their own celebrations.
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The work, set in the Great Basin Desert of Utah, consists of four long concrete tubes that align with the sunrise and sunset during the summer and winter solstices.
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Sure, most mainstream calendars come marked with the days of the solstices and equinoxes, but it's rare to pick up a planner that gives you a heads up about Lughnasadh.
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But how each person chooses to find that harmony is a very personal choice, whether that means observing the equinoxes and solstices of the year or celebrating the full moons.
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He emphasized that its entrances were perfectly aligned with the rising and setting sun of the winter and summer solstices, proclaiming their intimate knowledge and worship of the life-giving star.
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The World Heritage site is known for its alignment with the movements of the Sun - thousands travel to the site in Avebury, Southern England, to mark the solstices in Summer and Winter.
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The former group consists of the solstices and equinoxes (which mark the start of the four seasons), while the latter is made up of the days that mark the midpoint between each season.
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This is a deeply perplexing shortfall, and as it persists year after year after year like the winter and summer solstices, one can safely assume that something more than dumb chance accounts for this problem.
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Take a look: via Gfycat The truth about the egg-balancing trickWhile we're talking about equinoxes and solstices — that whole business of only being able to balance an egg on-end during a solstice is a myth.
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We've had one of his clocks in our house for a few years now and it's wonderful and fascinating to look up and see how far we are from the solstices and what we can soon expect.
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Seasonal Energy Maintenance This maintenance spell is set to be performed every full moon, but you may vary the schedule according to your needs: solstices and equinoxes are great, or the first of every month — whatever schedule works for you.
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Each of these solar spectacles, from Manhattanhenge to Madridhenge, gets its name from Stonehenge, the 5,000-year-old monument in England that was built to align with the sun's position during the winter and summer solstices, possibly as a way to worship the sun.
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Here's a graphic from NASA imagining what a summer solstice sunrise might've looked like back when Stonehenge was fully intact: Nowadays, humans still gather to pay homage to the summer solstice at Stonehenge — they just use modern technology, like so: People at Stonehenge on the solstices know how to throw a party.
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Further complications include a perpetual calendar that won't need adjusting for 20143 years; a moon phase accurate to one day every 122 years; a tourbillon; an equation of time, sunset and sunrise times; displays showing the length of day and night; a tide level indicator; and indication of the seasons, solstices, equinoxes and zodiac signs.
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Potential buyers might like to know that the reverse dial's celestial chart shows the constellations as seen from the Northern Hemisphere, and that the sunset and sunrise times allow for a four-hour difference between the summer and winter solstices, so use of that function would be limited more than a few degrees north of Beijing.
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The solstices (as well as the equinoxes) mark the middle of the seasons in traditional East Asian calendars. Here, the Chinese character 至 means "extreme", which implies "solstices", so the term for the summer solstice directly signifies the summit of summer.
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The difference in length of days and nights between summer and winter solstices is 10 hours and 30 minutes.
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Duration and distribution of horae and vigiliae on equinoxes and solstices of the year AD 8 for Forum Romanum.
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The first day of each month is shown in black, and the solstices and equinoxes are shown in green. It can be seen that the equinoxes occur approximately at altitude , and the solstices occur approximately at altitudes where ε is the axial tilt of the earth, 23.4°. The analemma is plotted with its width highly exaggerated, revealing a slight asymmetry (due to the two-week misalignment between the apsides of the Earth's orbit and its solstices). The analemma is oriented with the smaller loop appearing north of the larger loop.
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Markers around the obelisk would indicate units of time, including morning and afternoon as well as the summer and winter solstices for ceremonial purposes.
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After 2007 winds in the northern hemisphere accelerated while those in the southern one slowed down. Uranus exhibits a considerable seasonal variation over its 84-year orbit. It is generally brighter near solstices and dimmer at equinoxes. The variations are largely caused by changes in the viewing geometry: a bright polar region comes into view near solstices, while the dark equator is visible near equinoxes.
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In meteorological terms, the solstices (the maximum and minimum insolation) do not fall in the middles of summer and winter. The heights of these seasons occur up to 7 weeks later because of seasonal lag. Seasons, though, are not always defined in meteorological terms. In astronomical reckoning by hours of daylight alone, the solstices and equinoxes are in the middle of the respective seasons.
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The equinoxes and solstices are different as well: for the northern hemisphere, vernal equinox is in Ophiuchus (compared to Pisces on Earth), summer solstice is at the border of Aquarius and Pisces, autumnal equinox is in Taurus, and winter solstice is in Virgo. As on Earth, precession will cause the solstices and equinoxes to cycle through the zodiac constellations over thousands and tens of thousands of years.
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In the Gregorian calendar, it usually begins around 21 December (22 December East Asia time) and ends around 5 January. Along with equinoxes, solstices () mark the middle of East Asian calendar seasons. Thus, in "", the Chinese character "至" means "extreme", which implies "solstices", and therefore the term for the winter solstice directly signifies the summit of winter, as "midwinter" is used in English. In China, Dongzhi was originally celebrated as an end-of-harvest festival.
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Kepler's orbit. The telescope's solar array was adjusted at solstices and equinoxes. Kepler was operated out of Boulder, Colorado, by the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) under contract to Ball Aerospace & Technologies. The spacecraft's solar array was rotated to face the Sun at the solstices and equinoxes, so as to optimize the amount of sunlight falling on the solar array and to keep the heat radiator pointing towards deep space.
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Because the Satanist is considered their own god, birthdays are celebrated as the most important holidays. Following one's birthday in importance are Walpurgisnacht and Halloween. Solstices and equinoxes are also celebrated.
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The Maya were aware of the solstices and equinoxes. This is demonstrated in building alignments. More important to them were zenithal passage days. In the Tropics the Sun passes directly overhead twice each year.
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There is no clear evidence that the classic Maya were aware of precession. Some Maya scholars, such as Barbara MacLeod, Michael Grofe, Eva Hunt, Gordon Brotherston, and Anthony Aveni, have suggested that some Mayan holy dates were timed to precessional cycles, but scholarly opinion on the subject remains divided. There is also little evidence, archaeological or historical, that the Maya placed any importance on solstices or equinoxes. It is possible that only the earliest among Mesoamericans observed solstices, but this is also a disputed issue among Mayanists.
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Nothing was said directly about the polar region and fasting. But there is Hadith about Al-Masih ad-Dajjal that proves that fast as prayers have to be estimated and done every 24 hours, this is the opinion of the Council of Senior Scholars in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Map showing the dates of midnight sun at various latitudes (left) and the total number of nights. These concerns are because at polar latitudes, summer solstices feature the midnight sun and winter solstices have polar night.
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Determining the nature of this seasonal variation is difficult because good data on Uranus's atmosphere has existed for less than one full Uranian year (84 Earth years). A number of discoveries have however been made. Photometry over the course of half a Uranian year (beginning in the 1950s) has shown regular variation in the brightness in two spectral bands, with maxima occurring at the solstices and minima occurring at the equinoxes. A similar periodic variation, with maxima at the solstices, has been noted in microwave measurements of the deep troposphere begun in the 1960s.
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Glastonbury: Chalice Well Trust, 1975. Page 10. Frequent events are held in the grounds of Chalice Well including annual celebrations for the winter and summer solstices, World Peace Day, Easter, Michaelmas and Samhain (Halloween). It is a grade I listed building.
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Nakh people believed that the Sun went to visit her mother, Aza at the summer and winter solstices. The journey took her six months to complete. Nakh people used the fylfot as symbol of Deela-Malkh on their buildings and tomb-stones.
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Science Mag, Sofaer et al. 1979: 126Cambridge U, 1982 sofaer et al.: 126 In addition at two other sites on Fajada Butte, there are five light markings on petroglyphs recording the summer and winter solstices, equinox and solar noon.Sofaer and Sinclair: 1987.
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On the winter solstice, it rises at 08:37 and sets at 15:39 with 7 hours and 1 minute of daylight. There is therefore a difference of 10 hours and 31 minutes in the length of days and nights between the summer and winter solstices.
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Another trepidation was described by Varāhamihira (). His trepidation consisted of an arc of 46°40′ in one direction and a return to the starting point. Half of this arc, 23°20′, was identified with the Sun's maximum declination on either side of the equator at the solstices.
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On the other hand, equinoxes do not correspond to the middle point between the positions during solstices, as the Babylonians thought. As the Suda seems to suggest, it is very likely that with his knowledge of geometry, he became the first Greek to accurately determine the equinoxes.
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When the Earth's apsides (extremes of distance from the sun) are aligned with the equinoxes, the length of spring and summer combined will equal that of autumn and winter. When they are aligned with the solstices, the difference in the length of these seasons will be greatest.
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About Naming Ostara, Litha, and Mabon. Including Paganism. Patheos. Accessed 8 May 2019. Popularization of these names happened gradually; in her 1978 book Witchcraft For Tomorrow influential Wiccan Doreen Valiente did not use Kelly's names, instead simply identifying the solstices and equinoxes ("Lesser Sabbats") by their seasons.
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Local beliefs and practices co-existed those practiced regionally, which allowed each ethnic group to maintain its own religious identity while interacting, especially commercially, with neighboring groups. Some regional commonalities were the solar calendar, which marked the solstices and equinoxes, and veneration of the sun, moon, and maize.
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The further the location is from the equator; and the closer the date is to the solstices (as opposed to the equinoxes); the greater the difference in length between the length of the planetary hours and the clock hours. yielding the familiar naming of the days of the week.
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Kappa production ended with General Motors' bankruptcy in July 2009. Spanish Car maker Tauro, used Solstices to market their version called Tauro V8. There is a misconception that people tend to believe that this company purchased the Kappa platform, but in reality they were conversions of existing cars.
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The Moon's appearance is considerably more complex. Its motion, like the Sun, is between two limits—known as lunistices rather than solstices. However, its travel between lunistices is considerably faster. It takes a sidereal month to complete its cycle rather than the year-long trek of the Sun.
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In 1967, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV came to believe that Ha'amonga 'a Maui had an astronomical significance, telling the position of sunrise at solstices and equinoxes. This theory is supported by the research of Tongan historian Tevita Fale.Fale, Tevita H. 1990. Tongan Astronomy. Nuku‘alofa, Tonga: Polynesian Eyes Foundation.
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This motion of the sun going from south to north is called Uttarayana – the sun is moving towards north and when it reaches north it starts moving south and it is called Dakshinayana – the sun is moving towards south. This causes seasons which are dependent on equinoxes and solstices.
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Video explaining the significance of the sky diskThe disk may be an astronomical instrument as well as an item of religious significance. The blue-green patina of the bronze may have been an intentional part of the original artifact. The find is regarded as reconfirming that the astronomical knowledge and abilities of the people of the European Bronze Age included close observation of the yearly course of the Sun, and the angle between its rising and setting points at the summer and winter solstices. While much older earthworks and megalithic astronomical complexes such as the Goseck circle and Stonehenge had already been used to mark the solstices, the disk is the oldest known "portable instrument" to allow such measurements.
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His proposal to drop one day every 125 years and to cease the observance of fixed equinoxes and solstices was not acted upon following the death of Pope Clement IV in 1268. The eventual Gregorian calendar drops one day from the first three centuries in each set of 400 years.
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Set Sail the Prairie is the name of Kaddisfly's third full-length album, released on March 6, 2007. The album has fourteen tracks. Each song represents both a month of the year and a specific location in the northern hemisphere. There are also two extra tracks for the summer and winter solstices.
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The Illinois Historic Preservation Division (a division of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources) oversees the Cahokia site and hosts public sunrise observations at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices. Out of respect for Native American beliefs these events do not feature ceremonies or rituals of any kind.
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The corridor is a bit over long. The stones range from to in thickness. The dolmen is covered by a mound or tumulus in diameter. Like most Iberian tombs, it is oriented slightly south of east (96°), situated precisely so that at the summer solstices the sunlight at daybreak illuminates the burial chamber.
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In The Satanic Bible, LaVey writes that "after one's own birthday, the two major Satanic holidays are Walpurgisnacht and Halloween." Other holidays celebrated by members include the two solstices, the two equinoxes, and Yule.The Dictionary of Cults, Sects, Religions and the Occult by Mather & Nichols, (Zondervan, 1993), P. 244, quoted at ReligiousTolerance.
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Heathen Freehold Society of BC conducting a baby naming ritual at Midsummer.Heathens come together for differing holidays depending on their region. However, the most common are those around the equinoxes and solstices. The two most widely celebrated holidays are Yule and Midsummer, while the equinox and lesser yearly holidays vary more in adherence.
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From the west pyramid, the sun was seen to rise over these temples on the solstices and equinoxes.Foster 2002, p. 235. E-Groups were raised across the central and southern Maya area for over a millennium; not all were properly aligned as observatories, and their function may have been symbolic.Foster 2002, pp. 235–36.
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Archaeologist William Haag, who excavated at the site in the 1970s, interpreted the aisles that divide the ridge sectors as having astronomical significance aligned to the solstices. Astronomer Robert Purrington believes the ridges at Poverty Point were geometrically, rather than astronomically, aligned.Gibson, Jon L. (2000). The Ancient Mounds of Poverty Point: Place of Rings.
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The Maya were keen observers of the sun, stars, and planets. E-Groups were a particular arrangement of temples that were relatively common in the Maya region; they take their names from Group E at Uaxactun.Doyle 2012, p. 358. They consisted of three small structures facing a fourth structure, and were used to mark the solstices and equinoxes.
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The arrangement is aligned with the setting sun at the solstices and equinox, but its age is unknown. There are rock engravings by the Nganguraku people at Ngaut Ngaut which, according to oral tradition, represent lunar cycles. Most of their culture (including their language) has been lost because of the banning of such things by Christian missionaries before 1913.
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Some aspects of the siq'i system remain unclear. R. Tom Zuidema has theorized that the wak'as may be related to Incan understanding of astronomy. The Inca followed a synodic lunar calendar (time was measured in phases of the moon). They observed periodic calendrical rituals celebrating events such as solstices, and different centers were used for different astronomical events.
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He published a photo of himself dressed in S&M; gear in an advertisement in Artforum, similar to one by Lynda Benglis, with whom Morris had collaborated on several videos. He created the Robert Morris Observatory in the Netherlands, a "modern Stonehenge", which identifies the solstices and the equinoxes. It is at coordinates 52°32'58"N 5°33'57"E.
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Also, since perihelion and aphelion do not happen on the exact dates as the solstices, the maxima and minima are slightly asymmetrical. The rates of change before and after are not quite equal. The graph of apparent solar declination is therefore different in several ways from a sine wave. Calculating it accurately involves some complexity, as shown below.
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Marketing materials have described it as one of the oldest "Solar observatories" in the world, but sunrise and sunset during winter and summer solstices are the only evident astronomical alignments emphasized in the remains of the structure. The existence of the site was made public in August 2003, and it was opened for visitors in December 2005.
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Because Ariel, like Uranus, orbits the Sun almost on its side relative to its rotation, its northern and southern hemispheres face either directly towards or directly away from the Sun at the solstices. This means it is subject to an extreme seasonal cycle; just as Earth's poles see permanent night or daylight around the solstices, so Ariel's poles see permanent night or daylight for half a Uranian year (42 Earth years), with the Sun rising close to the zenith over one of the poles at each solstice. The Voyager 2 flyby coincided with the 1986 southern summer solstice, when nearly the entire northern hemisphere was dark. Once every 42 years, when Uranus has an equinox and its equatorial plane intersects the Earth, mutual occultations of Uranus's moons become possible.
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EHS was created and is edited by Rebecca Buchanan. While attempting to publish her own poems and stories, Buchanan discovered that options for Pagan authors to sell their literary works were limited, and thus she created EHS to fill the niche. EHS publishes new issues quarterly at the solstices and equinoxes. The inaugural issue was published for the 2009 Winter Solstice.
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Of Andhra Pradesh descent, she was born at Trois-Boutiques, Mauritius. At the age of 15, she won a prize in a Radio France Internationale short story competition. She went on to study at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where she obtained a PhD in Social Anthropology. In 1977, she published a collection of short stories Solstices.
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In 1966, the church's wooden portico was demolished and the building's facade was extended. Every effort was taken to ensure that it resembled the original. Even the height of a round window was adjusted so on both solstices, the sun's morning rays continue to hit the central point of the altar where the host is kept - just like in the original design.
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The December solstice solar year is the solar year based on the December solstice. It is thus the length of time between adjacent December solstices. The length of the December solstice year has been relatively stable between 6000 BC and 2000 at 49:30 (minutes:seconds) to 50:00 in excess of 365 days and 5 hours. After 2000 it is getting shorter.
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He determined the eccentricity of the sun based on his observations of the summer and winter solstices in 1334. Levi also noted how the size of the aperture determined the size of the projected image. He wrote about his findings in Hebrew in his treatise Sefer Milhamot Ha-Shem (The Wars of the Lord) Book V Chapters 5 and 9.
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In addition, occultations at solstices probe hotter equatorial stratosphere. The visible magnitude of Uranus in two spectral bands (upper graph) adjusted for the distance, effective microwave temperature (middle graph) and the stratospheric temperature (lower graph). Blue band is centered at 470 nm, yellow at 550 nm. However, there are some reasons to believe that seasonal changes are happening in Uranus.
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The Gregorian calendar is currently accurately lining up with astronomical events such as solstices. In 1582 this modification of the Julian calendar was first instituted. In order to correct for calendar drift, 10 days were skipped, so doomsday moved back 10 days (i.e. 3 days): Thursday 4 October (Julian, doomsday is Wednesday) was followed by Friday 15 October (Gregorian, doomsday is Sunday).
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The solstitial colure is the meridian or great circle of the celestial sphere which passes through the poles and the two solstices: the first point of Cancer and the first point of Capricorn. There are several stars closely aligned with the solstitial colure: Pi Herculis, Delta Aurigae, and Theta Scorpii. This makes the solstitial colure point towards the North Celestial Pole and Polaris.
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Basilica of the Assumption in Aglona, the most important Roman Catholic church in Latvia. Paganism was the main religion before territory of Latvia was invaded by Christian Teutonic Order. Latvians still celebrate traditional feasts (solstices). Dievturība is a neopagan movement which claims to be a modern revival of the ethnic religion of the Latvians before Christianization in the 13th century.
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There are some accounts of SS officers celebrating solstices, apparently attempting to recreate a pagan ritual. In his book El Cuarto Lado del Triangulo (Sudamericana 1995), Professor Ronald Newton describes a number of occasions when a Sonnenwendfeier occurred in Argentina. When SS-Sturmbannführer Baron von Thermann (Edmund Freiherr von Thermann, German WP), the new head of the German Legation, arrived in December 1933, one of his first public engagements was to attend the NSDAP Sonnenwendfeier at the house of Vicente Lopez in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, "a neo-pagan festival with torches in which the Argentine Nazis greeted the winter and summer solstices". At another in December 1937, 500 young people, mostly Hitler Youth and Hitler Maidens, were taken to a natural amphitheatre dominating the sea at Comodoro Rivadavia in the south of the country.
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This was done in large part to aid in astronomical study. In the late 16th century, the Church encouraged the inclusion of pinhole cameras into the construction of churches. Pinhole cameras are among the best tools for measuring the time between solstices. The transformation of churches into solar observatories encouraged innovations in engineering, architecture, and construction, and fueled the careers of astronomers like Cassini.
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Earth's climate is determined by a compilation of many things and factors. These effects include effects from the primary factors of Earth's axial tilt angle, Earth's orbital eccentricity, and the precession of solstices and equinoxes, as well as some secondary, external effects, such as meteorite/asteroid impacts on the earth's surface and solar activity from the sun, including sunspots, solar flares, and solar winds/geomagnetic storms.
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The Quincunx group in the hinterland, just 2.5km behind Blue Creek, is an architectural design consisting of five structures placed in a strategic square, with one construction in the middle. This design facilitated a widely used agricultural ritual used by people to determine cosmological patterns and solstices during the late classic period. Access to the river was a vital asset to engaging in successful agricultural practices.
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These do not occur on the dates of the solstices. With reference to the image of a simulated analemma in the eastern sky, the lowest point of the analemma has just risen above the horizon. If the Sun were at that point, sunrise would have just occurred. This would be the latest sunrise of the year, since all other points on the analemma would rise earlier.
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A similar periodic variation, with maxima at the solstices, has been noted in microwave measurements of the deep troposphere begun in the 1960s. Stratospheric temperature measurements beginning in the 1970s also showed maximum values near the 1986 solstice. The majority of this variability is thought to occur owing to changes in the viewing geometry. There are some indications that physical seasonal changes are happening in Uranus.
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Critics generally agree that the light and shadow phenomena at the site were intended to mark the arrival of the sun at the solstices and equinoxes (Carlson 1987, pp. 86-7; Zeilik 1985, p. S84). There is less agreement on the lunar phenomena; Zeilik found no ethnographic evidence for a concern with the lunar standstill cycle in the historic pueblos (Zeilik 1985, pp. S80-4).
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The sundial was rebuilt in 2011 following storm damage. The sundial is a stone pillar high and weighing . It consists in small steps covered with granite slabs, carved with hour and half-hour notches, as well as one notch for each month, and four additional notches for solstices and equinoxes. From the astronomical point of view Parnidis Dune is an ideal place for the sundial in Lithuania.
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Arqueología colombiana Ciencia, pasado y exclusión. Carl Henrik Langebaek Rueda. Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología Francisco José de Caldas (Colciencias) The findings were studied by Alexander von Humboldt who believed that the site could be used to anticipate astronomical phenomena such as solstices and equinoxes, as indicated by the alignment of the stones with the sun and moon. Arqueología de Colombia.
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The solstices and equinoxes are described in many almanacs and tables in the Maya codices. There are three seasonal tables and four related almanacs in the Dresden Codex. There are five solar almanacs in the Madrid Codex and possibly an almanac in the Paris codex. Many of these can be dated to the second half of the ninth and first half of the tenth centuries.
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As a result, the entire Easter cycle appears well illustrated. In order to be complete, this calendar only needs the presence of the monthly cycle. Indeed, the twelve rosettes flanking the triple crosses, 6 small and 6 large, represent the 12 moons or months of the year. In the upper corners, the large discs seem to mark the sun at the winter (left) and summer (right) solstices.
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This book included important "teachings on the lunar mansions, the signs of the zodiac, [and] the division of the seasons." In these teachings, Ibn-Habib calculated the phases of the moon and dates of the annual solstices and equinoxes with relative accuracy. Another important astronomer from al-Andalus was Maslama al-Majriti (d. 1007), who played a role in translating and writing about Ptolemy's Planisphaerium and Almagest.
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As the Earth orbits around the Sun, the north and south poles are alternately tilted towards the Sun. The Sun's altitude therefore increases and decreases during the year, producing seasons. Stonehenge Aotearoa's six heel stones mark the place where the Sun is rising and setting at solstices and equinoxes. This sculpture marks the place of the heliacal rising of Matariki around winter solstice at Stonehenge Aotearoa.
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It is a minimum at the equinoxes, when the Sun's apparent motion is more sloped and yields more change in declination, leaving less for the component in right ascension, which is the only component that affects the duration of the solar day. A practical illustration of obliquity is that the daily shift of the shadow cast by the Sun in a sundial even on the equator is smaller close to the solstices and greater close to the equinoxes. If this effect operated alone, then days would be up to 24 hours and 20.3 seconds long (measured solar noon to solar noon) near the solstices, and as much as 20.3 seconds shorter than 24 hours near the equinoxes. In the figure on the right, we can see the monthly variation of the apparent slope of the plane of the ecliptic at solar midday as seen from Earth.
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The June solstice solar year is the solar year based on the June solstice. It is thus the length of time between adjacent June solstices. In 6000 BC, the December solstice solar year had a length of 50:35 in excess of 365 days and 5 hours. This shortened to 47:55 in 2000 AD. It will remain between 47:45 and 48:00 at least until 10000 AD.
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The upper half depicts man's relationship with the cosmos and includes imagery representing solstices, lunar eclipses and the Equinox. The lower half is populated with animals and natural forms. A desert depicts the original order of the Earth, while greenery represents the Garden Of Eden. The door also displays a river, trees, bulls, and turtles, and the proverbial Tree of Knowledge in the center of the door bears fruits of knowledge.
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Mul.apin cuneiform tablet MUL.APIN is a collection of two cuneiform tablets (Tablet 1 and Tablet 2) that document aspects of Babylonian astronomy such as the movement of celestial bodies and records of solstices and eclipses. Each tablet is also split into smaller sections called Lists. It was comprised in the general time frame of the astrolabes and Enuma Anu Enlil, evidenced by similar themes, mathematical principles, and occurrences.
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The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days. The astronomer's mean tropical year, which is averaged over equinoxes and solstices, is currently 365.24219 days, slightly shorter than the average length of the year in most calendars, but the astronomer's value changes over time, so John Herschel's suggested correction to the Gregorian calendar may become unnecessary by the year 4000.
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Another substantial opening exists in the "ceiling" of the chamber. There is evidence that the Hohokam, early inhabitants of the region, used and recorded the position of sunlight shining through the latter opening to mark the seasons-- notably the equinoxes and the solstices, which were marked by carving a slick area (metate) in the rock. Other positions were marked with boulders. The formation is a popular attraction in the park.
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On each side of the clock dial was a fixed plate or 'tabula orientii', graduated with months and days of the Julian calendar for the purpose of determining the times of the rising and setting of the mean sun for the latitude of Padova (about 45°deg N). At the time the clock was made, the dates of the solstices were 13 June and 13 December (Old style or Julian Calendar).
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It is impossible to ascertain their lengths or dates. Two known Haab' rituals can be recognized. It's possible that the God C almanacs are equivalent to the seasonal tables in the Dresden Codex and the God C almanacs in the Paris CodexBricker and Bricker 2011 pp. 605–627 The Books of Chilam Balam The Book of Chilam Balam specifically refers to the Half Year, the solstices and equinoxes.
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The building maintains its original functions, and also serves as the venue for annual music festivals on the winter and summer solstices. The chapel's owners operate funeral homes and cemeteries, not designed by Morgan, in Hayward, also under the name Chapel of the Chimes, as well as Sunset Lawn Chapel of the Chimes in Sacramento. Chapel of the Chimes holds the records of the Chapel of Memories on Pleasant Valley Avenue.
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The mechanism of physical changes is still not clear. Near the summer and winter solstices, Uranus's hemispheres lie alternately either in full glare of the Sun's rays or facing deep space. The brightening of the sunlit hemisphere is thought to result from the local thickening of the methane clouds and haze layers located in the troposphere. The bright collar at −45° latitude is also connected with methane clouds.
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Metonic calendars include the calendar used in the Antikythera Mechanism about 2,000 years ago, and the Hebrew calendar. The complexity required in an accurate lunisolar calendar may explain why solar calendars (which have months which no longer relate to the phase of the Moon, but are based only on the motion of the Sun relative to the equinoxes and solstices) have generally replaced lunar calendars for civil use in most societies.
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The word barrow means a prehistoric burial mound used by Celtic people of France, England, Scotland, and Ireland. Viney's inspiration for the ceiling of Barrow came from her experience in an actual barrow in Ireland. While inside the mound's central rounded space, a beam of light came streaming in through a slot in the ceiling. These slots were used to chart the solstices, and the paths of the sun and moon.
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To measure area, 25 by 50 wingspans were used, reckoned in topos (roughly ). It seems likely that distance was often interpreted as one day's walk; the distance between tambo way-stations varies widely in terms of distance, but far less in terms of time to walk that distance. Inca calendars were strongly tied to astronomy. Inca astronomers understood equinoxes, solstices and zenith passages, along with the Venus cycle.
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Kinematics, dynamics and the mathematical models of the universe developed incrementally over three millennia, thanks to many thinkers, only some of whose names we know. In antiquity, priests, astrologers and astronomers predicted solar and lunar eclipses, the solstices and the equinoxes of the Sun and the period of the Moon. But they had nothing other than a set of algorithms to guide them. Equations of motion were not written down for another thousand years.
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Located at 28°36′36″N latitude, Delhi lies in the sub-tropical belt of earth's North Temperate geographical region, a few latitudes north of the Tropic of Cancer. As such the rotation of earth has its effect on the city's day-length, which shortens during winters and lengthens during summers. Between the two solstices, Delhi's day-length changes by about 4 hours, offset by some 2 hours each at sunrise and sunset.
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The site is oriented towards the Compuerta Mountain. This mountain and smaller peaks on each side were used to mark equinoxes and solstices, as the sun rose from behind them. The site was a ceremonial center with a plaza surrounded by various pyramid bases and other structures. The site has a distinct construction style, which consists of boulders with spaces between them filled in with layers of flat rock and red clay.
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The spin axis of Mars, as with many bodies, precesses over millions of years. At present, the solstices nearly coincide with Mars' aphelion and perihelion. This results in one hemisphere, the Southern, receiving more sunlight in summer and less in winter, and thus more extreme temperatures, than the Northern. When combined with Mars' much higher eccentricity compared to Earth, and far thinner atmosphere in general, Southern winters and summers are wider ranging than on Earth.
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Stratospheric temperature measurements beginning in the 1970s also showed maximum values near 1986 solstice. HST images show changes in the atmosphere of Uranus as it approaches its equinox (right image) The majority of this variability is believed to occur due to changes in the viewing geometry. Uranus is an oblate spheroid, which causes its visible area to become larger when viewed from the poles. This explains in part its brighter appearance at solstices.
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Esperance Stonehenge is a full-sized replica of Stonehenge located in Esperance, Western Australia. It was built from 137 locally quarried stones of up to , and is aligned to the summer and winter solstices. It is designed to be a copy of original, intact Stonehenge from , rather than the currently extant ruins. The stone was originally quarried and shaped for a similar project in Margaret River in 2008, funded by a millionaire.
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Vansh Bhaskar Suryamall Mesan Dwara Pranit He intended to write Vans Bhaskar in two volumes and twelve parts as an analogy with the sun, which has two solstices and twelve months in a year. He left the work unfinished at the eighth part of the second volume because of differences with his patron, whose territory became British protectorate, while poet supported the Indian Rebellion of 1857.Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature. [S.l.]: Sahitya Akademi, 1996.
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Total eclipse of the Sun According to Herodotus, Thales predicted the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BCE. Thales also described the position of Ursa Minor, and he thought the constellation might be useful as a guide for navigation at sea. He calculated the duration of the year and the timings of the equinoxes and solstices. He is additionally attributed with the first observation of the Hyades and with calculating the position of the Pleiades.
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They were then used as GM company vehicles to be evaluated and also as special event display vehicles. These vehicles were built to the 2010 model year specs with 2010 model year changes and had legal 2010 VIN numbers. Following the end of use term within the GM fleet, the vehicles were sent to auction. After these 30 2010 models, more 2009-spec Solstices were produced and were the last ones made at the plant.
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The Sun Circle is a sculpture located within the Rillito River Park, a Pima County linear park running along the banks of the Rillito River north of Tucson, Arizona. Inspired by the archaeoastronomy of the southwestern United States Ancestral Puebloans in locations such as Chaco Canyon, Sun Circle uses astronomical alignments to cast shadows and light through apertures (windows) to align with corresponding windows on equinoxes and solstices at sunrise and sunset.
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Carmack & Weeks 1981, p.324. In 2003, the Proyecto Etnoarqueológico Qʼumʼarkaj ("Qʼumarkaj Ethnoarchaeological Project") has worked to reconstruct the history and socio-political organisation of the city through archaeological studies combined with ethnohistorical investigations.Putzeys et al 2008, p.2. The archaeological site is still used for traditional Maya ceremonies, and is one of the most popular destinations in Guatemala for this kind of ritual activity, especially at the solstices and for the New Year.
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King on the other hand is convinced that the sloppy qiblas actually intended to point: east, west, solstices, sunrises and so forth. I have not come across anything in Islamic religious manuscripts that support these Qiblas. But perhaps in time someone, somewhere will stumble across something that will change our understanding of Qiblas. All I have found so far, is that every Muslim expects the Qibla to point to Masjid Al Harām.
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There is a bronze line, la meridiana on the floor, running precisely N/S. At solar noon (circa 12:00 in winter, 13:00 in summer), the sun image passes through this line. At different times of the year the passage occurs at different point of the line. The ends of the line mark the positions at the summer and winter solstices; signs of the zodiac show various dates throughout the year.
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Special days like solstices, equinoxes, and celebrations (including Christian holidays and feasts) were marked with additional lines of symbols. Runic calendars were written on parchment or carved onto staves of wood, bone, or horn. The oldest one known, and the only one from the Middle Ages, is a staff from Nyköping, Sweden, believed to date from the 13th century. Most of the several thousand which survive are wooden calendars dating from the 16th and the 17th centuries.
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Researchers have learned by observation that the Temple of the Sun was positioned so that on the solstices, at exactly the right time of day, sunlight would fall through the center of the doorway of the small chamber at the top of the temple. Most of this chamber has fallen down. The people had numerous ritual celebrations at the complex. They prepared gallons of a local fermented drink to consume in the rituals of these festivals.
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The Suda relates that Anaximander explained some basic notions of geometry. It also mentions his interest in the measurement of time and associates him with the introduction in Greece of the gnomon. In Lacedaemon, he participated in the construction, or at least in the adjustment, of sundials to indicate solstices and equinoxes.These accomplishments are often attributed to him, notably by Diogenes Laertius (II, 1) and by the Roman historian Eusebius of Caesarea, Preparation for the Gospel (X, 14, 11).
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The positions of the solstices and equinoxes in the Vedanga Jyotisha, with the sun very close to the Krittika at the Vernal Equinox., would correspond to about 1370 BCE,Sastry 1985Bryant 2001:259. Keith 1912 although the text in its present form is from a later date, around 700 - 600 BCE. The Vedanga Jyotisha, in common with Mesopotamian texts, asserts a 3:2 ratio between the durations of daylight on the longest and shortest days of the year.
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The Eight Directions represent the four seasons (North – Winter, South – Summer, East – Spring, and West – Autumn) and the Winter and Summer Solstices, as well as the Spring and Fall Equinoxes. The midpoints between those four times of year are the four lesser directions. This Eight Direction model maps perfectly onto the eight arrows of the root chakra. The four petals of the chakra also map onto the four elements of Earth (North), Air (East), Fire (South) and Water (West).
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Illustration of a Witches' Sabbath, "Darstellung des Hexensabbats" from the Wickiana, circa 1570. Historical and archaeological evidence suggests ancient pagan and polytheist peoples varied in their cultural observations; Anglo-Saxons celebrated the solstices and equinoxes, while Celts celebrated the seasonal divisions with various fire festivals. In the 10th century Cormac Mac Cárthaigh wrote about "four great fires...lighted up on the four great festivals of the Druids...in February, May, August, and November."Murray, Margaret. 1931.
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The Equator line is drawn by using smaller, darker pebbles between two metal plates. The angles that form the geometric design of the eight-pointed star are given by the tilt of the Earth with respect to the ecliptic of the Earth, thus the platform itself also presents a reading of the celestial mechanics. Detailed positions of the solstices and equinoxes, as well as their respective axes, are presented. A GPS reading of the Equator north of the sundial.
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The Julian calendar was in general use in Europe and northern Africa until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the Gregorian calendar. Reform was required because too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons on the Julian scheme. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by 10.8 minutes per year against the Julian year. As a result, the calculated date of Easter gradually moved out of alignment with the March equinox.
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Near the equator, this means the variation in strength of solar radiation is different relative to the time of year than it is at higher latitudes: Maximum solar radiation is received during the equinoxes, when a place at the equator is under the subsolar point at high noon, and the intermediate seasons of spring and autumn occur at higher latitudes, and the minimum occurs during both solstices, when either pole is tilted towards or away from the sun, resulting in either summer or winter in both hemispheres. This also results in a corresponding movement of the equator away from the subsolar point, which is then situated over or near the relevant tropic circle. Nevertheless, temperatures are high year round due to the earth's axial tilt of 23.5° not being enough to create a low minimum midday declination to sufficiently weaken the sun's rays even during the solstices. Near the equator there is little temperature change throughout the year, though there may be dramatic differences in rainfall and humidity.
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Without these effects, daytime and night would be the same length on both equinoxes, the moments when the Sun appears to contact the celestial equator. On the equinoxes, daytime actually lasts almost 14 minutes longer than night does at the Equator, and even longer towards the poles. The summer and winter solstices mark the shortest and longest nights, respectively. The closer a location is to either the North Pole or the South Pole, the wider the range of variation in the night's duration.
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There are various solar/celestial effects that exist which have an effect on Earth's climate. These effects usually occur in cycles, and primarily include how Earth's obliquity, the eccentricity of Earth's orbit, and the precession of the equinoxes and solstices affect Earth's climate. In addition to these effects, there are also other factors that have an effect on Earth's climate. These other factors include how sun activity affects climateSolar cycle#Terrestrial climate and how celestial phenomena, such as meteors, affect Earth's climate.
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Mosaic pavement of a 6th-century synagogue at Beit Alpha. It was discovered in 1928. Signs of the zodiac surround the central chariot of the Sun (a Greek motif), while the corners depict the 4 "turning points" ("tekufot") of the year, solstices and equinoxes, each named for the month in which it occurs—tequfah of Tishrei, tequfah of Tevet, tequfah of Nisan, tequfah of Tamuz. View from Mount Gilboa Biblical cities in the Jezreel Valley include Jezreel, Megiddo, Beit She'an, Shimron and Afula.
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She also designed the central plaza for Sylvan Rodriguez Clear Lake Park. Friend designed a grove of 13 oaks, one for each cycle of the moon in the solar year. She created a labyrinth-paving pattern based on a one at Chartres Cathedral in France; and stone portals that mark the points on the horizon where the sun will rise and set on the winter and summer solstices. In preparation for the park, she researched astronomy, archeology and sacred geometry.
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Diagram of how solar events were calculated against the Compuerta Mountain at Tehuacalco Tehuacalco is an archeological site located near the city of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico. It was the first archeological site associated with the Yope people to be excavated, in the 2000s. The site is on a hill surrounded by mountains, which were worshipped by the Yope. Four marked the cardinal directions and one, Compuerta, was used to mark solar events such as equinoxes and solstices as the sun rose behind it.
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Little is known of his work apart from his partnership with Meton and what is mentioned by Ptolemy. With Meton, he made a series of observations of the solstices (the points at which the Sun is seen at the greatest distance from the equator) in order to determine the length of the tropical year. Geminus and Ptolemy quote him as a source on the rising and setting of the stars. Pausanius's Description of Greece names Damon and Philogenes and Euctemon's children.
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Bricker and Bricker 2011 p. 489 The Dresden Codex The upper and lower seasonal tables (pages 61–69) unify the Haab', the solstices and equinoxes, the eclipse cycle and the year bearer (0 Pop). The table refers to the middle of the tenth century but includes more than a dozen other base dates from the fourth to the eleventh centuries.Bricker and Bricker 2011 pp. 489–550 The rainmaking almanac (pages 29b to 30b) refers to the Haab' and the tropical year.
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Over thousands of years, the Earth's axial tilt and orbital eccentricity vary (see Milankovitch cycles). The equinoxes and solstices move westward relative to the stars while the perihelion and aphelion move eastward. Thus, ten thousand years from now Earth's northern winter will occur at aphelion and northern summer at perihelion. The severity of seasonal change — the average temperature difference between summer and winter in location — will also change over time because the Earth's axial tilt fluctuates between 22.1 and 24.5 degrees.
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One of the scientists involved in investigation of Triton, James L. Elliot, said: > "At least since 1989, Triton has been undergoing a period of global warming. > Percentage-wise, it's a very large increase." These observations indicate Triton is having a warm southern-hemisphere summer season, that only happens once every few hundred years, near solstices. Theories for this warming include the sublimation of frost on Triton's surface and a decrease in ice albedo, which would allow more heat to be absorbed.
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Ballochroy standing stones Ballochroy is a megalithic site in Kintyre on the Argyll peninsula in Scotland. It consists of three vertical stones, side by side, aligned with various land features away. Alexander Thom, known for his work on Stonehenge, maintained that the great length between the stones and the features of distant landscape lent precision to pinpointing the midsummer and winter solstices for ancient observers. These three stones are considered the most spectacular set of megalithic monuments that cluster around south Argyll.
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While a little over one half of Earth is illuminated at any point in time (with exceptions during eclipses), the terminator path varies by time of day due to Earth's rotation on its axis. The terminator path also varies by time of year due to Earth's orbital revolution around the Sun; thus, the plane of the terminator is nearly parallel to planes created by lines of longitude during the equinoxes, and its maximum angle is approximately 23.5° to the pole during the solstices.
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Noon and, more often, midnight can be considered liminal, the first transitioning between morning and afternoon, the latter between days. Within the years, liminal times include equinoxes when day and night have equal length, and solstices, when the increase of day or night shifts over to its decrease. This "qualitative bounding of quantitatively unbounded phenomena" marks the cyclical changes of seasons throughout the year. Where the quarter days are held to mark the change in seasons, they also are liminal times.
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It cooperated with the Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology of the University of Halle-Wittenberg. François Bertemes and Peter Biehl began a major excavation of the site in 2002. When archaeologists combined the evidence with GPS observations, they noticed that the two southern openings marked the sunrise and sunset of the winter and summer solstices. Radiocarbon dating places the construction of the site close to 4900 B.C., while the style of the pottery shards associate it with the stroke-ornamented ware culture of ca.
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Jupiter's axial tilt is very small, so its seasonal variation is minimal; Uranus, on the other hand, has an axial tilt so extreme it is virtually on its side, which means that its hemispheres are either perpetually in sunlight or perpetually in darkness around the time of its solstices. Among extrasolar planets, axial tilts are not known for certain, though most hot Jupiters are believed to have negligible to no axial tilt as a result of their proximity to their stars.
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"Head Variant" or "Patron Gods" glyphs for Maya days emblem glyph of Tikal (Mutal) Agriculturally based people historically divide the year into four seasons. These included the two solstices and the two equinoxes, which could be thought of as the four "directional pillars" that support the year. These four times of the year were, and still are, important as they indicate seasonal changes that directly impact the lives of Mesoamerican agriculturalists. The Maya closely observed and duly recorded the seasonal markers.
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The circles are now designated Woodhenges I through V in Roman numerals. In 1985, a reconstruction of Woodhenge III was built with the posts being placed into the original excavated post positions. The circle, which has 48 posts in the circle and a 49th central post, has been used to investigate archaeoastronomy at Cahokia. The Illinois Historic Preservation Division that oversees the Cahokia site hosts public sunrise observations at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices.
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According to Tevita Fale, there is a V-shaped mark on top of the lintel that aligns with the rising of the sun during the solstices and equinoxes. Kik Velt disagrees with the findings of King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and Tevita Fale. Velt argues that the V on top is an arrow directed along the main axis of the lintel (about ESE, 117°5 E of N), only 10 cm long, too short to be a reliable indicator of any direction.
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Oddi Helgason (c.1070/80 – c. 1140/50), called Star Oddi (Icelandic: Stjörnu- Oddi), worked as a farm laborer in the 12th century in northern Iceland and achieved remarkable astronomical knowledge through careful observations. Oddi resumed his work in the Oddatala where he stated the position of the sun for every day of the year in Iceland and calculated the date of summer and winter solstices and their direction giving the sailing Vikings a useful source of orientation, since no navigational instruments were used at that time.
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In fact, it is these 3- to 5-ton monuments that are referred to in archaeologist Guadalupe Martinez Donjuán's name for the site, Teopantecuanitlan, Nahuatl for "place of the temple of the jaguar".Malmström, p. 1 According to Martinez Donjuán, these sculptures are situated so as to mark the equinoxes or solstices, and they "symbolized the opposing forces that ruled the world".Martinez Donjuán differentiates the four monuments into two pairs, with either a feline or a bird beak "orifice" (Martinez Donjuán (2000), p. 200).
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The location of the ballcourt is intermediary, illustrating the position of this activity to represent perpetual conflict between the forces of life and death. The ballcourt is so well preserved, it appears ready to host a game. It is thought that within the Plaza of the Stela in the South Group that there is an E Group geometry that would have been used for astronomical observations. For example, several monuments present before a long terrace known as Structure One, which mark the location of solstices and equinoxes.
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The heavy stones on NW lean outwards possibly from pressure of the earlier debris and boulders removed in 1700s or due to depletion of earthen bank. This was a ritual site associated with marking the agricultural Celtic year – the summer and winter Solstices and Equinox. The Celtic Ritual Year was in 4 parts – Beltaine (May), Samhain (November) the main parts and Imbolg (February) and Lughnasa (August). Beltany may be linked to marking both sunrise and sunset at these important ritual and ceremonial events in the year.
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It arrived sometime in the late 18thcentury, potentially from the first or second generation of Spanish conquistadores. Even though the last date entry in the book is from several centuries before its relocation, the book was likely used and added to until just before the conquerors took it. About 65 per cent of the pages in the Dresden Codex contain richly illustrated astronomical tables. These tables focus on eclipses, equinoxes and solstices, the sidereal cycle of Mars, and the synodic cycles of Mars and Venus.
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It is called the Sun Dagger and keeps track of the way the sun and moon moves. It is believed that this calendar helped the Chacoans follow yearly solstices. These dwellings are very helpful in giving a better look into the lives of the Chacoan people and how they had to adapt to the changing environment around them. As avid farmers who depended on their fields for food, they needed to move when the soil could no longer provide the nutrients for their crops.
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No. 98 (Feb., 1983), pp. 3-29 Oxford University Press Other pageants in the Christian world have centered on Saints' festivals, Carnival (Mardi Gras), and Easter, while vernacular agrarian festivals have celebrated seasonal events such as the harvest, and the Summer and Winter solstices. Drawing on this medieval tradition contemporary artists such as Bread and Puppet Theater, the Welfare State, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, Spiral Q, and Superior Concept Monsters have used pageants as a potent community-based performance form.
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Legislation was introduced in the form of the Public Order Act 1986 and later the Criminal Justice Act 1994 that made the travellers' way of life increasingly difficult to sustain. Following the events of 1985, the four-mile blockade of Stonehenge was maintained for future summer solstices. Consequently, conflict between police and those trying to reach Stonehenge continued to take place every year. Neo- druid leader Arthur Uther Pendragon was arrested on each and every summer solstice between 1985 and 1999 whilst trying to access Stonehenge.
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He worked as an atmospheric researcher at Arthur D. Little Inc. Afterwards, he became a meteorologist at WPRI-TV in Providence and WCVB-TV in Boston before working at The Today Show and finally at WRC. Ryan is a past president of the American Meteorological Society, the first and only president to have worked in broadcast weather. He wrote and published the Weatherwise Almanac, an annual meteorology almanac for 25 years that detailed weather events of the year, such as moon phases, meteor showers, solstices and equinoxes.
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The astronomical symbol of Earth represents either the four quadrants of the world or the four continents. Several cosmological and mythological systems portray four corners of the world or four quarters of the world corresponding approximately to the four points of the compass (or the two solstices and two equinoxes). At the center may lie a sacred mountain, garden, world tree, or other beginning-point of creation. Often four rivers run to the four corners of the world, and water or irrigate the four quadrants of Earth.
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Artist Geoffrey Key described Grimshaw, a long time friend, as "one of the most important graphic artists working in the north during the last half of the 20th century". While Grimshaw is most celebrated for his black and grey graphite portrayal of post-industrial Britain (e.g. canals, cityscapes, viaducts, steam trains) his portfolio included diverse other subjects such as megaliths, Stonehenge, quarries in North Wales, motorway construction and the solstices (often in combination). Colour treatment was largely reserved for Cheshire landscapes, and pictures of Clarice Cliff ceramics.
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In the Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice currently occurs around 21 December; summer solstice is near 21 June, spring equinox is around 20 March and autumnal equinox is about 22 or 23 September. In the Southern Hemisphere, the situation is reversed, with the summer and winter solstices exchanged and the spring and autumnal equinox dates swapped. The angle of Earth's axial tilt is relatively stable over long periods of time. Its axial tilt does undergo nutation; a slight, irregular motion with a main period of 18.6 years.
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From Sumerian times, temple priesthoods had attempted to associate current events with certain positions of the planets and stars. This continued to Assyrian times, when Limmu lists were created as a year by year association of events with planetary positions, which, when they have survived to the present day, allow accurate associations of relative with absolute dating for establishing the history of Mesopotamia. The Babylonian astronomers were very adept at mathematics and could predict eclipses and solstices. Scholars thought that everything had some purpose in astronomy.
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It was common for the tribes in the area (Chetko, Pistol River, Tolowa, Tututni, and some Rogue River tribes) to meet at the Center of the Tolowa World, Yontocket, at both the Summer and the Winter solstices. On the third night of the ten night gatherings, the town mob invaded the village and the massacre began.3 One Tolowa man said that more than 450 people were killed in the attack. The massacre was conducted by a "company", a militia organized by American citizens of Crescent City.
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He goes further joining with other historians (F. Martini, J.L. E. Dreyer, O. Neugebauer) in rejecting the historicity of the eclipse story altogether. Dicks links the story of Thales discovering the cause for a solar eclipse with Herodotus' claim that Thales discovered the cycle of the sun with relation to the solstices, and concludes "he could not possibly have possessed this knowledge which neither the Egyptians nor the Babylonians nor his immediate successors possessed." Josephus is the only ancient historian that claims Thales visited Babylonia.
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The phenomenon was observed and confirmed during the summer solstice of 2015. The entire passage, which was filmed, lasts a bit over 4 minutes. Scientific literature mentions two archaeological locations in Great Britain where the "double sunset" has been observed on the solstices, but "double sunrise" is not recorded. As the axial tilt changed since then, a geospatial analysis was conducted, using the GPS, which proved that the "double sunrise" occurred at that time, too, and that it was visible from the original location of Lepenski Vir.
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This is important when navigating a boat or a ship in shallow water, and when launching and retrieving boats on slipways on a tidal shore. The rule is also useful for estimating the monthly change in sunrise/set and day length. Given the midsummer and midwinter day lengths the day length at any intervening month can be estimated. Alternatively, given the times of either sunrise of sunset and the two solstices the time of rise and set can be found approximately for any day.
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Thus, they are not necessarily connected with the henge's original function. It has been conjectured that the henges would have been used to synchronize a calendar to the solar cycle for purposes of planting crops or timing religious rituals. Some henges have poles, stones or entrances that indicate the position of the rising or setting sun during the equinoxes and solstices, while others appear to frame certain constellations. Additionally, many are placed so that nearby hills either mark or do not interfere with such observations.
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The Eastern Hills were sparsely populated in pre-Columbian times, considered sacred by the indigenous Muisca. The native people constructed temples and shrines in the Eastern Hills and buried their dead there. The Guadalupe and Monserrate Hills, important in Muisca religion and archaeoastronomy, are the hilltops from where Sué, the Sun, rises on the December and June solstices respectively, when viewed from the present-day Bolívar Square. The construction and expansion of the Colombian capital in Spanish colonial times caused excessive deforestation of the Eastern Hills.
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Other tenants include Sirius XM Satellite Radio, whose headquarters and broadcast facility are in the building, and the law firm White & Case. The sunken courtyard of this building contains a large metal triangle designed by Athelstan Spilhaus and fabricated by Tyler Elevator Products, arranged so the Sun aligns with its sides at solstices and equinoxes.Natural History Magazine Sun triangle When built, the southwestern corner held a display of scale models of planets in the Solar System. A mosaic map of the Earth survives in the northwestern corner.
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Large battles between the two courts have great effects in nature including weather patterns, and are usually avoided unless there is no other choice such as in the events of the novel Summer Knight. Each side is stronger during their namesake season, with the balance of power shifting during the Summer and Winter Solstices. Despite their ongoing conflict, both Queen Mothers live together seemingly peacefully in a cottage. Also, members from both courts have worked together, most recently the Winter Lady and Summer Lady in the events of the novel Proven Guilty.
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Other attractions at the château include a maze and several gardens. The castle itself is still the home of the Counts of La Panouse, and parts of it are open to the public, with costumed guides leading the tour. The castle was built in the 16th century by Raoul Moreau, an alchemist and the treasurer of the King of France. It was designed by architect Philibert de L'Orme to be in perfect harmony with nature, and the center arch of the castle marks the position of the sun during the summer and winter solstices.
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When this line of latitude was named in the last centuries BC, the Sun was in the constellation Cancer (Latin for crab) at the June solstice, the time each year that the Sun reaches its zenith at this latitude. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, this is no longer the case; today the Sun is in Taurus at the June solstice. The word "tropic" itself comes from the Greek "trope (τροπή)", meaning turn (change of direction, or circumstances), inclination, referring to the fact that the Sun appears to "turn back" at the solstices.
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They seem to have been deliberately selected and placed at specific points in the circle that mark certain calendrical events (sunsets and solstices related to the four seasons, for example). They work by standing outside the circle at the stone directly opposite to the quartz stone concerned. One alignment, at Samhain/All Souls' Day, may involve Long Meg herself, a portal stone and one of the quartz stones. The use of different coloured stones also seems to be significant – red, white and blue/grey predominate (Long Meg herself being of red sandstone).
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One type of shadow clock consisted of a long stem with five variable marks and an elevated crossbar which cast a shadow over those marks. It was positioned eastward in the morning so that the rising sun cast a shadow over the marks, and was turned west at noon to catch the afternoon shadows. Obelisks functioned in much the same manner: the shadow cast on the markers around it allowed the Egyptians to calculate the time. The obelisk also indicated whether it was morning or afternoon, as well as the summer and winter solstices.
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Pluto's rotation period, its day, is equal to 6.387 Earth days. Like Uranus, Pluto rotates on its "side" in its orbital plane, with an axial tilt of 120°, and so its seasonal variation is extreme; at its solstices, one-fourth of its surface is in continuous daylight, whereas another fourth is in continuous darkness. The reason for this unusual orientation has been debated. Research from the University of Arizona has suggested that it may be due to the way that a body's spin will always adjust to minimise energy.
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Other groups know that when Orion first appears in the sky, the dingo puppies are about to be born. When Scorpius appears, the Yolngu know that the Macassan fisherman would soon arrive to fish for trepang. It is not known to what extent Aboriginal people were interested in the precise motion of the sun, moon, planets or stars. However, it likely that some of the stone arrangements in Victoria such as Wurdi Youang near Little River, Victoria may have been used to predict and confirm the equinoxes and/or solstices.
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According to the Order's account, Long joined the ONA in 1973 - the first to have done so in five years - and became the Grand Mistress' heir. He later recalled that at that time the group held rituals at henges and stone circles around the solstices and equinoxes. This account further states that when the Order's Grand Mistress migrated to Australia, Long took over as the group's new Grand Master. The group claimed that Long "implemented the next stage of Sinister Strategy - to make the teachings known on a large scale".
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Inca constellations in the Milky Way Similarities are found in the semicircular temples found in the Temple of the Sun in Cusco, the Torreon in Machu Picchu, and the Temple of the Sun in Písac. In particular, all three exhibit a "parabolic enclosure wall" of the finest stonework, as Bingham describes it. These structures were also used for similar purposes, including the observation of solstices and Inca constellations. Within the Milky Way, which the Inca called mayu or Celestial River, the Inca distinguished dark area or clouds, which they called yana phuyu.
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Solar astronomic phenomena, such as equinoxes and solstices, vary in the Gregorian calendar over a range spanning three days, over the course of each 400-year cycle, while the ISO Week Date calendar has a range spanning 9 days. For example, there are March equinoxes on 1920-W12-6 and 2077-W11-5 in UT. The year number of the ISO week very often differs from the Gregorian year number for dates close to 1 January. For example, 29 December 2014 is ISO 2015-W01-1, i.e., it is in year 2015 instead of 2014.
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Actually, this is one of the main fascinations with numerous portals from the wooden churches all around the Carpathian Mountains. The central motif, of the middle cross representing Christ's Passion and the side rosettes representing the two solstices, concentrates the Christian message being often carved on church and house portals. This reading appears now obvious thanks to the elaborate composition from Sârbi Susani. There is an imperative need to document the hundreds of surviving portals left by the church carpenters in the Carpathians, go beyond their decorative beauty and recover their enigmatic language.
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The annual cycle of insolation (Sun energy, shown in blue) with key points for seasons (middle), quarter days (top) and cross-quarter days (bottom) along with months (lower) and Zodiac houses (upper). The cycle of temperature (shown in pink) is delayed by seasonal lag. Solar timing is based on insolation in which the solstices and equinoxes are seen as the midpoints of the seasons. It was the method for reckoning seasons in medieval Europe, especially by the Celts, and is still ceremonially observed in Ireland and some East Asian countries.
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Using observations of the equinoxes and solstices, Hipparchus found that the length of the tropical year was 365+1/4−1/300 days, or 365.24667 days (Evans 1998, p. 209). Comparing this with the length of the sidereal year, he calculated that the rate of precession was not less than 1° in a century. From this information, it is possible to calculate that his value for the sidereal year was 365+1/4+1/144 days (Toomer 1978, p. 218). By giving a minimum rate he may have been allowing for errors in observation.
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The variation in the tip's position at noon indicates the solar time and the seasons; the shadow is longest on the winter solstice and shortest on the summer solstice. The invention of the gnomon itself cannot be attributed to Anaximander because its use, as well as the division of days into twelve parts, came from the Babylonians. It is they, according to Herodotus' Histories (II, 109), who gave the Greeks the art of time measurement. It is likely that he was not the first to determine the solstices, because no calculation is necessary.
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Some of the material that makes up the monument came from as far away as the Mournes and Wicklow Mountains. There is no agreement about what the site was used for, but it is believed that it had religious significance. Its entrance is aligned with the rising sun on the winter solstice, when sunlight shines through a 'roofbox' located above the passage entrance and floods the inner chamber. Several other passage tombs in Ireland are aligned with solstices and equinoxes, and Cairn G at Carrowkeel has a similar 'roofbox'.
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Nekresi fire temple Remains of a Zoroastrian shrine, conventionally known as the Nekresi fire temple, have been found just south of the monastery, at the foot of Nazvrevi Gora. It is a complex rectangular structure, with two construction phases from the 2nd to 4th centuries. Charcoal from the ruins was carbondated to the 5th century suggesting that the site was destroyed at that time. An international research at the site suggested that the temple was aligned with the summer and winter solstices and it might have incorporated elements of solar worship.
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While the stars are fixed to their declinations the Sun is not. The rising point of the Sun varies throughout the year. It swings between two limits marked by the solstices a bit like a pendulum, slowing as it reaches the extremes, but passing rapidly through the midpoint. If an archaeoastronomer can calculate from the azimuth and horizon height that a site was built to view a declination of +23.5° then he or she need not wait until 21 June to confirm the site does indeed face the summer solstice.
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The Great Kiva at Chaco Canyon In Chaco Canyon, the center of the ancient Pueblo culture in the American Southwest, numerous solar and lunar light markings and architectural and road alignments have been documented. These findings date to the 1977 discovery of the Sun Dagger site by Anna Sofaer.Science Magazine, Sofaer et al., 1979: 126 Three large stone slabs leaning against a cliff channel light and shadow markings onto two spiral petroglyphs on the cliff wall, marking the solstices, equinoxes and the lunar standstills of the 18.6 year cycle of the moon.
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He proposed that Corvus and Crater (along with Hydra) were death symbols and marked the gate to the underworld. These two constellations, along with the eagle Aquila and the fish Piscis Austrinus, were introduced to the Greeks around 500 BCE; they marked the winter and summer solstices respectively. Furthermore, Hydra had been a landmark as it had straddled the celestial equator in antiquity. Corvus and Crater also featured in the iconography of Mithraism, which is thought to have been of middle-eastern origin before spreading into Ancient Greece and Rome.
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MacNeice was buried at Carrowdore with his mother MacNeice was awarded the CBE in the 1958 New Year's Honours list. A South African trip in 1959 was followed by the start of his final relationship, with the actress Mary Wimbush, who had performed in his plays since the forties. Hedli asked MacNeice to leave the family home in late 1960. In early 1961, Solstices was published, and in the middle of the year MacNeice became a half-time employee at the BBC, leaving him six months a year to work on his own projects.
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The Wheel of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere. Pagans in the Southern Hemisphere advance these dates six months to coincide with their own seasons. The Wheel of the Year is an annual cycle of seasonal festivals, observed by many modern Pagans, consisting of the year's chief solar events (solstices and equinoxes) and the midpoints between them. While names for each festival vary among diverse pagan traditions, syncretic treatments often refer to the four solar events as "quarter days" and the four midpoint events as "cross-quarter days", particularly in Wicca.
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A marble sphere, it was marked with a series of lines, concentric circles, holes and letters of the Greek alphabet. Set in the correct position, it registered the hours of sunrise, the length of the day, the solstices and equinoxes and the passage of the sun through the constellations. There is only one other known example of this kind of sundial, which was found in Greece in 1939. There is also a model of the cylindrical Shepherd's Clock, sitting on a low wall in the main square, beside the historic church of S. Michele Arcangelo.
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Animation of Sué rising at the solstices and equinoxes above the Eastern Hills, as seen from Bolívar Square The history of Bolívar Square goes back to pre-Columbian times, when the area was inhabited by the Muisca. The indigenous Muisca, one of the four grand civilisations in the Americas,Ocampo López, 2007, p.226 had an advanced knowledge of the solar and lunar cycles, represented in their complex lunisolar Muisca calendar. At various locations throughout their Muisca Confederation, the people constructed temples honouring their main deities; Sué, the Sun, and his consort Chía, the Moon.
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The solar observatory El Infiernito in Villa de Leyva consists of phallic menhirs erected by the Muisca. It is the oldest dated archaeoastronomical site of the Americas. Animation of Sué rising at the June and December solstices above Monserrate and Guadalupe respectively. At the equinoxes of March and September, the Sun, as seen from Bolívar Square rises exactly in between the two hills The human history of the Eastern Hills goes back to the latest Pleistocene, when the first humans settled in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes.
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In other examples, believed to be of a later date, this quadripartite stairway configuration is lacking. E-group complexes are named after their prototypical example, Structure E-VII-sub at the site of Uaxactun. They were first identified as a meaningful complex by archaeologist Frans Blom in 1924, who excavated the site under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. It has been theorized that these E-groups are observatories, because the eponymous group at Uaxactun contains alignments corresponding approximately to sunrises on the solstices and equinoxes.
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In some Neopagan religions, a "Celtic calendar" loosely based on that of Medieval Ireland is observed for purposes of ritual. Adherents of Reconstructionist traditions may celebrate the four Gaelic festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Some eclectic Neopagans, such as Wiccans, combine the Gaelic fire festivals with solstices and equinox celebrations derived from non-Celtic cultures to produce the Wiccan modern Wheel of the Year. Some eclectic Neopagans are also influenced by Robert Graves' "Celtic Tree Calendar", which has no foundation in historical calendars or actual ancient Celtic Astrology, instead being derived from Graves' vision of The Song of Amergin.
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This variation is due to the apparent precession of the rotating Earth through the year, as seen from the Sun at solar midday. In terms of the equation of time, the inclination of the ecliptic results in the contribution of a sine wave variation with an amplitude of 9.87 minutes and a period of a half year to the equation of time. The zero points of this sine wave are reached at the equinoxes and solstices, while the extrema are at the beginning of February and August (negative) and the beginning of May and November (positive).
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The sun rising over Stonehenge in southern England on the June solstice Many ancient civilizations observed astronomical bodies, often the Sun and Moon, to determine times, dates, and seasons.Chobotov, p. 1 The first calendars may have been created during the last glacial period, by hunter-gatherers who employed tools such as sticks and bones to track the phases of the moon or the seasons. Stone circles, such as England's Stonehenge, were built in various parts of the world, especially in Prehistoric Europe, and are thought to have been used to time and predict seasonal and annual events such as equinoxes or solstices.
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Holt's Solar Web (1984–89) was one of three projects chosen by the Arts Commission of Santa Monica, California after receiving proposals from 29 artists in 1984. The works were to form a new Natural Elements Sculpture Park scattered along the southern half of Santa Monica's beach. Called Solar Web, the $72,000 work would have stood up to 16 feet tall and been 72 feet long. It was a web-like network of black steel pipes pointed toward the ocean, designed to align with the sun and the planets in such a way that it marked the summer and winter solstices.
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When the analemma is marked on a geographical globe, west in the analemma is to the right, while the geographical features on the globe are shown with west to the left. To avoid this confusion, it has been suggested that analemmas on globes should be printed with west to the left, but this is not done, at least, not frequently. In practice, the analemma is so nearly symmetrical that the shapes of the mirror images are not easily distinguished, but if date markings are present, they go in opposite directions. The Sun moves eastward on the analemma near the solstices.
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Although Uranus is known to have a bright south polar region, the north pole is fairly dim, which is incompatible with the model of the seasonal change outlined above. During its previous northern solstice in 1944, Uranus displayed elevated levels of brightness, which suggests that the north pole was not always so dim. This information implies that the visible pole brightens some time before the solstice and darkens after the equinox. Detailed analysis of the visible and microwave data revealed that the periodical changes of brightness are not completely symmetrical around the solstices, which also indicates a change in the meridional albedo patterns.
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Data from United States Naval Observatory Apsidal precession also slowly changes the place in the Earth's orbit where the solstices and equinoxes occur. Note that this is a slow change in the orbit of the Earth, not the axis of rotation, which is referred to as axial precession (see ). Over the next 10,000 years, the northern hemisphere winters will become gradually longer and summers will become shorter. However, any cooling effect in one hemisphere is balanced by warming in the other, and any overall change will be counteracted by the fact that the eccentricity of Earth's orbit will be almost halved.
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More recent excavations of the stones have provided some evidence of the intervention of humans, as granite wedges in the foundations of some of the stones have been identified. The approximately rectangular shape of some of the rocks also provides possible evidence of human intervention, although other writers have argued that the site is no more than a natural collection of rocks. View of the passage believed to have served as a necropolis Visiting the site requires a walk of about one kilometre from a tarred road. It receives relatively few visitors, although it is popular at the time of solstices and equinoxes.
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Laser scan of El Caracol Mayan astronomers knew from naked-eye observations that Venus appeared on the western and disappeared on the eastern horizons at different times in the year, and that it took 584 days to complete one cycle. They also knew that five of these Venus cycles equaled eight solar years. Venus would therefore make an appearance at the northerly and southerly extremes at eight-year intervals. Of 29 possible astronomical events (eclipses, equinoxes, solstices, etc.) believed to be of interest to the Mesoamerican residents of Chichén Itzá, sight lines for 20 can be found in the structure.
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The Nebra sky disk The Nebra sky disk is a bronze disk of around diameter and a weight of , having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols. These symbols are interpreted generally as the Sun or full moon, a lunar crescent, and stars (including a cluster of seven interpreted as the Pleiades). Two golden arcs along the sides, interpreted to mark the angle between the solstices, were added later. A final addition was another arc at the bottom surrounded with multiple strokes (of uncertain meaning, variously interpreted as a solar barge with numerous oars, the Milky Way, or a rainbow).
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In approximately 3,200 years, the star Gamma Cephei in the Cepheus constellation will succeed Polaris for this position. The south celestial pole currently lacks a bright star to mark its position, but over time precession also will cause bright stars to become south stars. As the celestial poles shift, there is a corresponding gradual shift in the apparent orientation of the whole star field, as viewed from a particular position on Earth. Secondly, the position of the Earth in its orbit around the Sun at the solstices, equinoxes, or other time defined relative to the seasons, slowly changes.
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In Hispania, on the Atlantic coast at Gades (the modern Cadiz), Posidonius could observe tides much higher than in his native Mediterranean. He wrote that daily tides are related to the Moon's orbit, while tidal heights vary with the cycles of the Moon, and he hypothesized about yearly tidal cycles synchronized with the equinoxes and solstices. In Gaul, he studied the Celts. He left vivid descriptions of things he saw with his own eyes while among them: men who were paid to allow their throats to be slit for public amusement and the nailing of skulls as trophies to the doorways.
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A solar meridian indicates the length of days and nights, therefore reflecting the timing of the solstices. It was used as an instrument to check the congruence of the civil calendar with the solar year. Further archeological findings where a travertine pavement embedded with a line running north to south with Greek lettering in bronze with zodiac signs confirmed Pliny's writing. Also, the fact that the site was measured to be about a meter too high to be considered of Augustan date, therefore indicated that the instrument built under Augustus lost its accuracy and was renovated by Domitian.
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Antelopes have a fundamental role in many cultures of the Mali area (for example in Dogon and Bambara culture) as representatives of agriculture.Many agricultural societies and associations in Mali have a stylized representation of an antelope in their symbols. Dogon antelope masks are highly abstract, with a general rectangular shape and many horns (a representation of abundant harvest. Bambara antelope masks (called chiwara) have long horns representing the thriving growth of millet, legs (representing roots), long ears (representing the songs sung by the working women at harvest time), and a saw- shaped line that represents the path followed by the Sun between solstices.
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This was confirmed by al-Birūni, al-Marrākushī and al-Kāshī. Al-Khujandī used his device to measure the sun's angle above the horizon at the summer and winter solstices; these two measurements allow computation of the latitude of the sextant's location and the obliquity of the ecliptic. Ulugh Beg constructed a Fakhri Sextant that had a radius of 40.4 meters, the largest instrument of its type in the 15th century. Housed in the Ulugh Beg Observatory, the sextant had a finely constructed arc with a staircase on either side to provide access for the assistants who performed the measurements.
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Uranus is also known to exhibit strong zonal variations in albedo (see above). For instance, the south polar region of Uranus is much brighter than the equatorial bands. In addition, both poles demonstrate elevated brightness in the microwave part of the spectrum, whereas the polar stratosphere is known to be cooler than the equatorial one. So seasonal change seems to happen as follows: poles, which are bright both in visible and microwave spectral bands, come into the view at solstices resulting in brighter planet, whereas the dark equator is visible mainly near equinoxes resulting in darker planet.
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Although Uranus is known to have a bright south polar region, the north pole is fairly dim, which is incompatible with the model of the seasonal change outlined above. During its previous northern solstice in 1944, Uranus displayed elevated levels of brightness, which suggests that the north pole was not always so dim. This information implies that the visible pole brightens some time before the solstice and darkens after the equinox. Detailed analysis of the visible and microwave data revealed that the periodical changes of brightness are not completely symmetrical around the solstices, which also indicates a change in the albedo patterns.
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In winter, the climate becomes cooler and the days shorter. Above the Arctic Circle and below the Antarctic Circle there is no daylight at all for part of the year, causing a polar night, and this night extends for several months at the poles themselves. These same latitudes also experience a midnight sun, where the sun remains visible all day. By astronomical convention, the four seasons can be determined by the solstices—the points in the orbit of maximum axial tilt toward or away from the Sun—and the equinoxes, when Earth's rotational axis is aligned with its orbital axis.
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In British and Irish tradition, the quarter days were the four dates in each year on which servants were hired, school terms started, and rents were due. They fell on four religious festivals roughly three months apart and close to the two solstices and two equinoxes. The significance of quarter days is now limited, although rents for properties in England are often still due on the old English quarter days. The quarter days have been observed at least since the Middle Ages, and they ensured that debts and unresolved lawsuits were not allowed to linger on.
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Dressed limestone The lowest temple is astronomically aligned and thus was probably used as an astronomical observation and/or calendrical site. On the vernal and the autumnal equinox sunlight passes through the main doorway and lights up the major axis. On the solstices sunlight illuminates the edges of megaliths to the left and right of this doorway. Although there are no written records to indicate the purpose of these structures, archaeologists have inferred their use from ceremonial objects found within them: sacrificial flint knives and rope holes that were possibly used to constrain animals for sacrifice (since various animal bones were found).
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Remarking that "infiltrating popular culture is a means of triggering a change of attitude that will lead to mass action", Hawkins surmised that making the graphics available for free has made them used more widely. Hawkins further said that any merchandise-related profits are donated to charity. Through a campaign led by nonprofit Climate Central using hashtag #MetsUnite, more than 100 TV meteorologists—the scientists most laymen interact with more than any other—featured warming stripes and used the graphics to focus audience attention during broadcasts on summer solstices beginning in 2018 with the "Stripes for the Solstice" effort.
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8, 2007. The same pattern applies to the first and the last days of the year, while the first day of the year is Saturday, July 21, 2007, the last day of the year is Saturday, July 19, 2008, because this calendar is based on the summer solstices. Thus, the time units used in this year are 50-day intervals and 365-day intervals, and the name of this year is Saturday. These time units are carefully and systematically enumerated day by day and period by period where practice and redundancy have resulted in sophistication and accuracy.
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The foundations of Meton's observatory in Athens are still visible just behind the podium of the Pnyx, the ancient parliament. Meton found the dates of equinoxes and solstices by observing sunrise from his observatory. From that point of observation, during the summer solstice, sunrise was in line with the local hill of Mount Lycabetus, while six months later, during the winter solstice, sunrise occurs over the high brow of Mount Hymettos in the southeast. So from Meton's observatory the Sun appears to move along a 60° arc between these two points on the horizon every six months.
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The four outer stones are oriented to mark the limits of the 18.6 year lunar declination cycle. The center column features a hole drilled at an angle from one side to the other, through which can be seen the North Star, a star whose position changes only very gradually over time. The same pillar has a slot carved through it which is aligned with the Sun's solstices and equinoxes. A in (22 mm) aperture in the capstone allows a ray of sun to pass through at noon each day, shining a beam on the center stone indicating the day of the year.
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Following a mysterious compulsion, John goes out to the field to see the stones for himself. He begins to suspect that N. might not have been delusional after all when he suffers from the same symptoms as his patient. Most notable are his obsession with numbers: odd numbers are bad, especially prime ones, even ones are safe, especially if they have a lot of factors, and if the sum of their digits is also even. The effect recedes as winter sets in, since the level of danger seems to be synchronized with the solstices (winter is safest, summer is most dangerous).
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Some petroforms can also be used in more complex ways for astronomical predictions, mapping of the sky and ground, and for complex ceremonies that help to memorize many oral stories and songs. Petroforms are similar in some ways to medicine wheels which are also aligned with sunrises and sunsets, equinoxes, solstices, lunar events, and star patterns. Petroforms also mirrored the night sky, and the patterns of the stars, similar to astrological signs and symbols. The Sioux have oral stories of the serpent in the sky, a turtle, a bear, and other patterns seen in the stars.
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The stone may have also been used to predict lunar standstills. Some of the holes align with the sun's position on the solstices, which may have allowed Native Americans to predict the changing of seasons. Pits in the surface of the boulder also appear to point towards Mt. Rainier, the peak of Mt. St. Helens (before it erupted), and potentially Mt. Adams, all of which have significance for local Native tribes. The stone is about one mile south of the former Naches Trail, and was apparently rediscovered when a suburban housing development was begun in 1999.
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The term Uttarāyaṇa (commonly Uttarayan) is derived from two different Sanskrit words "uttara" (North) and "ayana" (movement) thus indicating a semantic of the northward movement of the Earth on the celestial sphere. This movement begins to occur a day after the winter solstice in December which occurs around 22 December and continues for a six-month period through to the summer solstice around June 21 (dates vary ). This difference is because the solstices are continually precessing at a rate of 50 arcseconds / year due to the precession of the equinoxes, i.e. this difference is the difference between the sidereal and tropical zodiacs.
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A survey study shows that these alignments are accurate to within a few degrees. Additionally, the straight sides of the arrangement, which diverge from its eastern apex, also indicate the setting position of the sun at the solstices to within a few degrees and at the equinoxes the sun sets over the three prominent stones at the apex. It has been suggested by scientists studying the arrangements that it could be as old as 11,000 years (based on carbon dating at nearby sites),, citing the Geelong Advertiser. which would make it the oldest astronomical observatory in the world.
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These factors include the angle of Earth's axial tilt (also known as Earth's obliquity), the eccentricity of Earth's orbit (how circular/elliptical Earth's orbit is), and Earth's position in time in the precession of the solstices and equinoxes (with different Earth-Sun distances during any given season).Ruddiman, William F. "Earth's Climate Past and Future, 2nd Edition." Although these are the primary three factors in shaping Earths climate, there are other, external, factors that can help shape Earth's climate. These external factors usually affect Earth climate on a very different time scale than the other three, and include factors such as meteors striking Earth and geomagnetic storms.
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Further, he found that cairn pairs FO, FA, and FB correspond to the rising points of the stars Sirius, Aldebaran, and Rigel, respectively. Observing the first yearly heliacal rising of these stars would have been an effective tool for determining the progress of the solar year, as the first heliacal rise of a star occurs on the same date (relative to the solstices) each year. Rising positions of stars change very slowly over the centuries, due to the Earth's precession, so the directions of these cairn pairs can be used to project at what date they aligned best with the rising points of these stars.
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In 2006, a team of archeological researchers led by Robert Benfer announced their findings from a four-year excavation at Buena Vista in the Chillón River valley a few kilometres north of present-day Lima. They had discovered a 4200-year-old observatory constructed by an early Andean civilization, a three-dimensional sculpture, unique for the time period in this region, and sophisticated carvings. The observatory is on top of a 10-meter pyramidal mound and has architectural features for sighting the astronomical solstices. The discovery pushes back the time for the development of complex civilisation in the area and has altered scholars' understanding of Preceramic period cultures in Peru.
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The stylised lightning bolt logo of the SS was chosen in 1932. The logo is a pair of runes from a set of 18 Armanen runes created by Guido von List in 1906. The ancient Sowilō rune originally symbolised the sun, but was renamed "Sig" (victory) in List's iconography. Himmler modified a variety of existing customs to emphasise the elitism and central role of the SS; an SS naming ceremony was to replace baptism, marriage ceremonies were to be altered, a separate SS funeral ceremony was to be held in addition to Christian ceremonies, and SS-centric celebrations of the summer and winter solstices were instituted.
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After reading a book on King Arthur by the occultist Gareth Knight, he came to believe that he was the reincarnation of the legendary king and changed his name by deed poll. He formed the Loyal Arthurian Warband out of his supporters and began describing himself as a Druid. Angered that English Heritage charged entry to visit Stonehenge, an archaeological site in Wiltshire, between 1990 and 1991 he picketed outside the site on a daily basis. Later that decade he joined various eco-protests against road development across Britain and, with the Council of British Druid Orders, campaigned for open access to Stonehenge during the solstices.
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Ever since the Battle of the Beanfield in 1985, English Heritage had banned open access to Stonehenge on the solstices to prevent revellers damaging the monument. In protest at this decision, every solstice a large group of New Age travellers, modern Pagans, hippies, and bikers assembled outside the police cordon surrounding the site. Each year, Pendragon was amongst the protest and every year he walked past the cordon and was arrested, after which he would spend the night in a cell of Salisbury Police Station. He joined the Council of British Druid Orders (COBOD), a group campaigning for open access to the site, and pushed for reform within the group.
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Today in the Northern Hemisphere, summer is 4.66 days longer than winter and spring is 2.9 days longer than autumn. As axial precession changes the place in the Earth's orbit where the solstices and equinoxes occur, Northern Hemisphere winters will get longer and summers will get shorter, eventually creating conditions believed to be favourable for triggering the next glacial period. The arrangements of land masses on the Earth's surface are believed to reinforce the orbital forcing effects. Comparisons of plate tectonic continent reconstructions and paleoclimatic studies show that the Milankovitch cycles have the greatest effect during geologic eras when landmasses have been concentrated in polar regions, as is the case today.
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Born in Easton, New Hampshire to Jo Kenney and Woody Miller, Miller grew up in nearby Franconia, a small community in the heart of New Hampshire's White Mountains that comprises the Cannon Mountain Ski Area. His family, including older sister Kyla, younger sister Wren (short for Genesis Wren Bungo Windrushing Turtleheart), and younger brother Chelone (full name Nathaniel Kinsman Ever Chelone Skan), lived on of land in a forest, where his parents celebrated solstices, in a log cabin without electricity or indoor plumbing. He was raised a vegetarian. He was homeschooled until the third grade, but after his parents divorced, he began attending public school.
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Professor of astronomy Bradley Schaefer has proposed that ancient observers must have been able to see as far south as Mu Piscis Austrini to define a pattern that looked like a fish. Along with the eagle Aquila the crow Corvus and water snake Hydra, Piscis Austrinus was introduced to the Ancient Greeks around 500 BCE; the constellations marked the summer and winter solstices respectively. In Greek mythology, this constellation is known as the Great Fish and it is portrayed as swallowing the water being poured out by Aquarius, the water- bearer constellation. The two fish of the constellation Pisces are said to be the offspring of the Great Fish.
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Ukrainian Rodnovers worshipping a goddess' pole on Vodokreš holiday in the countryside. The common Rodnover ritual calendar is based on the Slavic folk tradition, whose crucial events are the four solstices and equinoxes set in the four phases of the year. Slavic Native Faith has been described as following "the cycles of nature". A festival that is believed to be the most important by many Rodnovers is that of the summer solstice, the Kupala Night (June 23–24), although also important are the winter solstice festival Karachun and Koliada (December 24–25), and the spring equinox festival Shrovetide—called Komoeditsa or Maslenitsa (March 24).
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Closeup of Stonehenge A recently published analysis draws attention to the fact that the stones display mirrored symmetry and that the only undisputed alignment to be found is that of the solstices, which can be regarded as the axis of that symmetry.Johnson, Anthony, Solving Stonehenge: The New Key to an Ancient Enigma. (Thames & Hudson, 2008) This interpretation sees the monument as having been designed off-site, largely prefabricated and set out to conform to survey markers set out to an exact geometric plan. The idea of ‘precision’ (below) demands that exact points of reference were used, both between the structural elements and in relation to the axis (i.e.
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Following the death of Taliesin Williams in 1847, Davies proclaimed himself archdruid, and from about 1853 he began to hold religious and druidical services near the Rocking Stone at Pontypridd. For about 25 years the practice of holding meetings at the hour of equinoxes and solstices became a Glamorgan tradition, and Davies published a number of books on druidism. Much of his Neo druidic writings were nothing more than a continuation of the 18th-century revival and thus are built largely around writings produced in the 18th century and after by second-hand sources and theorists. Nevertheless, Davies was considered by some of his contemporaries as an expert in the field.
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From an astronomical view, the equinoxes and solstices would be the middle of the respective seasons, but sometimes astronomical summer is defined as starting at the solstice, the time of maximal insolation, often identified with the 21st day of June or December. A variable seasonal lag means that the meteorological centre of the season, which is based on average temperature patterns, occurs several weeks after the time of maximal insolation. The meteorological convention is to define summer as comprising the months of June, July, and August in the northern hemisphere and the months of December, January, and February in the southern hemisphere."Professor Paul Hardaker answers questions on meteorological forecasting" .
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The equinoctial Earth Day is celebrated on the March equinox (around March 20) to mark the arrival of astronomical spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and of astronomical autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. An equinox in astronomy is that point in time (not a whole day) when the Sun is directly above the Earth's equator, occurring around March 20 and September 23 each year. In most cultures, the equinoxes and solstices are considered to start or separate the seasons, although weather patterns evolve earlier. John McConnell first introduced the idea of a global holiday called "Earth Day" at the 1969 UNESCO Conference on the Environment.
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Known to the ancient Egyptians as ꜣbw "Elephant" (Middle Egyptian: → Medio- Late Egyptian: → Coptic: (Ⲉ)ⲓⲏⲃ , preserved in its Hebrew name, יֵב 'yev'), the island of Elephantine stood at the border between Egypt and Nubia. It was an excellent defensive site for a city and its location made it a natural cargo transfer point for river trade. This border is near the Tropic of Cancer, the most northerly latitude at which the sun can appear directly overhead at noon and from which it appears to reverse direction or "turn back" at the solstices. Elephantine was a fort that stood just before the First Cataract of the Nile.
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A detailed studyMenghin 2000, see bibliography of the Berlin example, which is fully preserved, claimed that the symbols possibly represent a lunisolar calendar. The object may have permitted the determination of dates or periods in both lunar and solar calendars. Since an exact knowledge of the solar year was of special interest for the determination of religiously important events such as the summer and winter solstices, if astronomical knowledge was depicted on the Golden Hats it would have been of high value to Bronze Age society. Whether the hats themselves were indeed used for determining such dates, or whether they even represented such knowledge, remains unknown.
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An Areyto Ceremony According to archeologists, the ball parks and ceremonial centers were built by the Igneri Culture, a Pre-Taíno tribe which inhabited the island. Modern technology tells us that the area was populated in 25 AD and that the Igneri abandoned the area in 600 AD for some unknown reason or reasons. The Taínos populated the same area in 1000 AD. According to archaeologist Osvaldo Garcia Goyco, there is evidence that some of the plazas are oriented in relation to the equinox and solstices of the four seasons of the year. This is not unusual since the Taínos cultivated their crops in accordance to their astrological observations.
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According to one conception, Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius face northward; Taurus, Virgo, and Capricornus westward; Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius southward; and Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces eastward. Some scholars identified the twelve signs of the zodiac with the twelve tribes of Israel. The four solstices (the Tekufot of Nisan, Tammuz, Tishrei, and Tevet) are often mentioned as determining the seasons of the year and there are occasional references to the rising-place of the Sun.Eruvin 56a Sometimes six seasons of the year are mentioned,Genesis Rabbah 34:11 and reference is often made to the receptacle of the Sun (ναρθήκιον), by means of which the heat of the orb is mitigated.
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The Nekresi temple lies in lowland arable fields to the south of the hill on which the early medieval Nekresi monastery stands. It was unearthed by an archaeological expedition from the Georgian National Museum working at Nekresi between 1984 and 1993 and identified by its excavator, Levan Chilashvili, as a Zoroastrian fire-temple. In 2004, another team suggested that the temple was aligned with the summer and winter solstices and it might have incorporated elements of solar worship. Alternatively, Guram Kipiani argues that the spatial organization of the building is not compatible with that of a fire-temple and theorizes that the complex was in fact a Manichean shrine.
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He proposed the existence of a network of completely straight roads that cut through a range of prehistoric, Roman, and medieval structures. In his view, these straight tracks were ancient trade routes. Watkins had drawn upon earlier research; he cited the work of the English astronomer Norman Lockyer, who had argued that ancient alignments might be oriented to sunrise and sunset at solstices. His work referred to G. H. Piper's paper presented to the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Clubb in 1882, which noted that: "A line drawn from the Skirrid-fawr mountain northwards to Arthur's Stone would pass over the camp and southernmost point of Hatterall Hill, Oldcastle, Longtown Castle, and Urishay and Snodhill castles."Piper, G.H. (1888).
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There are three parameters that affect the size and shape of the analemma—obliquity, eccentricity, and the angle between the apse line and the line of solstices. Viewed from an object with a perfectly circular orbit and no axial tilt, the Sun would always appear at the same point in the sky at the same time of day throughout the year and the analemma would be a dot. For an object with a circular orbit but significant axial tilt, the analemma would be a figure of eight with northern and southern lobes equal in size. For an object with an eccentric orbit but no axial tilt, the analemma would be a straight east–west line along the celestial equator.
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Isaac Israeli ben Joseph or Yitzhak ben Yosef (often known as Isaac Israeli the Younger) was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer/astrologer who flourished at Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth century. He was a pupil of Asher ben Yehiel, at whose request (in 1310) he wrote the astronomical work Yesod Olam, the finest contribution on the subject in Hebrew literature. The book includes chapters on: geometry and trigonometry; the structure and position of the globe; the number and movements of celestial spheres; the time differences in days and nights in various parts of the Earth; the movements of sun and moon; solstices, neomeniæ, eclipses, and leap-years. It also contains astronomical tables (ephemeris) and a perpetual calendar.
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In Lower Egypt, priests built circular mud-brick walls with which to make a false horizon where they could mark the position of the sun as it rose at dawn, and then with a plumb-bob note the northern or southern turning points (solstices). This allowed them to discover that the sun disc, personified as Ra, took 365 days to travel from his birthplace at the winter solstice and back to it. Meanwhile, in Upper Egypt a lunar calendar was being developed based on the behavior of the moon and the reappearance of Sirius in its heliacal rising after its annual absence of about 70 days.Tyldesley, Joyce, Pyramids: The Real Story Behind Egypt's Ancient Monuments, Viking, 2003, p.
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Additionally, they meet for full moons and on special occasion, the dark of the moon. These festivals correspond to the cycles of Nature (animal mating, seasons, planting and harvest) and the cycles of the Sun (Solstices and Equinoxes) . These are: The Four Major Sabbats are: Nos Calon Gaeaf (Samhain) Nos Gwyl Fair (Imbolg or Candlemas) Nos Galon-Mai (Beltaine or May Eve) Nos Gwyl Awst (Lammas) The four lesser Sabbats are Gwyl Canol Gaeaf (Winter Solstice or Yule) Gwyl Canol Haf (Summer Solstice) Gwyl Canol Gwenwynol (Spring Equinox) Gwyl Canol Hydref (Fall Equinox) These comprise a total of eight major festivals. There are also 13 Full Moon Lunar Rituals and several miscellaneous festivals which Dynion Mwyn recognizes.
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It has been observed that ice ages deepen by progressive steps, but the recovery to interglacial conditions occurs in a single large step. Orbital mechanics require that the length of the seasons be proportional to the swept areas of the seasonal quadrants, so when the eccentricity is extreme, the seasons on the far side of the orbit can last substantially longer. Today, when autumn and winter in the Northern Hemisphere occur at closest approach, the Earth is moving at its maximum velocity and therefore autumn and winter are slightly shorter than spring and summer. The length of the seasons is proportional to the area of the Earth's orbit swept between the solstices and equinoxes.
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However, there are aftermarket tuners that have already accomplished non-trivial engine transplants in Solstices. Since the Solstice, GM has designed another roadster that looks substantially different, but shares the same underlying Kappa platform: the Saturn Sky. The Saturn Sky was styled after the pattern of the Vauxhall VX Lightning design. There is a European version built on the same platform, essentially a turbo- engined Sky with Opel badging, under the name Opel GT. A GM Korea version of that variant was also produced under the name Daewoo G2x. Three other concept vehicles were built on the initial Kappa platform, and shown at the 2004 NAIAS: The Vauxhall VX Lightning, The Saturn Curve and Chevrolet Nomad.
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The northeast avenue, which extends about meters from the center, has been inconsistently associated with the summer solstice, the major northern lunistice, or the rising of Venus. However, this must remain conjectural as the holes are relatively unweathered and may not even be prehistoric in origin. Herouni had postulated that in order to use the holes in the megaliths for astronomical observations sufficiently precise to determine the date of the solstices, it would have been necessary to restrict the field of vision by inserting a narrow tube into the existing perforations. Without these modifications, for which there is no archaeological evidence, the claimed astronomical significance of the orientations of the holes vanishes.
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Plan of Quimper Cathedral Charles Borromeo stated that churches ought to be oriented exactly east, in line with the rising sun at the equinoxes, not at the solstices, but some churches seem to be oriented to sunrise on the feast day of their patron saint. Thus St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna is oriented in line with sunrise on St. Stephen's Day, 26 December, in Julian calendar 1137, when it began to be built. However, a survey of old English churches published in 2006 showed practically no relationship with the feast days of the saints to whom they are dedicated. The results also did not conform to a theory that compass readings could have caused the variants.
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The Earth's apsidal precession slowly increases its argument of periapsis; it takes about years for the ellipse to revolve once relative to the fixed stars. The Earth's polar axis, and hence the solstices and equinoxes, precess with a period of about years in relation to the fixed stars. These two forms of 'precession' combine so that it takes between and years (and on average years) for the ellipse to revolve once relative to the vernal equinox, that is, for the perihelion to return to the same date (given a calendar that tracks the seasons perfectly). This interaction between the anomalistic and tropical cycle is important in the long-term climate variations on Earth, called the Milankovitch cycles.
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The listing is called "Burro Flats Painted Cave," which is of itself actually only one site- locus. The 25 acres that were listed include at least 24 loci, many of which include pictographs, petroglyphs, and cupules; a more apt name might have been the Burro Flats Painted Cave Site Complex, which is applied by at least one archaeologist. The work by the ASASC, Rozaire, Grant, and Fenenga, focused on and described the BFPC art and the archaeological components of the site. The research begun in 1979, by the archaeologist John Romani, Edwin Krupp (the Director of the Griffith Observatory), and others, showed that the site (complex) was utilized to predict and observe both the winter and summer solstices.
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It used natural phenomenon, including the observation of the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and wind, without any basis in mathematics. These methods yield specific directions in individual localities, often using the fixed setting and rising points of a specific star, the sunrise or sunset at the equinoxes, or at the summer or the winter solstices. Historical sources record several such qiblas, for example: sunrise at the equinoxes (due east) in the Maghreb, sunset at the equinoxes (due west) in India, the origin of the north wind or the fixed location of the North Star in Yemen, the rising point of the star Suhayl (Canopus) in Syria, and the midwinter sunset in Iraq. Such directions appear in texts of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and texts of folk astronomy.
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The exact dates are those on which the Sun is at the points where the horizon is tangential to the analemma, which in turn depend on how much the analemma, or the north–south meridian passing through it, is tilted from the vertical. This angle of tilt is essentially the co- latitude (90° minus the latitude) of the observer. Calculating these dates numerically is complex, but they can be estimated fairly accurately by placing a straight-edge, tilted at the appropriate angle, tangential to a diagram of the analemma, and reading the dates (interpolating as necessary) when the Sun is at the positions of contact. In middle latitudes, the dates get further from the solstices as the absolute value of the latitude decreases.
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On 23 August 2006, researchers at the Space Science Institute (Boulder, Colorado) and the University of Wisconsin observed a dark spot on Uranus's surface, giving scientists more insight into Uranus atmospheric activity. Why this sudden upsurge in activity occurred is not fully known, but it appears that Uranus's extreme axial tilt results in extreme seasonal variations in its weather. Determining the nature of this seasonal variation is difficult because good data on Uranus's atmosphere have existed for less than 84 years, or one full Uranian year. Photometry over the course of half a Uranian year (beginning in the 1950s) has shown regular variation in the brightness in two spectral bands, with maxima occurring at the solstices and minima occurring at the equinoxes.
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In the 1990s, as Uranus moved away from its solstice, Hubble and ground-based telescopes revealed that the south polar cap darkened noticeably (except the southern collar, which remained bright), whereas the northern hemisphere demonstrated increasing activity, such as cloud formations and stronger winds, bolstering expectations that it should brighten soon. This indeed happened in 2007 when it passed an equinox: a faint northern polar collar arose, and the southern collar became nearly invisible, although the zonal wind profile remained slightly asymmetric, with northern winds being somewhat slower than southern. The mechanism of these physical changes is still not clear. Near the summer and winter solstices, Uranus's hemispheres lie alternately either in full glare of the Sun's rays or facing deep space.
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There are many smaller terms, resulting in varying daily shifts of some metres in any direction. Finally, the Earth's rotational axis is not exactly fixed in the Earth, but undergoes small fluctuations (on the order of 15 meters) called polar motion, which have a small effect on the Tropics and Polar Circles and also on the Equator. Short- term fluctuations over a matter of days do not directly affect the location of the extreme latitudes at which the sun may appear directly overhead, or at which 24-hour day or night is possible, except when they actually occur at the time of the solstices. Rather, they cause a theoretical shifting of the parallels, that would occur if the given axis tilt were maintained throughout the year.
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The earlier study's §M found that Hipparchus did not adopt 26 June solstices until 146 BC when he founded the orbit of the Sun which Ptolemy later adopted. Dovetailing these data suggests Hipparchus extrapolated the 158 BC 26 June solstice from his 145 solstice 12 years later a procedure that would cause only minuscule error. The papyrus also confirmed that Hipparchus had used Callippic solar motion in 158 BC, a new finding in 1991 but not attested directly until P. Fouad 267 A. Another table on the papyrus is perhaps for sidereal motion and a third table is for Metonic tropical motion, using a previously unknown year of – days. This was presumably foundExplained at equation 25 of a recent investigation , paper #2.
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In some holy areas, such as Gremanu at Fonni, Serra Orrios at Dorgali and S'Arcu 'e Is Forros at Villagrande Strisaili, there were rectangular temples, with central holy room housing perhaps a holy fire. The deities worshipped are unknown, but were perhaps connected to water, or to astronomical entities (Sun, Moon, solstices). Sacred "pool" of Su Romanzesu Some structures could have a "federal" Sardinian role, such as the sanctuary of Santa Vittoria near Serri (one of the biggest Nuragic sanctuaries, spanning over 20 hectares), including both religious and civil buildings: here, according to Italian historian Giovanni Lilliu, the main clans of the central island held their assemblies to sign alliances, decide wars, or to stipulate commercial agreements. Spaces for trades were also present.
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At the same time, she claimed that the religion was largely passed down hereditary lines. Murray described the religion as being divided into covens containing thirteen members, led by a coven officer who was often termed the "Devil" in the trial accounts, but who was accountable to a "Grand Master". According to Murray, the records of the coven were kept in a secret book, with the coven also disciplining its members, to the extent of executing those deemed traitors. Describing this witch-cult as "a joyous religion", she claimed that the two primary festivals that it celebrated were on May Eve and November Eve, although that other dates of religious observation were 1 February and 1 August, the winter and summer solstices, and Easter.
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Awen of Iolo Morganwg. In some forms of Neo-Druidism the term is symbolized by an emblem showing three straight lines that spread apart as they move downward, drawn within a circle or a series of circles of varying thickness, often with a dot, or point, atop each line. The British Druid Order attributes the symbol to Iolo Morganwg; it has been adopted by some Neo-Druids. The Neo-Druid symbol of awen The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) describe the three lines as rays emanating from three points of light, with those points representing the triple aspect of deity and, also, the points at which the sun rises on the equinoxes and solstices – known as the Triad of the Sunrises.
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Into the Eastern Han, the Chinese measured their day schematically, adding the 20-ke difference between the solstices evenly throughout the year, one every nine days. During the night, time was more commonly reckoned during the night by the "watches" of the guard, which were reckoned as a fifth of the time from sunset to sunrise. Imperial China continued to use ke and geng but also began to divide the day into 12 "double hours" named after the earthly branches and sometimes also known by the name of the corresponding animal of the Chinese zodiac. The first shi originally ran from 11pm to 1am but was reckoned as starting at midnight by the time of the History of Song, compiled during the early Yuan.
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Fajada Butte 2012-04-15 Public access to the butte was curtailed when, in 1989, erosion from modern foot traffic was found to be responsible for one of the three screening slabs at the "Sun Dagger" site shifting out of its ancient position. Because of that shift, the assemblage of stones has lost some of its former spatial and temporal precision as a solar and lunar calendar. In 1990 the screens were stabilized and placed under observation, but the wayward slab was not moved back into its original orientation. At two other sites on Fajada Butte, located a short distance below the Sun Dagger site, five petroglyphs are also marked by visually compelling patterns of shadow and light that indicate solar noon distinctively at the solstices and equinoxes (Sofaer and Sinclair 1987, p. 59).
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In the 2nd century BC Hipparchus measured the time required for the Sun to travel from an equinox to the same equinox again. He reckoned the length of the year to be 1/300 of a day less than 365.25 days (365 days, 5 hours, 55 minutes, 12 seconds, or 365.24667 days). Hipparchus used this method because he was better able to detect the time of the equinoxes, compared to that of the solstices . Hipparchus also discovered that the equinoctial points moved along the ecliptic (plane of the Earth's orbit, or what Hipparchus would have thought of as the plane of the Sun's orbit about the Earth) in a direction opposite that of the movement of the Sun, a phenomenon that came to be named "precession of the equinoxes".
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Orbital mechanics require that the duration of the seasons be proportional to the area of the Earth's orbit swept between the solstices and equinoxes, so when the orbital eccentricity is extreme, the seasons that occur on the far side of the orbit (aphelion) can be substantially longer in duration. Today, northern hemisphere fall and winter occur at closest approach (perihelion), when the earth is moving at its maximum velocity—while the opposite occurs in the southern hemisphere. As a result, in the northern hemisphere, fall and winter are slightly shorter than spring and summer—but in global terms this is balanced with them being longer below the equator. In 2006, the northern hemisphere summer was 4.66 days longer than winter, and spring was 2.9 days longer than fall due to the Milankovitch cycles.
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Declination lines at solstices and equinox for sundials, located at different latitudes There is a simple verification of hyperbolic declination lines on a sundial: the distance from the origin to the equinox line should be equal to harmonic mean of distances from the origin to summer and winter solstice lines. Nodus-based sundials may use a small hole or mirror to isolate a single ray of light; the former are sometimes called aperture dials. The oldest example is perhaps the antiborean sundial (antiboreum), a spherical nodus-based sundial that faces true North; a ray of sunlight enters from the South through a small hole located at the sphere's pole and falls on the hour and date lines inscribed within the sphere, which resemble lines of longitude and latitude, respectively, on a globe.
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The Gediminas Sceptre, a medieval Lithuanian calendarRussian, the right in Polish A Lithuanian language calendar by Laurynas Ivinskis Ancient Baltic cosmological schemes have been found on burial urns dated from 600-200 BC. As with other Bronze Age cultures, there were megaliths associated with the summer and winter solstices; hill enclaves with solar calendars have been discovered at Birutė Mountain near Palanga,Lithuanian archeoastronomy and at the Purmaliai mound near Klaipėda. A modern interpretation of the ancient solar calendar was created in 2002 at the Kretinga Museum. Lithuanian calendar shows some similarities with Slavic calendar, and so may have roots in Proto- Balto-Slavic era. The Gediminas Sceptre, discovered in 1680, indicates that during his reign the year started in April and was divided into 12 months, varying in length from 29 to 31 days.
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The declination of the Sun, δ☉, is the angle between the rays of the Sun and the plane of the Earth's equator. The Earth's axial tilt (called the obliquity of the ecliptic by astronomers) is the angle between the Earth's axis and a line perpendicular to the Earth's orbit. The Earth's axial tilt changes slowly over thousands of years but its current value of about ε = 23°26' is nearly constant, so the change in solar declination during one year is nearly the same as during the next year. At the solstices, the angle between the rays of the Sun and the plane of the Earth's equator reaches its maximum value of 23°26'. Therefore, δ☉ = +23°26' at the northern summer solstice and δ☉ = −23°26' at the southern summer solstice.
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123–125 without sufficient reason. Bar Kappara ascribed great value to the study of astronomy: "He who can calculate the solstices and movements of the planets and fails to pay attention to these things, to him may be applied the verse (Isaiah 5:12) 'They regard not the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands".Shabbat 75a This statement is particularly striking when compared to his opinion about the obligation to study Torah: that a Jew who reads just two portions from the Torah daily—one in the morning and one in the evening—fulfills the commandment to meditate in God's law by day and night.Psalms 1:2; Midrash Tehillim on 1:2 Bar Kappara appreciated not only natural science, but also the Greek love of the beautiful.
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Murray described the religion as being divided into covens containing thirteen members, led by a coven officer who was often termed the "Devil" in the trial accounts, but who was accountable to a "Grand Master". According to Murray, the records of the coven were kept in a secret book, with the coven also disciplining its members, to the extent of executing those deemed traitors. Describing this witch-cult as "a joyous religion", she claimed that the two primary festivals that it celebrated were on May Eve and November Eve, although that other dates of religious observation were 1 February and 1 August, the winter and summer solstices, and Easter. She asserted that the "General Meeting of all members of the religion" were known as Sabbaths, while the more private ritual meetings were known as Esbats.
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Many of the Dead Sea (Qumran) Scrolls have references to a unique calendar, used by the people there, who are often assumed to be Essenes. The year of this calendar used the ideal Mesopotamian calendar of twelve 30-day months, to which were added 4 days at the equinoxes and solstices (cardinal points), making a total of 364 days. There was some ambiguity as to whether the cardinal days were at the beginning of the months or at the end, but the clearest calendar attestations give a year of four seasons, each having three months of 30, 30, and 31 days with the cardinal day the extra day at the end, for a total of 91 days, or exactly 13 weeks. Each season started on the 4th day of the week (Wednesday), every year.
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The Julian calendar used in Christendom until the 16th century added a leap day every four years; but this rule adds too many days (roughly three every 400 years), making the equinoxes and solstices shift gradually to earlier dates. By the 16th century the vernal equinox had drifted to March 11, so the Gregorian calendar was introduced both to shift it back by omitting several days, and to reduce the number of leap years via the aforementioned century rule to keep the equinoxes more or less fixed and the date of Easter consistently close to the vernal equinox. Leap days can present a particular problem in computing known as the leap year bug when February 29 is not handled correctly in logic that accepts or manipulates dates. For example, this has happened with ATMs and Microsoft's cloud system Azure.
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One example is the complete creation in France of the oratorio Elijah by Mendelssohn in the presence of a descendant of the German composer. Only excerpts had previously been given, mainly by the 19th century Orchestre de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire. As a composer, among an important and varied catalogue, are Œnochoé, choreographic symphony, Tropes, for great organ and 6 percussions, Solstices, for flute and piano, La Messe des Bergers de Provence, for traditional men's voices and instruments, Music for organ and strings, Suite Latine, Sirventès, Petit Livre pour la guitare, La Messe de Verlaine,La Messe de Verlaine on data.bnf.fr for women's voices, piano, percussion and ondes Martenot, Enneagone for trio of reeds and string orchestra, Dix Noëls de Provence, old-fashioned treatises for organ, Sept Pastorales for wind quintet, Salicornesfor viola and piano.
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Also in the abbey, about the middle of the 11th century, William composed learned treatises on astronomy and music, disciplines that formed part of the quadrivium, in the knowledge of which William was considered unsurpassed in his day. He constructed various astronomical instruments, made a sun-dial which showed the variations of the heavenly bodies, the solstices, equinoxes and other sidereal phenomena."Bernoldi chronicon" in P. L., CXLVIII, 1404 His famous stone astrolabe can still be seen today in Regensburg: more than 2.5 metres high, it is engraved on the front with an astrolabe sphere, while on the reverse side is the figure of a man gazing into the heavens, presumed to be the Greek astronomer and poet Aratos of Soloi (of the 3rd century B.C.). He was also a skilled musician and made various improvements on the flute.
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Associated with the ring is a rayed apparent-sun emblem whose supporting arm system moves to and fro relative to a main mean-motion arm by an amount corresponding to the equation of time, and also radially to represent changes in the sun's declination. Sun-emblem and horizon-plate therefore combine to show the times of the sun's rising, southing, and setting throughout the year and, by means of the 'rays', the extent of the twilight. To complete the front dial display, two sets of curved wires are mounted in front of the planisphere. One set of two wires indicates lines of equal altitude 36° and 59.5° and supplements the edge of the horizon plate (altitude 0); they cross a vertical north-south wire to indicate the sun's meridian altitude at the equinoxes and solstices respectively.
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Summer is defined as the quarter of the year with the greatest insolation and winter as the quarter with the least. The solar seasons change at the cross-quarter days, which are about 3–4 weeks earlier than the meteorological seasons and 6–7 weeks earlier than seasons starting at equinoxes and solstices. Thus, the day of greatest insolation is designated "midsummer" as noted in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, which is set on the summer solstice. On the Celtic calendar, the start of the seasons corresponds to four Pagan agricultural festivals - the traditional first day of winter is 1 November (Samhain, the Celtic origin of Halloween); spring starts 1 February (Imbolc, the Celtic origin of Groundhog Day); summer begins 1 May (Beltane, the Celtic origin of May Day); the first day of autumn is 1 August (Celtic Lughnasadh).
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El Infiernito is one of the few surviving sites of the Muisca astronomy Chía, goddess of the Moon, rising over the Bogotá savanna The most important and still remaining archaeological site of the Muisca, dates to the pre-Muisca Herrera Period; called by the Spanish conquerors El Infiernito. It is an astronomical site where at solstices the Sun lines up the shadows of the stone pillars exactly with the sacred Lake Iguaque, where according to the Muisca religion the mother goddess Bachué was born. Additionally, the site used to be a place of pilgrimage where the Muisca gathered and interchanged goods.Schrimpff, 1985, p.121 Archaeologist Carl Henrik Langebaek noted that the festivities performed at El Infiernito date back to the Early Muisca Period (800-1200 AD) and that no evidence was found those celebrations existed in the Herrera Period.
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Nazca Lines seen from SPOT Satellite Anthropologists, ethnologists, and archaeologists have studied the ancient Nazca culture to try to determine the purpose of the lines and figures. One hypothesis is that the Nazca people created them to be seen by deities in the sky. Paul Kosok and Maria Reiche advanced a purpose related to astronomy and cosmology, as has been common in monuments of other ancient cultures: the lines were intended to act as a kind of observatory, to point to the places on the distant horizon where the sun and other celestial bodies rose or set at the solstices. Many prehistoric indigenous cultures in the Americas and elsewhere constructed earthworks that combined such astronomical sighting with their religious cosmology, as did the late Mississippian culture at Cahokia and other sites in present-day United States.
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A full sequence for what has become known as Woodhenge III was found (except for nine posts on the western edge that had been lost to dump trucks for road construction fill) and a reconstruction of the circle was built in 1985; with the posts being placed into the original excavated post positions. The Illinois State Park system oversees the Cahokia site and hosts public sunrise observations at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices. Out of respect for Native American beliefs these events do not feature ceremonies or rituals of any kind. Archaeologist Marvin Fowler has speculated that the woodhenges also served as “aligners” and that there may have been as many as 3 more in other strategic locations around the city of Cahokia, built to triangulate and lay out construction projects.
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Sun and planets at local apparent noon (Ecliptic in red, Sun and Mercury in yellow, Venus in white, Mars in red, Jupiter in yellow with red spot, Saturn in white with rings). Even if the Earth's orbit were circular, the perceived motion of the Sun along our celestial equator would still not be uniform. This is a consequence of the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis with respect to the plane of its orbit, or equivalently, the tilt of the ecliptic (the path the Sun appears to take in the celestial sphere) with respect to the celestial equator. The projection of this motion onto our celestial equator, along which "clock time" is measured, is a maximum at the solstices, when the yearly movement of the Sun is parallel to the equator (causing amplification of perceived speed) and yields mainly a change in right ascension.
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The book proposes that what the authors believe to have been stellar observatories (such as the first wooden Stonehenge) in Britain, and structures in the Boyne Valley in Ireland, show sufficient knowledge to be able to predict prescribed solar, lunar and venusian events and cycles, such as solstices and equinoxes. If rituals at Stonehenge involved stargazing, there is then the opportunity for an anomalous object to be spotted far more quickly if the cycles of observed celestial objects are known. The authors quote textual evidence from the book of Enoch, noting other coincidences made between Enoch and astronomy; for example, it is said he lived 365 years, which could be a reference to a year (365.25 days). The authors suggest that chambers (souterrains) found in Britain might have been attempts to build shelters to be sealed against tsunamis that would have been caused by a cometary impact in the sea.
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On the main rock there is a 3-metre- high stone cross dating to 1877 and, since 1995, a semi-circular toposcope made of steel. This provides information about the direction and distance of those places and mountains that are visible over a radius of 18 km and also several more distant locations such as Karlsruhe and the Hornisgrinde as well as non-visible locations such as the Feldberg and Mont Blanc. It also gives the position of sunset on the visible horizon at the summer and winter solstices as well as at the equinoxes, with dates and times. In addition it gives the length of days (time between sunrise and sunset) in hours and minutes at the start of each season as well as the height of the midday sun (highest point of the sun during its visible trajectory) in degrees, also at the start of the seasons.
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1995a, p.318. Structure 3 (or Structure III, also known as the Lundell Palace) is southeast of Structure 4, on the east side of the Central Plaza. It is a building with multiple rooms. Structure 4 (or Structure IV) is a group of three temples on the east side of the Central Plaza. It is divided into three sections, labelled Structures 4a, 4b and 4c. The central Structure 4b is built upon a substructure dating to the Preclassic period. Together with Structure 6 on the opposite side of the plaza, these buildings form an E-Group that may have been used to determine the solstices and the equinoxes. Structure 5 (or Structure V) is a large building located on the plaza to the north of Structure 2. It was surrounded by 10 stelae, many dated to the 7th century AD although the building itself was first erected in the Preclassic period.
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Mills received his BA from Vanderbilt University in 1984.. He was a professor with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida, with a particular focus on Egyptology, paleopathology, and the importance of beer and bread in ancient Egyptian culture and health.. He served as codirector of the Egyptian Studies Association at the University of South Carolina and worked with its excavations in Nekhen, participating under Michael Hoffman in 1985–6... and directing them in 1987–8. and the early 1990s. with Walter Fairservis,... and returning in the late 1990s under Barbara Adams and Renée Friedman.. In 1986, together with Ahmed Irawy Radwan, he discovered and studied a petroglyph which possibly preserves a predynastic record of the solstices which influenced the development of the 365-day Egyptian civil calendar. He also assisted with the archaeological survey during the establishment of Old Santee Canal Park near Charleston, South Carolina..
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Page 67. Under the Greeks, and Ptolemy in particular, the planets, Houses, and signs of the zodiac were rationalized and their function set down in a way that has changed little to the present day.Derek and Julia Parker, Ibid, p16, 1990 Ptolemy lived in the 2nd century AD, three centuries after the discovery of the precession of the equinoxes by Hipparchus around 130 BC. Hipparchus's lost work on precession never circulated very widely until it was brought to prominence by Ptolemy, and there are few explanations of precession outside the work of Ptolemy until late Antiquity, by which time Ptolemy's influence was widely established. Ptolemy clearly explained the theoretical basis of the western zodiac as being a tropical coordinate system, by which the zodiac is aligned to the equinoxes and solstices, rather than the visible constellations that bear the same names as the zodiac signs.
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It consists of a circular platform of 177.64 ft (54 m) in diameter which forms a mosaic of light and dark pebbles drawing an eight-pointed star that indicates the solstices and equinoxes, plus intermediate lines pointing to the cardinal directions. In the center of this platform there is a 10 m (32.80 ft) high, 1.30 m (4.27 ft) diameter cylindrical orange tube which serves as a gnomon, pointing to the corresponding hours and months of the year in the platform according to the shadow cast by the Sun. The gnomon represents the metric system, based in the meter, which in its origin was intended to equal one ten- millionth of the quadrant of the Earth's circumference. The purpose of the color difference between the stones, apart from showing equinox and solstice lines, is to explain the meaning of albedo and its use in astronomical study.
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In the 1960s archaeologist Melvin L. Fowler noticed that the northeastern corner of the unusually aligned Mound 72 was located on a north/south axis aligned with the southwestern corner of Monks Mound and the western edge of Mound 49, an east/west oriented ridgetop mound located within the Grand Plaza area of downtown Cahokia. After discussions with Warren Wittry (the discoverer of the Cahokia Woodhenge) about the north/south axis alignment and the mounds longitudinal alignment along the axis of the solstices, he hypothesized that a large post may have marked the location. After getting funding he began a series of excavations at the mound in 1967 that lasted into the early 1970s. The post pit hole was found where he had predicted it would be, as were several others in an arc to the northwest, along with the spectacular series of burials located within and under the mound.
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Within a month, Gardner had brought about her 2nd and 3rd initiations, and set her up as the High Priestess of a new coven, independent of the Bricket Wood one.Fifty Years of Wicca, Frederic Lamond, page 17-18 In spring 1958, whilst Gardner was away from the coven staying at his museum on the Isle of Man, the other members decided that they did not want to continue using only binding and scourging to raise energies, and so they tried to do so by the circle dance method, which most found to be more effective than Gardner's preferred methods.Fifty Years of Wicca, Frederic Lamond, page 20-21 At the same time, the group decided that they wanted to celebrate the solstices and the equinoxes as well as the cross-quarter days (the coven at the time called them Halloween, Candlemass, Beltane and Lammas). Gardner gave his written permission for this, and it was adopted by other practitioners of the craft, such as Doreen Valiente.
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Pendragon protested against the admission fees English Heritage charged visitors to Stonehenge, and in particular the fact that it was closed to Druids and New Age travellers on the summer and winter solstices After his Stonehenge picket, Pendragon began identifying as a Druid and renamed his Arthurian Warband as the Loyal Arthurian Warband (LAW). He established good relations with several other Druid groups, being appointed "Honoured Pendragon" of the Glastonbury Order of Druids (GOD) and "Official Swordbearer" of the Secular Order of Druids (SOD). Around this time, he was brought before a magistrates court for his refusal to pay the recently introduced poll tax and found guilty; he paid off the moneys owed with the finances gained after a successful case that he brought against Wiltshire police for wrongful arrest and unlawful imprisonment. In January 1993, he was crowned as King by a group of supporters at the Coronation Stone in Kingston upon Thames, London.
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This shift is a full day in about 128 years (compensated mainly by the century "leap year" rules of the Gregorian calendar) and as 2000 was a leap year the current shift has been progressing since the beginning of the last century, when equinoxes and solstices were relatively late. This also means that in many years of the twentieth century, the dates of March 21, June 22, September 23 and December 22 were much more common, so older books teach (and older people may still remember) these dates. Note that all the times are given in UTC (roughly speaking, the time at Greenwich, ignoring British Summer Time). People living farther to the east (Asia and Australia), whose local times are in advance, will see the astronomical seasons apparently start later; for example, in Tonga (UTC+13), an equinox occurred on September 24, 1999, a date which will not crop up again until 2103.
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The phenomenon was noticed by Pavlović and Aleksandra Bajić, which published their findings in 2016 book "The Sun of Lepenski Vir". As only the specific position of the Sun during the winter and summer solstices was important to calculate the time, as a reference point which repeats after one year, they believe that Lepenians used the "double sunrise" as a basis for some kind of a solar calendar, which they dated to 6300–6200 BC. As Lepenski Vir was a sedentary community for several millennia, Pavlović and Bajić hold that the inhabitants must have observed the phenomenon, especially at that time when people were much more perceptive of the nature around them than they are today. Even Srejović, who died in 1996 and was unaware of the phenomenon, based on the geographical configuration of the gorge said that the "dance of light and shadows occasionally reach the levels of hierophany". The terrain was further surveyed with the theodolite and the astrogeodesy analysis was conducted in 2017.
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The high value of astronomical knowledge is already demonstrated by the astronomical section of the Book of Enoch (about 72-80 BC), as well as by such sayings as those of Eleazar Hisma (about 100), a profound mathematician, who could "count the drops in the ocean",Horayot 10a and who declared that the "ability to compute the solstice and the calendar is the 'dessert' [auxiliaries] of wisdom.Pirkei Avot 3:18 Among the sciences that Johanan ben Zakkai mastered was a knowledge of the solstices and the calendar; i.e., the ability to compute the course of the Sun and the Moon.Sukkah 28a Later writers declare that "to him who can compute the course of the sun and the revolution of the planets and neglects to do so, may be applied the words of the prophet,Isaiah 5:12 'They regard not the work of the Lord, nor consider the operation of His hands.
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Coe 1999, p. 47. A Lidar survey of the newly discovered Aguada Fénix site at Tabasco, Mexico uncovered large structures suggested to be a ceremonial site dating from between 1000 and 800 BC. The 2020 report of the survey, in the journal Nature, suggests its use as a ceremonial observation of the winter and summer solstices, with associated festivities and social gatherings. During the Middle Preclassic Period, small villages began to grow to form cities.Olmedo Vera 1997, p. 26. Nakbe in the Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands,Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 214. where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC. The northern lowlands of Yucatán were widely settled by the Middle Preclassic.Sharer and Traxler 2006, p. 276. By approximately 400 BC, early Maya rulers were raising stelae.Sharer and Traxler 2006, pp. 182, 197. A developed script was already being used in Petén by the 3rd century BC.Saturno, Stuart and Beltrán 2006, pp. 1281–83. In the Late Preclassic Period, the enormous city of El Mirador grew to cover approximately .
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The winter solstice end of the meridian line The church hosts also a marking in the form of a meridian line inlaid in the paving of the left aisle in 1655; it was calculated and designed by the astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who was teaching astronomy at the University. A meridian line does not indicate the time: instead, with its length of it is one of the largest astronomical instruments in the world, allowing measurements that were for the time uniquely precise. The sun light, entering through a hole placed at a height in the church wall, projects an elliptical image of the sun, which at local noon falls exactly on the meridian line and every day is different as to position and size. The position of the projected image along the line allows to determine accurately the daily altitude of the sun at noon, from which Cassini was able to calculate with unprecedented precision astronomical parameters such as the obliquity of the ecliptic, the duration of the tropical year and the timing of equinoxes and solstices.
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According to Macrobius who cites Nigidius Figulus and Cicero, Janus and Jana (Diana) are a pair of divinities, worshipped as Apollo or the sun and moon, whence Janus received sacrifices before all the others, because through him is apparent the way of access to the desired deity.Macrobius Saturnalia I 9, 8–9Cicero De Natura Deorum ii. 67. A similar solar interpretation has been offered by A. Audin who interprets the god as the issue of a long process of development, starting with the Sumeric cultures, from the two solar pillars located on the eastern side of temples, each of them marking the direction of the rising sun at the dates of the two solstices: the southeastern corresponding to the Winter and the northeastern to the Summer solstice. These two pillars would be at the origin of the theology of the divine twins, one of whom is mortal (related to the NE pillar, nearest the Northern region where the sun does not shine) and the other is immortal (related to the SE pillar and the Southern region where the sun always shines).
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The Bay Observatory building is the only new building constructed on the Exploratorium’s campus. It holds the Seaglass restaurant on its lower level and exhibits on the upper level relating to the waterfront and the cityscape. The gallery focuses on what visitors can see in real time, including the movement of clouds and tides, the changing waterfront, the movement of ships, and interpretation of oceanographic data. The Observatory has glass walls on all four sides to facilitate observation. Many of the exhibits were developed specifically for the location, such as Oculus (a circular opening in the ceiling that allows the entire gallery to be used as a timepiece, tracking seasons, solstices, and the sun’s movement), Visualizing the Bay (a 3-D topographic map of the Bay Area that allows visitors to see real data mapped over the landscape, such as the movement of fog and the salinity of the Bay over the course of days or years), and the Map Table (an assortment of historic and contemporary maps and atlases displaying different views and perspectives on the landscape).
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This is based on comparing astronomical data from the text with modern astronomical or astrophysical analysis.. Especially 465. At the beginning of his reign, Yao was supposed to have appointed four ministerial officials (two sets of two brothers) to make the necessary astronomical observations for a reformed calendar. Each of these individuals were sent to the limits of the royal territory, one in each of the cardinal directions, where they were supposed to observe certain stars at sunset on each of the solstices and equinoxes, so the results could then be compared, and the calendar accordingly adjusted. K. C. Wu cites references from two modern astronomers that largely confirm a date of around 2200 for Yao's reign, which is in accord with traditional, accepted dating.. In view of Yao and his reign, this evidence for accurate astronomical observations could be interpreted as an intrusion of archeoastronomy into the realm of mythology; in other words, ancient astronomical observations have been incorporated with mythological material, or the other way around.
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Geminus explains that Greek astronomers of his era associate the first degrees of the zodiac signs with the two solstices and the two equinoxes, in contrast to the older Chaldean (Babylonian) system, which placed these points within the zodiac signs. This illustrates that Ptolemy merely clarified the convention of Greek astronomers and did not originate the principle of the tropical zodiac, as is sometimes assumed. Ptolemy also demonstrates that the principle of the tropical zodiac was well known to his predecessors within his astrological text, the Tetrabiblos, where he explains why it would be an error to associate the regularly spaced signs of the seasonally aligned zodiac with the irregular boundaries of the visible constellations: ::The beginnings of the signs, and likewise those of the terms, are to be taken from the equinoctial and tropical points. This rule is not only clearly stated by writers on the subject, but is also especially evident by the demonstration constantly afforded, that their natures, influences and familiarities have no other origin than from the tropics and equinoxes, as has been already plainly shown.
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The times of the equinoxes and solstices are not fixed with respect to the modern Gregorian calendar, but fall about six hours later every year, amounting to one full day in four years. They are reset by the occurrence of a leap year. The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the March equinox no later than 21 March as accurately as is practical. Also see: Gregorian calendar seasonal error. The calendar equinox (used in the calculation of Easter) is 21 March, the same date as in the Easter tables current at the time of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. The calendar is therefore framed to prevent the astronomical equinox wandering onto 22 March. From Nicaea to the date of the reform, the years 500, 600, 700, 900, 1000, 1100, 1300, 1400 and 1500, which would not have been leap years in the Gregorian calendar, amount to nine days, but astronomers directed that ten days be removed. Currently, the most common equinox and solstice dates are March 20, June 21, September 22 or 23 and December 21; the four-year average slowly shifts to earlier times as the century progresses.
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One such formation, Hole-in-the- Rock, is a major landmark, thanks to the openings (tafoni) eroded in the formation over time. There is some evidence that the Hohokam--a now-extinct aboriginal tribe that once lived in the Phoenix area--used the openings and sunlight to track the solstices. There are also some signs of Precambrian granite in the park. The bedrock is concealed by only a thin layer of topsoil. Papago Park was designated a reservation for the local Maricopa and Pima tribes of aboriginal Americans in 1879. It became the Papago-Saguaro National Monument in 1914, but this status was recalled by Congress, April 7, 1930, because the area was not considered suitable for a national monument.Arizona Place Names, Will C Barnes, U of A Press, page 317 It was divided amongst the state of Arizona, the city of Tempe and the Water Users Association, later known as the Salt River Project. The Federal government reserved all oil, coal or other mineral rights. Following the onset of the Great Depression, Governor Hunt commissioned a bass fish hatchery to be established in Papago Park during 1932.
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In the recent years, Reza Moradi Ghiasabadi has presented a new interpretation of the structure by doing field research and considers it an observatory and a solar calendar and believes that the blind windows, the stairs opposite the entrance door and the construct have been a timer or a solar index for measuring the rotation of the sun and subsequently keeping the record of the year and counting the years and extracting calendars and detecting the first days of each solar month and summer and winter solstices and spring and fall equinoxes. He concludes that the beginning of each solar month could be detected by observing the shadows formed on the blind windows. However, this theory can not be completely true; and one of the reasons that can be stated to refute the theory is that the direction of the geographic North of each region could be different from the direction of the magnetic North. The orbital inclination of the magnetic North from the geographic North is about 2.5 degrees in the Naqsh-e Rustam compound; and the magnetic orbital inclination of the structure is 18 degrees to the West relative to the magnetic North based on Schmidt's calculations.
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Astronomical timing as the basis for designating the temperate seasons dates back at least to the Julian calendar used by the ancient Romans. It continues to be used on many modern Gregorian calendars worldwide, although some countries like Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Russia prefer to use meteorological reckoning. The precise timing of the seasons is determined by the exact times of transit of the sun over the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn for the solstices and the times of the sun's transit over the equator for the equinoxes, or a traditional date close to these times. The following diagram shows the relation between the line of solstice and the line of apsides of Earth's elliptical orbit. The orbital ellipse (with eccentricity exaggerated for effect) goes through each of the six Earth images, which are sequentially the perihelion (periapsis—nearest point to the sun) on anywhere from 2 January to 5 January, the point of March equinox on 19, 20 or 21 March, the point of June solstice on 20 or 21 June, the aphelion (apoapsis—farthest point from the sun) on anywhere from 4 July to 7 July, the September equinox on 22 or 23 September, and the December solstice on 21 or 22 December.
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