MINI-STONEHENGE DISCOVERED IN STOCKHOLM: A year ago, I was standing in the staircase on the top floor of my apartment building talking to a neighbor, recalls Peter Rosén of Stockholm, Sweden. Suddenly he noticed a perfect image of the Sun slowly moving across the wall behind me. The Sun was shining through a keyhole which acted as a lens, just like a gigantic pinhole camera. It only lasted for a couple of minutes. Rosén is a photographer, and he wanted to record the phenomenon. Unfortunately I had not taken note of the exact date and time. So, this spring, I have been waiting for days with my camera ready on a tripod. Finally, on April 4th, the alignment occurred: When the Sun finally appeared on the 4th of April, there was not one but two perfect tiny Suns, slowly moving across the opposite wall, says Rosén. Our building is perfectly oriented to the cardinal points so theoretically it could have occurred on the spring equinox, but as the windows are slightly offset, we have to wait for 2 more weeks before getting this perfect alignment. But it still is like having a miniature Stonehenge at home! Extra: Reader Tom OBrian offers an additional perspective on the Stockholm Stonehenge: A better comparison might be that of Newgrange in Ireland, where the Neolithic tomb entrance perfectly aligns with the moment of sunrise at the winter solstice each year. Newgrange is older than the pyramids and than Stonehenge. Because of the variability of Irish weather, sunlight floods the tomb on only about one year in five. So its builders, all those thousands of years ago, would on average have needed to wait five years between alignments even at the building stage of their monument and thereafter to observe the solstice.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 07:22:10 +0000
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