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Pentre Ifan Alignment?

Submitted by Andy B on Saturday, 30 June 2001  Page Views: 1537

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Below you will see the details on the astro phenomenon to take place on the
evening of Thursday, 5 July (and almost as good on the 4th and 6th or even
sat. the 6th ). This is a rare opportunity to see if Pentre Ifan Cromlech in
Pembrokeshire is actually a solar marker for the Winter Solstice.

Anyone want to come with me to photograph it? It would involve staying
overnight somewhere or camping near the cromlech....Cerri

from one of my archaeology lists:

"The sun can't reach anymore its location on winter
solstice 5000 years ago (mainly due to the change in obliquity). Perhaps
in some 36,000 years though it can reach it again;-).
The moon though is on a much different trajectory (due to its
inclination/angle to the ecliptic). So once in a while the moon walks
along the same path as the winter solstice sun of 5000 years ago. That
will happen around July 5th this year.
So the moon 'simulates' on this day the sun's path at winter solstice
some 5000 years ago very closely. "

Yn y Gwe,

Cerri DraigDerwen
http://www.technopagans.co.uk
http://www.pagantours.co.uk
Contributor Bio for Andy B: Megalithic Portal Founding Editor.

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"Pentre Ifan Alignment?" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Re: Pentre Ifan Alignment? by ArchAstro on Friday, 10 September 2021
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I sometimes see mention of this idea of solstice alignments at Pentre Ifan but it points mostly southward unless it is meant to catch the light near the meridian when the sun is low, but I don't know what the vertical measurements are or how the entrance would have originally been situated. (maybe it has to do with the spread of the forecourt?) Still might make a great picture with the moon low in the sky during a lunar proxy.

The idea of the moon simulating the sun's path as quoted in the original post back in 2001 came from here:
http://www.archaeocosmology.org/eng/moonsun.htm

Years later I did a lot of work on this concept of lunar proxies during which I learned about interest in the earlier 2001 part of the lunar cycle (what I call an equalized lunar standstill):
https://www.exploreglobe.net/equalized-lunar-standstill.html

Some of the best events this time around have passed in the last year or so, but while sharing info about an upcoming opportunity I found the above message from 20 years ago!

The next opportunity is in the early morning hours of 17 September 2021 to see the moon at declination value very close to -24 as it sets most anywhere in Britain and Ireland.

As for Pentre Ifan, someone could observe on the previous evening of the 16th well before setting in the early morning hours of the 17th (the declination value then is closer to -24.5 which is a bit lower than the sun reached even at the last minimum). Later on toward the early morning hours of the 17th the moon will set at -24 and maybe it would be visible from an angle from 'within' the tomb.

I have seen alignments like that where the solstice was just visible from one back corner of a passage/chamber instead of centered, but I don't know if that applies here. Could be worth checking out while standing under the capstone looking southwest and moving around to get pictures as the moon goes down to estimate if that position might have fallen within the original chamber. It would be a good idea to have a diagram of the site to mark exactly where one was standing (by best estimate) as the moon touched the horizon.

It might even be worth performing this investigation from sunrise to sunset at the actual winter solstice even though the sun no longer reaches quite the same extremes, it could still establish the basic angles for further refinement/assessment.
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Re: Pentre Ifan Alignment? by Anonymous on Wednesday, 28 February 2018
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