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...the orientation was wrong.
No, it was correct. It was the first thing I checked.
The reason we used a lamp for sunrise was because we were filming in the evening and the sun rarely rises in the evening. It also refuses to stop in the same position for re-takes. We had to use a lamp for the midwinter sunset alignment too because we were filming in the summer. As for the moon, by the time we filmed that it was already risen and once again it couldn't be coaxed back into position for re-takes. Just as well really, the barrier of trees on the south east of the site would have blocked off the moon anyway.
As for Hawkins's work. He allowed a 2 degree error in his alignments, but never explained why. That's four sun widths and it's easy for anyone with a couple of sticks to get better accuracy than that. Despite this about half of the alignments he claimed for Stonehenge III failed this requirement. His work was comprehensively demolished in 1966. In light of this I wouldn't say dismissing Hawkins's work was appalling given the time limits they had to talk about the astronomy. I might want to gripe about the amount of astronomy time they had though.
You are almost right about the Altar stone. Where Mike Pitts put it, it would have blocked off the midwinter alignment if you were in Stonehenge. If you were still walking up the avenue when the sun was setting then maybe you'd see all of Stonehenge catching the sun as it fell. The reason the Altar stone was put behind the Great Trilithon was that there's a massive hole there in the plans and a break in the bluestone circle. Not all the archaeologists were happy about this, but Mike Pitts did have a good reason rather than a vague idea. It would have been nice to turn the Professors loose into the circle to argue about the position of the stones, which would have brought this problem up. So it wasn't thrown out but it was where not a lot of people would expect to see it. I think that was a missed opportunity.
I agree that the stonerowing was impressive. I think if you had a team that had practiced and were fit then you could get a fair amount of speed.
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