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From: ntt@dciem.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.astro,net.sci
Subject: Stonehenge and Feb/May/Aug/Nov alignments
Message-ID: <989@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jul-84 13:15:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.989
Posted: Tue Jul 17 13:15:31 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 17-Jul-84 14:25:49 EDT
References: <160@bonnie.UUCP>
Organization: NTT Systems Inc., Toronto, Canada
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According to Hawkins's "Stonehenge Decoded", the diagonals of the station
stone rectangle give sunrise dates approximately one week into February,
May, August, and November.  These are approximately halfway between solstices
and equinoxes, which of course are also marked, so Stonehenge could also be
used to divide the year into 8 parts.  This alignment was noticed in the
early 20th century.  Hawkins says that he believes it is a coincidence, with
the real purpose of these alignments being to mark extreme positions of the
moon.  But (my conjecture) if the alignments were used both ways, it could
be a reason for the absence of any other intermediate-date markers at
Stonehenge.

Mark Brader