Sun, moon and stars.

I feel a bit uneasy doing this... I've rotated the plan of The Sanctuary drawn up by Robert Cunnington, a Royal Engineers-trained surveyor. In 1930 magnetic declination- the difference between magnetic north and True North was thirteen degrees. The burial at The Sanctuary, using the plans (using north as drawn on the plan) as found in the report of the excavation by Maud Cunnington, is closer to 80 degrees. The concrete posts (the red ones are all over the place...but the blue ones seem to be in their original place). Magnetic declination is now just -1. So...as the plans are now, the burial stone is about 10 degrees north of east (80 degrees.) In 1930, north (by the compass) was 13 degrees west. Unfortunately when I made inquires to find out what year the posts were put in place, I drew a blank. If the plan is rotated to compensate for that 13 degrees... The burial is now aligned east from the center, directed to the only place i...

From June the 12th until the end of the month, the midsummer sun rises at 49 degrees (azimuth) and sets at 311 degrees. The midsummer sun rises and sets at the same azimuth every day for almost a month. This means that there could be at least one early morning without rain, fog, hail or thunder for an intrepid person to dare the cold (I swear there was frost last time I was there at midsummer!) see where exactly the sun is, in relation to the position of posts of the Sanctuary. Sounds simple enough? Except the round concrete posts that used to mark the positions of the inner timber circles are now no longer accurate- add to that the question of did the Cunnington's correct for magnetic declination of not! So what you see now is just a bit confusing. And it is as if the Sanctuary is slowly changing shape, starting to echo the double circle surrounded by one large circle, layout of Avebury. But the original plan is in fact a cross within a circle. The only wa...