Despite the poor weather conditions visitors headed to the famous 5,000-year-old stone circle in Wiltshire in the dark to ensure they got to see the sun rise. And they made the most of one of only four public annual events that allows people to get so close to the stones.
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English Heritage are expected to offer a short period of access, from first light or safe enough to enter the monument field (approximately 06.30am) until 08:30am on the 23rd September this year.
The Autumn Equinox (Mabon)
The 2018 Autumn Equinox is September 23rd at 02.54am GMT
Sunrise will be 6.55am
Mabon is a harvest festival, the second of three, that encourages pagans to “reap what they sow,” both literally and figuratively. It is the time when night and day stand equal in duration; thus is it a time to express gratitude, complete projects and honor a moment of balance.
The equinox is when day and night are actually the same length. It happens several days before the spring equinox, and a few days after the autumn one.
The reason day and night are only almost equal on the equinox is because the sun looks like a disk in the sky, so the top half rises above the horizon before the centre, according to the Met Office.
The Earth’s atmosphere also refracts the sunlight, so it seems to rise before its centre reaches the horizon. This causes the sun to provide more daylight than many people might expect, offering 12 hours and 10 minutes on the equinox.
The word ‘equinox’ itself actually mean ‘equal’ (equi) and ‘night’ (nox).
Respecting the Stones
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DJ Paul Oakenfold plays set at Stonehenge Stone Circle
The trance DJ, who has spent his summer working in Ibiza, performed his set at the World Heritage Site on Thursday – a closely guarded secret.
Just 50 people were allowed to attend the event which happened as the sun went down.
“I’m very lucky to get asked to perform and do a live show to sunset,” Oakenfold told the BBC.
Paul Oakenfold is the first DJ to play at Stonehenge – BBC
The DJ, who has previously played at venues including the Great Wall of China and Base Camp at Mount Everest, admitted there had been “a lot of preparation”.
Read the full story on the BBC website
Stonehenge was a ‘neolithic rave venue’ (Daily Mail)
Mysterious Stonehenge was a dance arena for ancient revellers listening to ‘trance-style’ music, according to one professor who is an expert in sound.
Part-time DJ Dr Till, an expert in acoustics and music technology at Huddersfield University, believes the standing stones of Stonehenge had the ideal acoustics to amplify a ‘repetitive trance rhythm’ not dissimilar to some kinds of modern trance music.
The original Stonehenge probably had a ‘very pleasant, almost concert-like acoustic’ that our ancestors slowly perfected over many generations. Because Stonehenge itself is partially collapsed, Dr Till, used a computer model to conduct experiments in sound.
The most exciting discoveries came when he and colleague Dr Bruno Fazenda visited a full-size concrete replica of Stonehenge, which was built as a war memorial by American road builder Sam Hill at Maryhill in Washington state.
He said: ‘We were able to get some interesting results when we visited the replica by using computer-based acoustic analysis software, a 3D soundfield microphone, a dodecahedronic (12-faced) speaker, and a huge bass speaker.
‘We have also been able to reproduce the sound of someone speaking or clapping in Stonehenge 5,000 years ago.
‘The most interesting thing is we managed to get the whole space (at Maryhill) to resonate, almost like a wine glass will ring if you run a finger round it.
‘While that was happening a simple drum beat sounded incredibly dramatic. The space had real character; it felt that we had gone somewhere special.’
Read the full story in the Daily Mail
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