| FOGS News Volume XIII number 3 autumn equinox 2002 |
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| Venus Pillars and Solar Dogs |
| EQUINOX is traditionally the season for getting back to the time-old occupation of watching sunset, |
| full-moonrise and the autumn heavens. It is onset of the aurora season when for some inexplicable reason |
| there is more geomagnetic actiivity (related to solar flares) and, it seems, the time for other celestial phenomena. |
| These include nacreous clouds - those wonderful ephemeral patches of rainbow light which appear and as |
| suddenly disappear around the edges of evening cirrus. There have been seen lately a lot of what in American |
| terminology are called sun-pillars and sun-dogs (in the case of Venus, Venus-dogs!) where the pillar describes |
| a shaft of light extending vertically from the light body and the dog a similar extension of light in a lateral direction. |
| With the gradual brightening of Venus, the chance of seeing this phenomenon becomes more likely. Sun-pillars |
| are a regular feature of sunset around autumn equinox, even lingering as a great shining after the sun has set. |
| With the continuation of our spell of 'Indian summer' and exceptional clarity of light, we aren't surprised to |
| find a phalanx of photographers most evenings at the well-known recumbent circles in the Northeast and |
| some even at those lesser-known. On equinox night, a magnificent solar 'roll-down' occurred, as seen from |
| Shieldon (non-recumbent) circle at NJ 823 249 near Whiterashes, due west to the Buck of the Cabrach |
| where a little before 7pm(BST) the flaming orb of an equinoctial sun did its primeval tumble down the northern |
| slope, setting into a notch of the Cabrach (Alexander Thom eat your heart out!) and flooding the Garioch with |
| an almost ethereal light. It is no wonder that FOGS who used to be considered 'fringe' are now being joined |
| by a growing number of sky-watchers - all meeting by chance in the stone circles of Aberdeenshire, |
| Kincardine and Banffshire to witness such autumnal glory. We think the practice is catching on! |
| ©2002 Marian Youngblood |
|
| Crop Circle but not a Crop Circle |
| CIRCLE-watchers may have noticed a sudden straw bale sculpture appearing as if by the wave of a cosmic |
| wand on the Garioch-dominating plateau at Kirkton of Bourtie, NJ 801 249. However, unlike the crop circle |
| which appeared mid-morning on an August day in 2000 in a barley crop on a Culsalmond farm, the circular |
| structure at Bourtie is decidedly man-made. It is the inspiration of sculptor Keiji Nagahiro, combined with |
| dowser Peter Donaldson and farmer Ian Peddie, who with broad grin from tractor cab manipulated bulky |
| but beautiful round bales into position (no mean feat) while the ideas men looked on and directed the final |
| shape. Its ultimate position - a recumbent circle in straw - is all things to all men - or at least to these three: |
| to Keiji it is a fleeting glimpse of what might have been, created in rustic splendour to last no more than a single |
| season; to Ian, it was something fun to do after harvest but before the 'back end' dictates when everything is |
| brought in; to Peter it is a physical shape superimposed on an energy signal received by the dowsing rod. It |
| has been a fascinating exercise in people-watching: on the day it was created - one week before equinox - two |
| Californians strolled up the slope, utterly unsurprised by the manifestation. BBC Radio Scotland was quick |
| to send a researcher who was transported by the site, its structure and its vista. Others have followed, often |
| spotting the sculpture from the road and screeching to a halt, entranced. Our members have only a little time |
| to see it in its present glory as the farming year and equinoctial gales (so far, amazingly absent) will soon dictate |
| its being or non-being. We recommend it, if only for the presence it brings to this ancient place, in a way |
| regenerating in the imagination how the circle must have looked to its early architects 5000 years ago. To |
| FOGS who follow shadow casts (especially good at equinox), the bales add another dimension to shadow |
| outlines in barley stubble while low sunlight highlights cropmarks of an avenue approaching the circle, peppered |
| with quartz pebbles, a hallmark of NE circle design.The imagination soars. |
|
| Untimely death |
| IT IS with sadness that we have to announce the untimely death of Dr Nick Bogdan, one of the leaders of |
| the Fetternear Episcopal Palaces Project this autumn. He will be greatly missed. At this time it is difficult to |
| predict how the work in which he was involved will continue, but his partner and fellow archaeologist, Dr |
| Penny Dransart has our blessing and condolences. We wish her well in continuing the work they both began |
| and will report when future plans are further developed. |
|
| Druidsfield Saved |
| FOGS might be forgiven for thinking our efforts often go unseen or, more colloquially, that we spit in the |
| wind; but occasionally, a success is eeked out through perseverence. Such is the case with the Druidsfield |
| (known to HS as Broomend of Crichie) ritual henge, avenue entrance and Pictish carved stone at Port |
| Elphinstone, Inverurie NJ779 191-6. We added our voice to local opposition to a plan for development of |
| a certain hamburger chain to adjoin the circle and ditch - visions of half-eaten buns and related waste floating |
| in a prehistoric context made more than FOGS' hair curl, it seems. Thanks in great part to Inverurie |
| businessman Bob Minto and his supporters, the burger meisters will find another site and the Druidsfield |
| will continue to provide pleasure for local walkers. It has been reported that this very field has been acquired |
| by Aberdeenshire Council, for unknown purpose and for an undisclosed sum. Locals are again on the warpath. |
| We shall confirm. |
|
| FOGS Dowsing Day & AGM |
| MIDWAY through a week of solid rain, FOGS' AGM turned out to be one of brilliant sunshine with not a |
| cloud in sight. Dowsers - new and experienced - were seen lurking, bending, pacing, doing all the bodily antics |
| that dowsers do among remnant woodland near Midmar Kirk. Visitors were drawn from Dundee, Glasgow |
| and Inverness, along with a full complement of regular FOGS who seemed to enjoy every minute. Results |
| not all yet in, but preliminary consensus would have it that the Midmar Kirk recumbent circle may be a later |
| progression, with its operative stones moved a few metres downslope from an original site focused on the |
| Balblair monolith nearby. A Dundee lecturer in architecture specializing for his Ph.D. in geomancy [!yes] said |
| he came because the grid between latitudes 56° and 58°N is considered 'most sacred and most proliferated |
| with stone circles in the world' (his quote) and he wanted to feel it for himself. We are grateful to Phyllis |
| Goodall and Peter Donaldson for leading the dowsing and encouraging so many newbies. More meetings of |
| the like were enthusiastically recommended. Print-outs of the dowsed circle will no doubt appear in due course |
| (email overleaf) but, as our scientist-dowser is now our new membership sec, please give the man a chance! |
