Good morning. We're here at Stonehenge to find out all about how prehistoric
people might have related to the skies above them. - We'll also be finding out how
you can experience the live skies above the monument no matter where you are in the world.
I can't quite believe it because we are in the middle of Stonehenge, but why was
it built and how did it help our early people understand the cosmos?
Well Stonehenge - the entire monument - is aligned around the movements of the sun.
So, behind us towards the Northeast is where the sun rises on Midsummer's Day.
We're actually here at sunrise at the moment but it's been so cloudy that we
haven't yet seen the sun! But in this direction the sun would rise over the
Heel Stone, which is this outlying standing stone... - I see, so we've got the
stones here, then that's the one beyond? - That's right. And then opposite at the entirely
opposite direction at midwinter you get midwinter sunset and the sun would
originally set between the two stones at the top of the horseshoe here.
So, what did they use Stonehenge for? What were they were trying to understand?
Actually there are lots of different purposes to Stonehenge. So, it was used as
a burial site, it was used as a place of gathering. We think that people probably
processed here at certain times of year but the solstice axis gives us that clue
as when people were coming here and what they thought was important.
Stonehenge is known for the solstices, but what is a solstice?
Well to explain I've got a little demonstration. So, this is the sun and this is the earth
but I need to point out they're not to scale. Now many people are familiar that the earth
rotates on its axis and the earth also orbits the sun. But what people don't
realize is the earth is actually tilted on its axis and it's this tilt that
gives us the seasons. So, in this position, the northern hemisphere is pointing
towards the sun, so the northern hemisphere has longer days. When you get
the longest day of the year, that is the solstice. Now when you get the longest
day of the year in the northern hemisphere, you are getting the shortest day
of the year in the southern hemisphere. And so that's the winter solstice in the
southern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.
But let's travel on six months later. Now the northern hemisphere is in winter,
is getting less sunshine, and the southern hemisphere is bathed in a lot more sunshine.
It has longer days. So this is what
Stonehenge was built to look at.
So apart from the sun, was there anything else that they used this Stonehenge to look at?
Yeah, we think that possibly in the early phase, before the stones
got put up when the site was used as a burial ground people were placing their
dead particularly in one part of the monument
that suggests they were observing the movements of the moon.
Would they have been able to see the same stars and the planets as we do now?
On an astronomical scale the sort of time scale since this was built is tiny.
And so the stars haven't moved very much in that time at all. But at the same time
the earth spins on its axis but that
axis does process, so it sort of moves around by a small amount so they
would have seen similar star formations or similar sort constellations, or they
they might have had totally different names for them, but they would have only
shifted by a small amount due to a sort of procession of the axis of the earth.
We get about 1.5 million visitors a year to Stonehenge, but not everyone around the world
can come and stand here and experience it. So, what we've created is
this website called Skyscape. What's brilliant about Skyscape is that people
all around the world can have a look using their computers to see what the
sky looks like above Stonehenge and what it feels like a little bit to stand within the monument.
Yeah, I think it's brilliant that English Heritage are doing this
because I think to a certain extent we're losing contact with the skies.
And now no matter where we are, we can log into this and actually see the skies
above the henge. And to me it's like a little bit of peace on a busy day.
I'm looking forward to it!
If you want to try and experience it for yourself, just click on the link below.
Visit the Skyscape website to see the live sky
as if you were standing in the centre of the monument.
Enjoy the view as it slowly pans 360 degrees or grab the image at any point
and pull it to look at your chosen perspective.
To help explain the relationship between the monument and the heavens, Skyscape overlays
information such as markers for the sun, the moon and visible planets.
Simple lines chart their course, including the movement of the sun over the year
reaching its extremes at the winter and summer solstices.
Switch to tour view to add the names and the types of stones. You can also view the night sky above
the monument, where we show the stars as they would appear above Stonehenge on a
really clear night.
Now, the experience of the Stonehenge sunrise is available to everyone, everywhere, anytime.