Swinside and Sighthill in Stellarium

I’ve just made two new stone circle landscapes for Stellarium, the free planetarium software. It’s been quite a while since I created a Stellarium landscape, and I’d forgotten quite how much fiddling around was involved. It does become quite time-consuming, but it’s very satisfying when you do get it to work. This time round, I used two programs that I hadn’t used before, and I actually found the process much easier than previous attempts. There are two main parts to making a landscape – the first is to create a panoramic image from a series of photographs taken from the … Continue reading Swinside and Sighthill in Stellarium

A Labyrinth For Glasgow

(and a stone circle too!) There have been some considerable developments to Glasgow City Council’s plan to redevelop Sighthill park into an athlete’s village for the 2018 Youth Olympics. Having lost their bid to host the event, the athlete’s village idea has been abandoned but the Council are still planning to proceed with a housing development in the area, necessitating the removal of the stone circle. However, largely as a result of pressure from the community and discussions between circle builder Duncan Lunan and the Council, a compromise agreement has been reached whereby the circle will be removed and reconstructed … Continue reading A Labyrinth For Glasgow

Saving Sighthill Stones

The Sighthill Stone Circle is a modern astronomically-aligned stone ring that was designed and built in 1979 under the direction of local astronomer and SF writer Duncan Lunan. It is situated in the centre of Glasgow right next to the M8 motorway, and is almost certainly the first astronomically-aligned circle built in Scotland for over 3000 years (I have blogged about it before here and here). When I first dowsed the circle many years ago, it looked pretty neglected and I was unable to dowse any earth energies of interest within it. All ancient stone rings (as well as many … Continue reading Saving Sighthill Stones

Sighthill Solstice Sunset

I managed to attend Duncan’s talk about the Sighthill stones on the summer solstice, followed up by a walk up to the circle to see the sunset. I’ve certainly never seen so many folk at the circle before, and we were blessed with clear skies for the event. I was keen to see how the real thing compared with my Stellarium landscape, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was pretty accurate. Here’s a picture of things in Stellarium: …and here’s the real thing, taken looking over the centre stone, which of course you don’t see in the Stellarium … Continue reading Sighthill Solstice Sunset

Good Heavens … astronomer bids to rejuvenate stone circle

Good Heavens … astronomer bids to rejuvenate stone circle – Herald Scotland | News | Home News. 2 Jun 2010 It was created in the late 1970s to mirror the rise and fall of the moon and sun across Glasgow on a site of ancient astronomical interest. Now efforts are being made to rejuvenate the Sighthill Stone Circle, created by amateur astronomer and science writer Duncan Lunan, who brought Britain’s first authentically alligned stone circle in more than 3000 years to Glasgow’s inner city. More than 30 years later, Lunan hopes to revive interest in the stone circle, which was … Continue reading Good Heavens … astronomer bids to rejuvenate stone circle