Layout and Location - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 108

International Astronomical Union in 1957, after the true galactic
center was identified as the radio source Sagittarius A. There would
be a partial explanation if the ecliptic was visible at the time. At
present, especially in the tropics, a diffuse cone of light can be
seen after sunset and before sunrise; in perfect conditions a faint
glow can also be detected, on moonless nights, directly opposite
the position of the Sun on the other side of Earth. These effects,
the zodiacal light and the Gegenschein (counterglow), are both due
to the scattering of sunlight by interplanetary dust, confirmed by
the Pioneer 10 space probe in the mid-1970s. Victor Clube and Bill
Napier have suggested that they are the aftereffects of a 'super-
comet' that broke up among the inner planets around 3000 b.c.
(see Chap. 3 ) [ 6 ].
Duncan Steel made the further imaginative suggestion that
maybe the zodiacal light joined up with the Gegeschein at that
time to form a visible band along the ecliptic [ 7 ]. It's just possible
to imagine that the light from an explosive event in the galactic
center reached us around the same time, so together they could
account for the apparent galactic alignments in Fig. 5.3 . But
what's truly extraordinary is that around 2840 b.c., at the time of
Stonehenge 1, the declination of the north galactic pole equaled
the latitude of Stonehenge. When the galactic centre rose, the
central plane of the Milky Way coincided with the horizon and
the galactic pole was overhead. That stretches belief in coinci-
dence to the limit.
In April 1977 I attended the second British Interplanetary
Society Interstellar Conference in London and made a short theo-
retical contribution to an afternoon debate on the Fermi Paradox. I
was pressed to suggest specific areas for further research and, with
some reluctance, since my direct acquaintance with the field was
then small, I mentioned megalithic astronomy. The reaction from
the aerospace engineers and the like was amazing. Almost every-
one had an opinion on Thom's work, it seemed; most were hos-
tile. Amid a barrage of charges aimed at Thom and Hawkins, one
which particularly stood out was that, from the alleged platform
at Kintraw (Fig. 1.3 ) , Jura could not even be seen.
That one at least could be checked, and the publication of
MacKie's topics provided the opportunity. I asked MacKie to ASTRA
at Glasgow University Union in March 1978. In the course of the