Layout and Location - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 118

the site chosen. The effect of parallax might be canceled out or even
reversed; and rather than halt the calculation in mid-refinement and
risk confusion later, it would be better (and adequate) to work with
purely theoretical figures, as if Earth had no dimensions and no atmo-
sphere (the second observer's viewpoint in Chap. 2 ) .
At first I intended to include the rising points of Sirius, now
and in 1800 b.c. at the end of the megalith-building era. As the
brightest star in the sky, it was most likely to show against city
lights, and the contemporary alignment would pinpoint the date
of the structure for hypothetical future researchers, if the origin of
the circle had been forgotten. If some latter-day Gerald Hawkins
ran the alignments through a computer, both dates would come up
for the same star, and excavation should reveal which was correct.
It turned out, however, that over the last 3,800 years precession
of the equinoxes has moved Sirius almost parallel to the celestial
equator, so its rising point had scarcely altered. I substituted Rigel,
at the foot of Orion (see Chap. 8 ), which has moved significantly
(Figs. 5.6 and 8.27 ), and is also the star second most often pointed
out by markers at the ancient sites (Fig. 4.1 ).
At this stage, however, there was a hiatus. Nothing more
could be done in this particular direction until I had a site, or at
least a choice of sites, for which I could produce designs appro-
priate to the groups of events visible from them. But there was
nobody available to tell me how to proceed. It was the end of the
financial year, and the senior people in the Parks Department were
simply too busy to see me. Just looking at the map was no way to
tell what parts of the skyline could be seen from where, and with
one of the largest totals of parkland area among British cities, ran-
dom physical exploration would be a huge task.
Salvation arrived one lunchtime in the shape of Tom Bradley,
one of the Parks personnel assigned to liaison with the Manpower
Services Commission. Tom's job was to make things happen - to
make sure that the innocents like me did get the information and
practical help that they needed from within the formal structure of
the Parks Department and more generally the District Council. Since
project heads like me were expected to be around for only a year or
less, it was inevitable that much guidance would be needed.
For my unusual requirements, the appropriate authority was
Ronnie Gray, the Principal Landscape Architect, whom I met on