Events on Site - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 254

F IG . 8.28 Restoration of Townhead Church spire, 2001. The stone circle is
on the green hilltop at upper left of center
the twenty-first century Greater Glasgow has adopted a policy
towards light pollution that will see all municipal lighting made
dark-sky compatible, on a replacement basis, within 20 years.
Already the difference is marked, and whereas in Mark Runna-
cles's 2006 photographs the sky background is orange (Fig. 8.23 ),
when he photographed Rigel rising in 2009 the sky was dark blue
(Fig. 8.29 ). As with the northerly moonrise, the star's track pro-
jected backwards meets the true horizon at the calculated point
(Fig. 8.30 ) ; but once again, the calculated track is too steep. On
the actual horizon, the star would come up to the right of where I
predicted. Once again, as with the variations in refraction, it was
a mistake the Neolithic builders could never have made because
they were recording in stone what they actually saw , averaged
over generations of observation.