Glossary - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 301

Glossary
Alignment Two or more objects marking the sight-line to an event such
as the rising of a celestial body.
Altitude The distance of a heavenly body above or below the observer's
horizon, measured in degrees and minutes.
Altazimuth Coordinates The position of a heavenly body in altitude and
azimuth.
Amesbury Archer A.k.a. 'the King of Stonehenge': a man aged 35-45,
buried c. 2300 b. c. 3 miles from Stonehenge, with archer's equipment,
gold earrings and other marks of high status. He came from central
Europe, probably Switzerland, and was missing a kneecap, probably from
before he came to England.
Arran See Machrie Moor.
Asterism A grouping of stars, often in a distinctive shape such as the
Summer Triangle or 'The Teapot' in Sagittarius. All constellations are
asterisms, but not all asterisms are constellations.
ASTRA Scotland's national spaceflight society, founded in 1953 by
the late Prof. Oscar Schwiglhofer as a Scottish branch of the British In-
terplanetary Society, becoming independent in 1963 and The Association
in Scotland to Research into Astronautics Limited since 1976.
Aubrey Holes Exactly 56 pits within the ditch and bank of Stonehenge
I, discovered by the Elizabethan/Stuart diarist John Aubrey, thought by
Gerald Hawkins and Sir Fred Hoyle to function as an eclipse predictor.
Avebury The largest English henge monument, by Silbury Hill and due
north of Stonehenge, with an initially huge ditch and bank ringed on
the inside by sarsen stones, enclosing two smaller stone circles, and bro-
ken by four entrances, two of which were ceremonial avenues flanked by
standing stones.
Azimuth The bearing of a celestial body measured from true north, either
up to 360° (going eastward) or up to 180° east and west.