LOUGHCREW CAIRN L MEGALITHIC MONUMENT

OLDCASTLE, COUNTY MEATH, IRELAND

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS

A "double sunset" annular eclipse was discovered to have occurred on 30th. Nov. 3340BC at the above monument complex as bore out by petroglyphs inside this cairn. This page you're reading outlines the technical details of this and how to see the solar eclipse on Mac computers that have the astronomical software package The Digital Universe (DU) from Sygzgy Research & Technology in Canada

SECONDARY FINDINGS

2 Lunar eclipses occurring in June and December of 3340BC were subsequently discovered as evidenced by glyphs visible inside Cairn L on Stone 19. This is detailed on the next page of this article.

FINAL FINDINGS

1. The underlying astronomical software, the Digital Universe (DU) was checked against JPL's (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California , USA) on line "Horizons" ephemeris, the most accurate ephemeris on the planet and found to be itself very accurate. No errors were found within the DU that would undermine these eclipse discoveries from a technical point of view.

2. A sweep of a period between 4500 BC and 2000 BC under a range of Delta T times (4148 => 211,853 secs.) using a variable Delta T manual input (this overrides the resident fixed Delta T program) and an azimuth range of 113° to 122° was conducted by me to try to find a Doppelganger eclipse that would replicate the solar eclipse of 3340BC . No other eclipse matched the 3340BC one, therefore this is a valid discovery along with the lunar eclipses. These Neolithic eclipses occur at a lunar orbital acceleration of - 23.89461 arcseconds per Julian Century squared ( " /cy²) which is a combination of the DU's Lunar theory of motion (ELP 2000 85 model) at - 23.8946 "/cy² and a Delta T fixed formula of 1830 - 405t + 46.5t² (where t = centuries from 948 AD) with a lunar orbital acceleration of - 26.0000 "/cy².

3. These are the first discovered Neolithic eclipse recordings on stone and verify that :-

(A) The lunar orbital acceleration of the moon in Neolithic times was slower in comparison to the last 18 years based on Apollo Lunar Lazer ranging devices left on the moon.

(B) This confirms Fred Espenak's (www.Mreclipse.com) statement that " the secular acceleration of the moon (lunar orbital acceleration) may not be a constant over time".

(C) The Neolithic eclipses are the equivalent of the pure Tidal braking quadratic measurements of (-20) + (42 +/- 2)t² secs IF the lunar orbital acceleration was set at - 26.0000 "/cy². These Neolithic eclipses when converted from a polynominal Delta T formula to a quadratic one gives us a measurement of 39 +/- 0.3t² (where t = centuries from 1820 AD) which corresponds to the minimal value of the tidal braking above. This confirms Fred Espenak's supposition that any eclipse found prior to 2000 BC would need to be of a pure tidal braking component based on Stephenson & Morrison's assumption of a - 26.000 "/cy² for the lunar orbital acceleration in their eclipse modelling.

4. Profs. Stephenson & Morrison's eclipse modelling based on the assumption of a lunar tidal acceleration of - 26.0000"/cy² goes as far back as 2300 BC . This leaves the Neolithic and Late Bronze Age period open for new modelling based on a different lunar orbital acceleration( - 23.89461"/cy²:). I suggest a tentative 300 years before and after 3340BC (3640BC - 3040BC) for such a new model.These findings are discussed in the rest of this article.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Special thanks goes to Dan Charrios and his team at Sygzgy Research & Technology for putting up the initial discovery web page. Many special thanks to Dr. Bernd Pfeiffer of the University of Mainz, Germany for submission of the 1995 scientific papers of Profs. Stephenson and Morrison and for introducing me to his web site on the history of Delta T measurement.

DOUBLE SUNSET SOLAR ECLIPSE 3340BC NOV 30TH

CONFIRMATION OF WORLD'S OLDEST

SOLAR & LUNAR ECLIPSE RECORDINGS IN STONE

Irish Archaeoastronomer, Paul Griffin, has announced the confirmation of the world's oldest solar eclipse recording, substantially older than the recordings made in 2800BC by Chinese astronomers. This finding was made at the world's oldest lunar eclipse tracking multi-cairn site at the Loughcrew Cairn L Megalithic Monument in Ireland, and corresponds to a solar eclipse which occurred and was recorded on November 30th, 3340BC.

Special thanks to Dan Charrios and his team at Sygzgy Research & Technology for all their assistance in the technical areas and placing the initial technical page at Sygzgy Research.Many special thanks to Professor Bernd Pfeiffer of Mainz University, Germany for access to Professors Stephenson & Morrison's Historical Eclipses Royal Society of London 1995 papers and JPL abstracts for Chinese eclipses from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Pasadena,California, USA. There is a technical page at www.syz.com/DU/3340eclipse/

This is an UPDATED version of the technical page site.

This is also similiar to a Tritos/Nova Lunation combination

Tritos 10.9 years 3986.63 days

2 x Nova Lunation 59.06 days

--------------- Total 4045.69 days

DETAILS OF THE EVENT :

The location of the site is situated at 53.7441° North Latitude and 7.1325° West Longitude, approximately 244metres above sea level. Assuming an extrapolated Delta T(difference between Universal and Dynamic Time) of 104610 seconds the New Moon rises at 113° 51 mins azimuth, at - 0° 07 mins altitude, time 7: 29 :19 UT 3340 BC Nov 30th. The upper limb of the Sun rises a half hour later, at 7: 54: 52 UT, at 117° 21 mins azimuth, at - 0° 06 mins altitude

The following images compare the view of the scene as it would have appeared a couple of minutes later (8: 02: 25 UT), as rendered by the Digital Universe software, and as engraved by the Neolithic astronomers on Stone 20 in Cairn L (the diagram can be found in the book, "The Stones of Time" by Martin Brennan on page 110). Note that on the following comparison images, the Digital Universe has been configured to include the effects of the blue sky ( to make the location of the New Moon more easily visible), and to disregard the position of the stars, which would not have been visible except for a few bright ones at the moment of mid eclipse.

At 16: 03: 26 UT , the event is shown at mid eclipse. It is compared to a stone engraving located on the back wall of the chamber of Cairn T of this complex, approximately a half mile from Cairn L.

At the point of mid eclipse, the Moon's solar elongation is a mere 0.001°, making the site very near the central line of the eclipse. The eclipse can be seen by the Digital Universe as being annular. The Sun's semidiameter was calculated as being 16.2508 arcminutes, producing a visible surface of 3.14159 X 16.2508² = 829.658 square arcminutes. The Moon's semidiameter was 16.1035 arcminutes, producing an obscuring surface of 3.14159 X 16.1035² = 814.686 square arcminutes. Thus , only (829.658 - 814.686)/ 829.658 = 1.8% of the Sun's light would be reaching the surface. Despite the fact that the eclipse was not truly total, the annularity was so close to being total that the event may have darkened the sky sufficiently so that the solar corona may have been visible.

The diagram etched on the back wall of Cairn T can be found in the book "Light Years Ago" , by Tim O'Brien, on page 40. It shows various radial diagrams , including universal Sun symbols with possible solar corona emissions and prominences.

At 16: 50 UT , the Sun and Moon set together while still in partial eclipse. A diagram depicting this event is etched onto Stone 19 behind the right hand recess basin of Cairn L.

Eclipse Icon 3340BC

The flattened appearance of the Sun and Moon in the Digital Universe rendering is due to the refractive effects of the Earth's atmosphere when the objects approach the horizon (represented by the green band across the bottom of the image).

A stone pillar inside the cairn is shown in the photograph below , taken by the author in the 1980s. On Nov. 3rd, 1980 AD the sun had just risen above the horizon, at an azimuth of 116.5°. This was witnessed by Martin Brennan and Jack Roberts in their book, "The Stones of Time". Brennan states that the sun would strike the pillar directly on or about Nov 8th of every year at sunrise, at an azimuth of approximately 119.25°

This holds true in current times , but due to precession, the alignment in 3340BC was slightly different. The next morning after the eclipse (Dec. 1st, 3340BC), the sun would have fully emerged above the horizon at 8: 04:35 UT . At that moment the sun's azimuth was 119° , which meant that it would have beamed directly onto the pillar. The pillar may have been placed in its location to comemorate the event of the sun's reappearance the next morning.

Any readers with the Digital Universe astronomy software from Syzygy Research & Technology can visually see these events much like the ancient Neolithic peoples did.

INSTRUCTIONS:- In the program, choose ENVIRONMENT from the SETTINGS menu. Select the region entitled "Europe", click on , then enter the Longitude, latitude and altitude as 53.7441N, 7.1325W, 244m(enter alt numbers from numeric keypad) (small m here) respectively. Choose Greenwich Mean Time from the TIME ZONE list,or +0:00 offset from UT, then click the 'OK' button to dismiss the window

Choose DISPLAY from the SETTINGS menu. Turn on the option to simulate twilight(AT SUNRISE ONLY) and deselect all objects (Stars, Deep SKY Objects etc.) except Planets and Moons. As the Digital Universe contains information on approximately 20 million objects , most of which are stars, deselecting everything except planets and moons dramatically speeds up the software when dealing with times in the far past or future like this.

Turn on all the PRECISION options (precession, proper motion, nutation, aberration, and refraction). Select a translucent or opaque horizon, as well as altitude/azimuth marks or grid if desired to help visualize where the events take place in the sky. Then click on the OK button to dismiss rhis window as well.

Choose TIME from the SETTINGS menu. In the LOCAL MEAN TIME box enter -3340/11/30 and the various times quoted above. Enter the word DATE (in capitals) in the EPOCH box and click the ΔT Estimate button (this step is very important, as it tells the Digital Universe to consider effects related to irregularities in the earth' s rate of rotation that are necessary for accurate calculations in the far past and future). If you click on LOCK ONTO OBJECT and then select SUN from the list that appears, the software will help your display centred on the SUN as you explore the events through time.

You can zoom in and out to various fields of view by pressing one of the numeric keys on your keyboard(not the numeric keypad) or by clicking the mouse at the centre of a region you want to zoom in on and then dragging the mouse out to define a new field of view.

To see the BROKEN RING EFFECT of the eclipse at mideclipse key in 16:03:26 in the TIME from the Settings menu. LOCK ONTO OBJECT, choose the Sun(if you haven't already) and click OK to dismiss this window. Key in number 3 or 4 on your keyboard. Choose FIND from top of screen. Select Moon, click OK to dismiss this window. Now you should have a 'crosshairs' over eclipse. Place your cursor over crosshairs and holding down mouse drag mouse left or right to frame a small window around the objects. Make sure the frame is a uniform box with no lines broken above or below other lines. Then release mouse and a new enlarged image appears. You can experiment with the numbers 3 or 4 for variations on the broken ring effect. Some of the ways to pan around the sky include holding down the SHIFT key while clicking the mouse at the point you want to centre or bringing up the MOTION CONTROL panel. The easiest way to move back and forth in time is to use the TIME control panel.