Carnasserie
#19 Â Carnasserie: NM 8345 0080
(Re. possible chance (unindicated) alignments)
(This is a lunar site, the stone pair indicating an alignment to the south. Fully written up earlier.)
There are mountains/ hills round the eastern part of the horizon. The following photographs are of the these parts of the horizon.
One 'near miss' alignment was found to the NE. (See Comments later)
Comments
As discussed in detail in Apparent Alignments with no 'Wobble', it is not believed that intentional such alignments exist except in combination with an alignment for ±Δ . [How can it be known when the no 'wobble' position is if the 'wobble' is not known?While Thom's suggestion re the use of such alignments is possible (Thom & Thom 1980, p S84; A.S Thom in Ruggles and Whittle 1981, p45 ), it remains the case that for reliable alignments, they only occur in combination with a ±Δ alignment.]
The declination of the base of the sharp notch is -23° 53'.3, which is very close to the value deduced by Thom of -23° 54'.2 ± 0'.7
i.e. around 1700BC, the sun's centre would have risen in the base of the notch at the winter solstice. However as with the moon we cannot accurately observe the centre of the sun. For the sun the upper limb would be preferable to avoid glare.