Post by Moon Seeker on Nov 30, 2005 11:44:41 GMT -5
In Ohio, vantage point's the best for a lunar rising
In Ohio, vantage point's the best for a lunar rising
An American Indian observatory will host hundreds.
By Julie Shaw
Inquirer Suburban Staff
Two thousand years ago, a group of American Indians built a vast lunar observatory that to this day accurately predicts where the moon will rise.
And this weekend, hundreds and possibly thousands of people will descend upon Newark, Ohio, to see those predictions come true.
They will stand at one end of what's known as the Octagon Earthworks, a lunar observatory built of the earth itself. They will look across the 20-acre circle and beyond a connecting 50-acre octagon to a spot where the moon is expected to rise at its northernmost point on the eastern horizon.
This happens once every 18.6 years.
While the exact date for the northernmost rising will be Sept. 14, 2006, the event is being celebrated this year on Oct. 22.
It will be a major day, attracting astronomers, archaeologists, American Indians, students, and others to the site 40 miles east of Columbus.
The Octagon Earthworks, built by American Indians two millennia ago, is part of the Newark Earthworks, which in its heyday covered four square miles.
Ray Hively, professor of astronomy and physics at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., and his colleague, Robert Horn, a philosophy professor, were the first to publish a paper, in 1982, confirming that the Octagon Earthworks is precisely aligned to the moon's rising and setting.
Last year, using a computer program they wrote, they tested the lunar alignments of more than 100 billion randomly drawn octagons. They found that the probability was one in a million that a randomly drawn octagon would align accurately to the moon's path.
Their earlier research contributed to the Newark Earthworks' being listed in The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World, published in 1999.
Still, the Octagon Earthworks hasn't captured people's attention like Mayan, Aztec or Incan temples, whose structures were built more to align with the sun than the moon.
The Octagon Earthworks is a "geometric and astronomic achievement," said Bradley Lepper, archaeologist at the Ohio Historical Society. "But it's not as grand to Western sensibilities. It doesn't shoot out into the sky like a temple. It's splayed out over a vast area. For that reason, there's a bias that it's just a lump of earth."
Access to the Octagon Earthworks is also more limited than the celebrated ruins of Latin America. The private Moundbuilders Country Club, which opened in 1911 and leases the site, built a golf course on it.
The Ohio Historical Society acquired the site in 1933 and continued to lease it to the club. This has angered many, including American Indians, who believe the ground is sacred.
Richard Shiels, associate professor of history at the Newark campus of Ohio State University, wants more people to know about the Octagon's significance. He leads a coalition that is organizing Saturday's all-day Octagon Moonrise event.
He expects 3,000 to 4,000 people to come. Lepper is more conservative, hoping for 500.
The difference between the moonrise on Saturday and the one on Sept. 14, 2006, "will not be noticeable to the unaided naked-eye observer," said Hively.
From October 2005 to October 2006, he explained, the moon's monthly extreme rise and set points are very close to the maximum extreme in the 18.6-year cycle.
Shiels said there are several times during that 12-month period when the moon's northern rise will take place on a clear night when the moon is nearly full.
Oct. 22 is one of those dates. And it falls on a Saturday, allowing more people to attend the nighttime viewing.
Merry Hapi, who is of American Indian ancestry, will be there. She's the former education specialist for the Ohio Historical Society in Newark.
The Octagon site, she said, is "probably as important to the Native American people as the Vatican is to Catholics. I suspect this was a place where people went for vision, for all kinds of ceremony, to purify the soul."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact suburban staff writer Julie Shaw at 610-313-8212 or jshaw@phillynews.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Octagon Moonrise
When: Saturday
Where: Octagon Earthworks, Newark, Ohio. Buses will leave from the Newark campus of Ohio State University starting at 7:30 p.m. to view the 10:13 p.m. moonrise. There will also be daytime events beginning at 10 a.m. at the campus.
For details: www.octagonmoonrise.org
www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/health/12920614.htm
In Ohio, vantage point's the best for a lunar rising
An American Indian observatory will host hundreds.
By Julie Shaw
Inquirer Suburban Staff
Two thousand years ago, a group of American Indians built a vast lunar observatory that to this day accurately predicts where the moon will rise.
And this weekend, hundreds and possibly thousands of people will descend upon Newark, Ohio, to see those predictions come true.
They will stand at one end of what's known as the Octagon Earthworks, a lunar observatory built of the earth itself. They will look across the 20-acre circle and beyond a connecting 50-acre octagon to a spot where the moon is expected to rise at its northernmost point on the eastern horizon.
This happens once every 18.6 years.
While the exact date for the northernmost rising will be Sept. 14, 2006, the event is being celebrated this year on Oct. 22.
It will be a major day, attracting astronomers, archaeologists, American Indians, students, and others to the site 40 miles east of Columbus.
The Octagon Earthworks, built by American Indians two millennia ago, is part of the Newark Earthworks, which in its heyday covered four square miles.
Ray Hively, professor of astronomy and physics at Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., and his colleague, Robert Horn, a philosophy professor, were the first to publish a paper, in 1982, confirming that the Octagon Earthworks is precisely aligned to the moon's rising and setting.
Last year, using a computer program they wrote, they tested the lunar alignments of more than 100 billion randomly drawn octagons. They found that the probability was one in a million that a randomly drawn octagon would align accurately to the moon's path.
Their earlier research contributed to the Newark Earthworks' being listed in The Seventy Wonders of the Ancient World, published in 1999.
Still, the Octagon Earthworks hasn't captured people's attention like Mayan, Aztec or Incan temples, whose structures were built more to align with the sun than the moon.
The Octagon Earthworks is a "geometric and astronomic achievement," said Bradley Lepper, archaeologist at the Ohio Historical Society. "But it's not as grand to Western sensibilities. It doesn't shoot out into the sky like a temple. It's splayed out over a vast area. For that reason, there's a bias that it's just a lump of earth."
Access to the Octagon Earthworks is also more limited than the celebrated ruins of Latin America. The private Moundbuilders Country Club, which opened in 1911 and leases the site, built a golf course on it.
The Ohio Historical Society acquired the site in 1933 and continued to lease it to the club. This has angered many, including American Indians, who believe the ground is sacred.
Richard Shiels, associate professor of history at the Newark campus of Ohio State University, wants more people to know about the Octagon's significance. He leads a coalition that is organizing Saturday's all-day Octagon Moonrise event.
He expects 3,000 to 4,000 people to come. Lepper is more conservative, hoping for 500.
The difference between the moonrise on Saturday and the one on Sept. 14, 2006, "will not be noticeable to the unaided naked-eye observer," said Hively.
From October 2005 to October 2006, he explained, the moon's monthly extreme rise and set points are very close to the maximum extreme in the 18.6-year cycle.
Shiels said there are several times during that 12-month period when the moon's northern rise will take place on a clear night when the moon is nearly full.
Oct. 22 is one of those dates. And it falls on a Saturday, allowing more people to attend the nighttime viewing.
Merry Hapi, who is of American Indian ancestry, will be there. She's the former education specialist for the Ohio Historical Society in Newark.
The Octagon site, she said, is "probably as important to the Native American people as the Vatican is to Catholics. I suspect this was a place where people went for vision, for all kinds of ceremony, to purify the soul."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact suburban staff writer Julie Shaw at 610-313-8212 or jshaw@phillynews.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Octagon Moonrise
When: Saturday
Where: Octagon Earthworks, Newark, Ohio. Buses will leave from the Newark campus of Ohio State University starting at 7:30 p.m. to view the 10:13 p.m. moonrise. There will also be daytime events beginning at 10 a.m. at the campus.
For details: www.octagonmoonrise.org
www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/health/12920614.htm