PLEASE NOTE THE
CHANGE OF DATE SEE MY WRITTEN NOTE
Winter Solstice
2010 Saturday 23/01/2010
Here is another early start for you
all, Solstice with the Stones. Keith Richards and Charlie Watts
will not be joining us, the title refers to the Stone Circle on
Cheetham Close hill!
2008 - Round Loaf
Conditions - Perfectly
clear, and crisp
Attendees -
9
Sunrise Visible
- ü
2009
- Winter Hill
Conditions -
Freezing, strange combinations of Ice,Snow and Fog
Attendees -
45
Sunrise Visible
- û
2010 - Cheetham
Close
Conditions - Fog,mist,
and a strange cloud inversion.
Attendees -
54
Sunrise Visible
Amazingly it was
The Plan
The aim is to reach the published coordinates ( Druidal
Circle Trig Point) at the start of Nautical Twilight. On this date
that will be 6.56am. Meet at the waymarked coordinates The Last
Drop Village (N53° 37.340 W2° 25.155) at 5.45am. Unlike
last year we have a big car park at our disposal. We aim to leave
no later than 6.00am. The Last Drop Village is quite big and has a
number of car parks. These coordinates are for the path from the
Last Drop that we start from so park near
these!
The Path
Roll Call
Its very difficult to
see who's who in the dark, and last year quite a few people
attended who don't usually come to events, so just so we
know who everybody is and so we know if we need to wait
for anyone (can't wait too long after 6.00am or we will miss
sunrise) I will do a roll call of people who have logged a will
attend. If your name isn't on the list for whatever reason then its
no problem whatsoever.
Winter Solstice
This event has become
associated with the Winter Solstice due to the play on words of
last years event title (Winter Hill Solstice). In actual fact the
Winter Solstice has already occured by this time (21st December).
The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal
of the gradually lengthening nights and shortening days. Worldwide,
interpretation of the event has varied from culture to culture, but
most cultures have held a recognition of rebirth, involving
holidays, festivals, gatherings,rituals or other celebrations
around that time. As with previous years this event is timed to
match the latest sunrise of the year. It may be a surprise that
this does not coincide with the shortest day.
Here is why.
Sun Rise
Whilst people often
refer to "being up before sunrise" at actual sunrise it will have
been day light for a good while. The defintions of twilight
are
Astronomical Twilight
- The fainter celestial objects start to dissapear - on the day of
the walk this will start at 6-13am
Nautical Twilight -
The horizon becomes visible so sailors are able to navigate using
well known stars. On 10th January this will be at 6-56 am.
Civil Twilight - This
is what we refer to as dawn. By law its the time you are allowed to
switch of your headlamps! As stated this will be 7.41am
Official Sunrise-
(i.e. when you can see the Sun's disk) will be at 8.20
am.
Cheetham Close and Druidal
Circle
The trig point is named Druidal
Circle for good reason, there is a stone circle up here. It's one
my favourite hills of the many that Bolton has dotted around it.
It's a fantastic 360 degree view and I always feel the place has a
mystical air about it. I've been up here numerous times but when I
came up with George to spec out the route it was my first ever
geocaching trip up here.
What is really frustrating is that
once the stone circle was quite a remarkable one but in 1871 a
farmer who wanted to deter people from walking on his land decided
to smash the stones and now only remnamts of it remain. I do hope
to guide people to it on the walk when daylight arrives. What I
found that was interesting was that like trig points you can log
stone circles on a enthusiast's site. Here is the entry for
Cheetham
Close. Here is another Cheetham
Close page.
And Finally
Last year it was very
very cold. So cold that people's drinks froze, everything froze,
even Popup Pirate's hair (as he had rather impressively found time
to wash it even after getting up very early). Please wrap up, and
this is rather stating the obvious but it will be dark, bring a
torch.
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