Winter solstice --- Newgrange

Conn Buckley · Post by **Conn Buckley** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 8:24 pm

With the Winter solstice coming up shortly --just to let you know that our Limerick Leader weekly astronomy article on week ending 9th December will be about Newgrange. This one was written by SAC member Denis O'Mahony.
I paid a visit to Newgrange earlier this week and found it most impressive -- I would recommend it. Although , at this time of the year only Newgrange itself is open (Knowth and Dowth are closed in the winter season).
To give some perspective to Newgrange it is worth considering that it is over 5,000 years old and was built some 1,000 years before Stonehenge and 1,500 years before the Pyramids of Egypt.
The inner chamber where sunlight reaches on the winter solstice holds about 20 people. A lottery decides which 20 people and last year 27,000 people applied. Imagine your luck if you were one of the 20 and then get clouded out. It puts our disappointment at observing session cloudouts into perspective.
It gets plenty of coverage on radio and TV.

Conn Buckley · Post by **Conn Buckley** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 9:50 pm

I heard on the radio that they had a very successful day at Newgrange today for the winter solstice. It was also broadcast live on the web. Unfortunately the site broke down due to too many trying to access -- a staggering 300,000 trying to access!!!

Who says astronomy is a minority interest

Dave Lillis · Post by **Dave Lillis** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:13 am

It should be on TV really, I would have liked to have seen that.