Image by Steve Alexander © 2007

This backwards S made out of Vesica-like eclipses in young wheat looked about two days old when I flew over it yesterday (June 14th). It’s on top of the hill close to the Westbury White Horse in a field which is adjacent to a big chalk mine (easy to spot on the Ordnance map).

Unfortunately it was late in the day and very overcast when I flew, so I had to apply so much contrast in Photoshop that the colour looks artificial. This is sort of what it would look like if there had been sun.

- Peter Sorensen

Does Westbury Hill illustrate a 19-year Metonic cycle of our Moon?

A serpentine series of 19 crescent-like spheres appeared at Westbury on June 14. Such crescent-like spheres are often used to illustrate certain time-dependent phases of our Moon, as shown below for the photograph of a lunar eclipse.

In this case, however, none of the spheres shown at Westbury seem to indicate any kind of eclipse. Instead, we can see 19 crescent-like spheres that have been arranged into some kind of wave-like series. These observations suggest that the crop artists may be trying to illustrate a 19-year Metonic cycle of our Moon.

On that assumption, I labelled the new Westbury picture with red numbers from 1 to 19 to signify years. Next I added three white dashed lines to signify a maximum astronomical declination of 28 degrees at its last major standstill (2005), a minimum declination of 18 degrees at its next minor standstill (2015), or an intermediate declination of 23 degrees in 2010 or 2020.

Megalithic astronomy seems to represent a common theme in many recent crop pictures. For example, a 19-year Metonic cycle of our Moon was likewise indicated at Avebury Ring on July 27, 2005 by adding 19 mini circles to its central most part. Then in Belgium on June 16, 2007, a new six-fold symmetric "flower" appeared, suggestive of Windmill Hill from July 18, 2002. .Both of those pictures could plausibly represent a six-season megalithic calendar, as used in the British Isles thousands of years ago.