Join Overlook Mountain Center on the Woodstock Village Green on Saturday, December 22nd at 7 am (sunrise is at 7:21), to watch the winter solstice sun rise up Mill Hill Rd.
Do Mill Hill Road, Tinker Street and Rock City Road converge to create a giant cosmic compass and calendar?
The center of Woodstock, which lies at the base of Overlook Mountain, is at the intersection of three roads, which converge at the Village Green. This is a scenario found in countless small towns throughout America. Upon closely measuring the angle of the roads on a map, and their bearing relative to 0 degrees (azimuth), we can determine if they align with where the Sun would appear to rise and set on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes and summer and winter solstices.
As it turns out, checking with a protractor on a map or compass in the field, the 3 roads that converge in Woodstock, Mill Hill Road, Tinker street and Rock City Road, all seem to conform to this pattern. Standing in the center of town on the shortest day of the year, looking down Mill Hill Rd, looking toward the southeast we would see the sun rise on the horizon nearly perfectly aligned with the roadway. Looking up Mill Hill Rd. from the southeast on the longest day of the year (June 21st), we would see the summer solstice sun setting at the top of the hill, in the center of town. If standing in the center of town on the spring or fall equinox, when day and night are equally divided into dark and light, we would view the sun setting due west, along Tinker St. (Rt. 212) on equinox sunset. And, if turned around standing opposite, we’d view the rising sun due east, on the equinox morning, along Rt. 212, also known as the Bearsville Flats, as the road runs perfectly straight for a mile heading west out of town. And finally, Rock City Rd., from the center of Woodstock heads perfectly true north, before beginning to wind its way up Overlook Mountain to the Tibetan monastery at the auto road summit. Join us next Saturday to find out more about this intriguing mystery
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