A crop picture at Oliver’s Castle on April 24, 2017 seems to show the schematic image of a “total solar eclipse”, with 27 short “rays of light” or “Bailey’s beads” arranged regularly around the outside. It may refer to an upcoming solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Such “beads” also resemble a ring of 28 “Aubrey holes”, which were used to predict eclipses at Stonehenge or other megalithic sites long ago.   

A new crop picture which appeared near Oliver’s Castle on April 24, 2017 looks very good on the ground, in terms of its gently-flattened lay (see photos or www.youtube.com or www.youtube.com). Most oilseed rape plants there remain fluffy and partly erect, just as if they had been patterned gently by paranormal energies, rather than being pressed hard against the ground by “rope and boards”.  

The visual impression of a “yellow, shining Sun”  

The new crop picture shows 27 “small circles” of erect standing crop, as well as one large, thin circle of flattened crop, around its outer perimeter. Those 27 “small circles” are interspersed with 27 “short rays of light”. These two motifs together give the visual impression of a “yellow, shining Sun”.  

Quite surprisingly, it appeared in the same field where another crop picture, which showed a series of “lunar crescents” arranged in parallel, appeared on April 15, 2007, just tens of meters away (see www.lucypringle.co.uk). Perhaps we are being asked by the crop artists to combine both crop pictures from 2017 and 2007, in order to understand more clearly what they are trying to tell us? Another recent crop picture, which appeared near the top of Waden Hill on April 22, 2017 (see waden hill), was drawn not far from where a similar field image had appeared in April of 2008 (see www.lucypringle.co.uk).  

When two crop pictures from Oliver’s Castle in 2017 or 2007 are studied together, we can see the image of a ”total solar eclipse” 

Now when we study both crop pictures together, from the same field on top of Oliver’s Castle in April 2017 or April 2007, we can see the combined image of a “total solar eclipse”. Their first crop picture in 2007 showed a series of “lunar crescents” arranged in parallel. It looks like a “crescent Moon” which is moving slowly toward our Sun, just before the totality of an eclipse. Their second crop picture in 2017 shows a series of 27 “small circles” or “short rays of light” around the outside. It looks like a “yellow, shining Sun” which forms the other part of an eclipse.  

In fact, those 27 “small circles”, which are spread along the outer perimeter of this new 2017 crop picture, resemble the “Baily’s beads of light” which are seen sometimes during a total solar eclipse. Our Moon may be surrounded by “Baily’s beads” during any total eclipse of the Sun:  

What are “Baily’s beads”?  

What are “Baily’s beads”? They were first noticed by the astronomer Edmund Halley during a total solar eclipse in 1715. Yet the phenomenon was not understood properly until 1836, when another astronomer called “Francis Baily” suggested that such “beads of light” were due to an uneven topography along the surface of our Moon, which causes the Sun’s background light during an eclipse to pass by its edges in an irregular fashion. In other words, when our Moon passes in front of the Sun during a total solar eclipse, then a rugged and uneven topography along our Moon’s surface allows certain narrow “beads” of light to shine toward Earth, in some places but not others (see www.youtube.com or observe eclipses).  

The next total solar eclipse as seen on Earth will be on August 21, 2017. It will be watched keenly by millions of people across the USA (see   eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov or total-solar-eclipse-2017-guide). In fact, it will be the most widely-watched “total solar eclipse” over the mainland USA for the past 99 years.  

Why did those crop artists draw 27 “small circles” around the outside?  

Why did those unseen crop artists draw 27 “small circles” or “Baily beads of light” around the outside of their new crop picture? We cannot know for sure, but might guess that it was to call attention to the next “new” phase of our Moon on April 27. That is when our Moon will next pass between the Sun and the Earth, although it will not “eclipse” the Sun directly for another four lunar months until August 21:  

Since we are discussing “eclipses”, we might expect to see 28 “small circles” drawn around the outside of this crop picture. That is how many “holes” or “movable markers” must be arranged into the shape of a “ring”, in order to predict eclipses by a “sidereal” Sun-Moon calendar (see stonehenge eclipses). The famous “Aubrey holes” at Stonehenge include 56 = 2 x 28 (see aubrey-holes), because people who lived in southern England long ago discovered a slightly more accurate way of making such calculations.  

Their 2007 crop picture at Oliver’s Castle showed a series of “lunar crescents” arranged in parallel  

Let us now examine more closely that crop picture from 2007, which was drawn in almost the same field location as our new example from 2017 (see www.lucypringle.co.uk). Their 2007 crop picture showed a series of “lunar crescents” arranged in parallel. These resemble the time-dependent path of our Moon, as it moves slowly in front of our Sun during a total solar eclipse:  

Comparing the field locations of crop pictures at Oliver’s Castle in April of 2017 or April of 2007  

Let us now compare the field locations of those 2017 or 2007 crop pictures even more accurately and directly. Their 2007 crop picture was drawn along the same crop tramline as the new one in 2017, except it was shifted slightly further away from the far side of the field, where we can see a curving line of six tall trees:  

Placing the images of both crop pictures from 2017 or 2007 in their precise landscape locations using Google Earth  

Using Google Earth, we next tried to reconstruct exactly where those two crop pictures were drawn in the field, whether in 2017 (black and white) or in 2007 (yellow):  

Now we can see that those two crop pictures overlap partly with one another, just like for a “Vesica Piscis” (see Vesica_piscis). This is the kind of geometry which leads to a “total eclipse”. 

Reconstructing the various stages of a “total solar eclipse” by using both crop pictures together with different overlaps 

Finally we decided to reconstruct the various stages of a “total solar eclipse”, by placing that 2007 crop picture (which represents our “Moon”) over the new one from 2017 (which represents our “Sun”), while using a series of different left-to-right overlaps:  

Once our Sun becomes fully eclipsed by the Moon, which is almost exactly of the same angular diameter when seen from Earth, then we can sometimes see a series of “Baily’s beads of light” around the surface of our Moon. Such “beads” come about, because background light from our Sun may pass by the Moon irregularly, depending on local “high” or “low” features of the local lunar surface.  

Their 2017 crop picture was drawn as the “eye” of a landscape “bird” which is looking west, toward where a partial solar eclipse will take place at sunset in England on August 21, 2017  

Finally we asked, using Google Earth, where this 2017 crop picture (at latitude 51.382^o N and longitude 1.998^o W) might have been drawn relative to other features of the broad landscape nearby? By studying such images carefully (not shown), we found that the 2017 crop picture was drawn close to the figurative “eye” of a large “bird” shape in the  landscape. Two large trees and a pointed hill, just to the west of this crop picture, might be that bird’s “two nostrils” and “pointed beak”.  

Such a metaphorical “bird” should be able to “see” clearly an upcoming solar eclipse, when he looks westward from anywhere in the USA on August 21, 2017 around 1827 UTC. A partial eclipse may still be seen in southern England on August 21, low in the west-northwest, from high viewing locations (see staging.timeanddate.com or www.vercalendario.info).  

Several other interesting details 

Several other interesting details might be mentioned here. First, an “eclipse” sequence from the introduction to “Star Trek Voyager” shows a “Baily’s bead of light” at time 1:20 (see www.youtube.com).  

Next, those 27 “small circles” were drawn asymmetrically around the outer perimeter of this new crop picture, or across five different tramlines with 8, 4, 4, 4 or 7 “beads” within each section of standing crop. The Mayan calendar date for April 27, 2017 as a “new Moon” is 0.0.4.7.8.  

Finally, Oliver’s Castle was the site of a famous battle in 1643 during the English civil war (see Battle_of_Roundway_Down).  

To conclude, this new crop picture seems to suggest that “our yellow, brightly-shining Sun will show many ‘Baily’s beads’ of light during the next total solar eclipse of August 21, 2017”, which will be four lunar months after the next “new Moon” of April 27.  

Red Collie (Dr. Horace R. Drew)  

P.S. Many thanks to Matthew Williams and Hugh Newman for aerial photographs of the 2017 crop picture at Oliver’s Castle, and to Lucy Pringle for aerial photographs of a 2007 crop picture there.

Why were only 27 “small circles” drawn in crops at Oliver’s Castle, if the crop artists wished to suggest “eclipse prediction” by a Sun-Moon calendar which uses 28 markers around a central Earth? Probably because a bright star Regulus will be located in Earth’s sky near our Sun and Moon as the extra “28^th circle”, during an upcoming solar eclipse on August 21, 2017.   

According to the principles of megalithic astronomy, 28 “holes” may be dug into the shape of a “large ring”, and then used in combination with three “movable markers”, in order to accurately predict eclipses by means of an Earth-centred, Sun-Moon calendar (see stonehenge eclipses): 

“Anyone who has ever tried to make a model of how the Sun and Moon move around the zodiac will end up, most simply, with a circle of 28 markers around a central Earth. Moving a ‘Moon marker’ by one position per day, and a ‘Sun marker’ by one position every 13 days, then provides a calendar accurate to 98%.”   

Other Sun-Moon calendars, for example the famous “Aubrey holes” at Stonehenge, have included 28 x 2 = 56 holes for greater accuracy: 

“By doubling the size of this Sun-Moon calendar to 56 markers, we can obtain an accuracy of 99.8%. This enables eclipses to be predicted with high accuracy. Every year for about 34 days, both full and new Moons will be located near the Sun’s path through the sky (the ecliptic), and eclipses will occur.”  

Professors Gerald Hawkins and Fred Hoyle discovered how those 56 “Aubrey holes” can predict eclipses, back in the 1960’s or 1970’s (see aubrey-holes). For a solar eclipse, the “Moon” and “Sun” markers of such a calendar must lie in the same hole, as well as in (or next to) the hole of a “node” marker. For a lunar eclipse, the “Moon” and “Sun” markers must lie in opposite holes, as well as in (or next to) the hole of a “node” marker.  

If those “Moon” and “Sun” markers do not lie in (or next to) the hole of a “node” marker, when they coincide or oppose, then we only see “new” or “full” Moons, because the two planes of our Sun’s or Moon’s motions “around” the Earth do not overlap precisely in three dimensions.  

A schematic image of Stonehenge and its “Avenue” was drawn in crops near Cherhill on April 16, 2017 (see  cherhill comments).  

The simplest kind of Earth-centred, Sun-Moon calendar appeared in crops at Oliver’s Castle on April 24, 2017  

Now a crop picture which appeared near Oliver’s Castle on April 24, 2017 clearly resembles a 28-hole, eclipse-prediction calendar, which is exactly half the size of a 56-marker “Aubrey holes” calendar, that was dug out at Stonehenge long ago. We can see the schematic image of such a 28-hole “calendar” in the slide below at upper left, and compare it with an aerial photograph of the new crop picture at upper right:  

This 28-hole “calendar” seems to be a good match to the new crop picture! Perhaps the two movable Sun or Moon “markers” of that crop-drawn “calendar” are being represented by two tall trees, just in front of where the crop picture was drawn? 

Many “small circles” around the outside of this crop picture could also be interpreted as “Baily’s beads of light”, which sometimes appear around our Sun and Moon during a total solar eclipse. 

Why does our crop-drawn “calendar” contain just 27 rather than 28 “holes”?  

We soon learned, after counting to find the exact number of “small circles”, that this crop picture contains just 27 “holes” around its outer perimeter. One would expect 28 “holes” for the simplest Earth-centred, Sun-Moon calendar. What might be causing the discrepancy? 

It turns out that one of those 28 “small circles” seems to be “missing”, along the right-hand side of this crop picture, where it lies close to two tall trees (see above on the right). We can count 8, 4, 4, 4 or 7 “small circles” in its five vertical sections, while going from left to right across six crop tramlines. There should be 8, 4, 4, 4 or 8 “small circles” in each section for a 28-hole “calendar”. The width of standing crop between “small circles”, near those two trees, appears slightly greater than in other locations.  

Two tall trees nearby could symbolize our “Sun” and “Moon” as “movable markers” in an eclipse-prediction calendar  

Two tall trees which are located nearby could symbolize our “Sun” and “Moon”, joined together in Earth’s sky during a solar eclipse. They might also symbolize the “Sun marker” and “Moon marker” from a 28-hole, eclipse-prediction “calendar”. Both the “Sun marker” and “Moon marker” need to lie in the “same hole” on the “same day” (and also near a “node” marker), in order to accurately predict an eclipse.  

Please see the schematic diagram of a 28-hole Sun-Moon calendar with its two tall “markers”, shown in the slide above at upper left, or feel free to study a more detailed explanation here (see stonehenge eclipses).  

A “sky map” of the next total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 shows a bright star Regulus, next to our Sun and Moon  

Since this crop picture relates to “eclipses”, we decided to investigate the discrepancy between 28 versus 27 “small circles” by calculating a “sky map”, for the next total solar eclipse which will take place on Earth. It will be seen over the continental U.S.A. on August 21, 2017 for several hours, with totality around 1826 UTC. Quite surprisingly, we learned from this sky map that our Sun and Moon will eclipse in Earth’s sky next to a bright star Regulus on that day (as shown below on the right):  

That bright star Regulus lies along a “large yellow ring”, which could been drawn around the eclipsed Sun and Moon. Thus the nearby star Regulus might well be considered as an extra “28^th circle”.   

In astronomical terms, it may appear to an observer on Earth, during the three-minute darkness of that August 21 eclipse, that one extra “small circle” (the star Regulus) is being “added” to 27 other “small circles”, which may already be present as bright “Baily’s beads” around the eclipsed disc of Sun and Moon.  

The flattened form and landscape geometry of this new crop picture are shown above on the left, and encircled there in red. Two tall trees are located just below a “large yellow ring” of 27 “small circles”. These trees would presumably represent our Sun and Moon, joined together in Earth’s sky during an eclipse. It also seems implied from this field diagram, once we realize that it relates to an upcoming solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, that the missing “28^th circle” could be a bright star Regulus.  

Five other trees extend downward in the local landscape, away from that ring-like crop picture and two tall trees nearby. Those five trees resemble a line of five stars (shown above on the right), which will extend downward in Earth’s sky on August 21, away from the Sun, Moon and Regulus.  

The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 may also provide new measurements of “how much light bends due to gravity” 

The close proximity of a bright star Regulus to our Sun and Moon, during a total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017, will make it possible for astronomers to make new measurements of “how much light bends due to gravity”. When light from a distant star Regulus passes by the strong gravity of our Sun, it should be bent by 1/3 of an arc-second, according to Einstein’s theory of general relativity (see testing-general-relativity or my-do-it-yourself-relativity-test). 

Here is a newspaper article which conveys the great excitement which everyone felt, when that “bending of light” measurement was first performed during a total solar eclipse in 1919:   

Will we experience such great excitement again soon?  

Red Collie (Dr. Horace R. Drew)