The Pi formation which appeared on June 1st at the bottom of the road going to Barbury Castle is one of the most talked about crop circles in years, because the different lengths of the ratchet spiral steps represent the number of Pi (the famous equation for the diameter of a circle relative to its circumference).  Each step falls on one of ten radii, with the arc of the first step being three units; the next, one; the next, four -- and so on.  And of course the dot represents the decimal point.

 

The field across the road was where the great Barbury Castle Triangle arrived in 1991, which I feel is the most important crop formation of all time (because of its mystical symbolism I started coming to England to study the phenomenon the following year!).  And one of its features was the first ratchet spiral.

 

This new beauty is one of the few crop circles that I got aerial shots of promptly this summer after it formed, and as a result I didn’t have to remove any walk lines using PhotoShop -- yay!  But I did remove the bridleway, which I found very visually distracting because it was cutting through one side of the circle (if you feel it’s important, you can see it on all the other Crop Circle Connector photos of the Pi).

 

The second picture is a close-up of the centre, showing a curious detail which I have not seen so clearly before in other pictures, a light ring in the central swirl (in which the person is standing), and a smaller, incomplete one above it with a short, straight line pointing out.  I’m sure from my visit on the ground that the smaller ring encircles the location of the circle’s standing tuft (well off-centre!), but I am baffled by the larger ring.  When people walk on downed crop it tends to lighten after a while when seen from the air, but there had not been many visitors when I took this shot -- and even if there had, what had they been walking around?