The winter solstice is an astrological mark showing the mid winter. It is based on the location of the sun in the sky, when is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observers hemisphere. Basically its when the sun is at the lowest position in the sky. Many ancient cultures have calculated this moment and pinpointed it exactly. This year it occurred December 21st (2008) at 12:09PM. The Comanche Indians in Texas found a bluff that ran east to west and established it as a sacred place to paint astronomically aligned pictographs. On this bluff they created two solar markers, one to calculate the vernal equinox and another to calculate the winter solstice. An ancient Comanche tribal leader would stand upon a keystone that ran almost perfectly north to south. He would then watch for the shadow of the roadrunner to appear followed by the shadow of the wolf. The wolf shadow crosses across a painting with 4 marks. As it hits the 4th mark a speck of light beings to pierce its way through a painting of a turtle with a sun dial on its back.

Well of course seeing this amazing ancient calculation come to pass was an event I decided I couldn’t miss! So I spent my Sunday afternoon driving to this location and photographing and filming the phenomenon. Of course I had to do some cool effects and get video as well.

RIGHT HERE is where I would put the photos and video
but unfortunately my camera is in use filming a multidimensional discussion right now so please come check back later tonight, I will have both HDR photos of the paintings as well as 3D photos! And also a video of the spear of light piercing the turtle, initiating the winter solstice.

Symbols left by Indians to mark their presence at this location

The vernal equinox pictograph
on the first day of spring an angled shadow is cast which the small stick figure is walking up
the rest of the symbols are star maps

3D tree!

I still have to post more 3D photos and images of the symbol of winter solstice
Check back later, hopefully I’ll have these up soon.