Tag: Observatory

  • Neolithic Henge, Cairns and Standing Stones

    Kilmartin Glen, Argyll, Scotland (January 2000) The Kilmartin Glen contained an impressive collection of neolithic sites. The richest cluster in the valley included Temple Wood Henge and the various Nether Largie artifacts. Conveniently they all sat within close proximity of each other (map). A circular structure set off from the surrounding landscape by an earthwork…

  • Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory

    Prospect, Waldo Co., Maine (August 2009) The Penobscot Narrows bridge (map) did not exist the last time I drove along this stretch of U.S. Route 1 several years ago. I’d seen a brochure for it a couple of days earlier and decided to check it out. I set off from my base in Rockport destined…

  • County Hunter

    The itch to continuously visit new counties kept stalking me. I did really well this year with a long road trip back from Missouri in April. Then I drove all over the Midwest in June. Finally I took the whole family through the Four Corners region of New Mexico and Colorado. My county counting tally…

  • Jeff Davis

    I received an interesting query from loyal reader “Katy” via the 12MC Google+(1) account the other day. She wanted to find towns named after people that included the namesakes’ first and last names.(2) Several possibilities came to mind and one name in particular, Jefferson Davis, kept recurring. Jefferson Davis — which I’ll mention primarily for…

  • Prime Meridian Through Spain

    I noticed a query dropped upon the Twelve Mile Circle from one of the search engines. It was a fairly straight-forward request for information, as far as those things go. My anonymous visitor wanted to know about the “Madrid prime meridian line” Do we sense a problem? Where Does the Prime Meridian Go? The knee-jerk…

  • International Latitude Observatories

    I came across an interesting building while researching the Gaithersburg Doughnut Hole a few months ago. It’s just to the east of the hole by a couple of streets, so more accurately it’s just barely on the doughnut, perhaps it’s a coconut sprinkle. Here’s how it appears in a public domain photograph: It looks rather…