Lunar Standstill Mystery at Pilot Mountain
Thank you Randall Carlson for the suggestion to compare Pilot Mountain with Chimney Rock on the summer solstice of 2025!
These two images above were taken looking south at Pilot Mountain from the Pilot Knob Inn as the moon set before the sunrise on the spring equinox of 2022. The similarity to Chimney Rock in Colorado is stunning! This area between the Little and Big Pinnacle is known locally as the saddle area. While books have been written about the Lunar Standstill at Chimney Rock the author has not found a word about this phenomena regarding Pilot Mountain. Even the Griffith Observatory in L.A. comes out to Chimney Rock to view the various stages of the 18.6 year Lunar Standstill cycle. A budding archeoastronomy student who wants to make a name for themselves could be a pioneer studying the sun, moon and star systems that rise and set on the unobstructed horizon at Pilot Mountain. From the Big Pinnacle at Pilot Mountain you have a 360 degree view of over 3,000 square miles so this made it a perfect location for smoke signals during the day, fire beacons at night and the use of mica for communication.
Note: This is based on a table done for the Newark Earthworks in Ohio that was published by the late great Judith S. Young (daughter of astrophysicist, Vera Rubin). Rubin, her mother, was an extraordinary woman whose fundamental work in physics and astrophysics is still reverberating throughout the field at a foundational level years after her death.
