- #1
ImaLooser
- 489
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Forty years ago I went on a river trip in Utah's Canyon of Desolation. This is a five day trip with no roads or habitation the entire time. In the middle of the trip there is a prominent panel of petroglyphs. Over the years I went on that trip maybe four times and the memory of one of those petroglyphs stuck with me. It was a spiral with a long tail coming down from it, and the tail was crossed by vertical lines at regular intervals.
Somehow I got the idea that this might be a record of the supernova of 1054. I've been on that trip four or so times, so one of those times I counted the vertical lines. If this number matched the number of days that the supernova was visible during the day, then that has to be a record of the event. I counted the marks but didn't follow through; I didn't find out how many supernova days there were. I've long since forgotten what the count was.
Recently I found that the number of days was 23. I thought, a photo of that panel must be on the Internet somewhere, and indeed there is. Unfortunately you can't quite count the number of days because the tail disappears behind a bush, but using both photos I count twenty and I know that a few are hidden. It clearly it can't be much more than 23 because they run out of panel. It must be close. My sister has friends who make that trip, I'll ask them to photograph it.
http://www.masterfile.com/stock-photography/image/848-02858492/Tourist-drawing-petroglyphs-Desolation-Canyon-Utah
http://www.visualphotos.com/image/1x9112798/petroglyphs_desolation_canyon_colorado_plateau
Somehow I got the idea that this might be a record of the supernova of 1054. I've been on that trip four or so times, so one of those times I counted the vertical lines. If this number matched the number of days that the supernova was visible during the day, then that has to be a record of the event. I counted the marks but didn't follow through; I didn't find out how many supernova days there were. I've long since forgotten what the count was.
Recently I found that the number of days was 23. I thought, a photo of that panel must be on the Internet somewhere, and indeed there is. Unfortunately you can't quite count the number of days because the tail disappears behind a bush, but using both photos I count twenty and I know that a few are hidden. It clearly it can't be much more than 23 because they run out of panel. It must be close. My sister has friends who make that trip, I'll ask them to photograph it.
http://www.masterfile.com/stock-photography/image/848-02858492/Tourist-drawing-petroglyphs-Desolation-Canyon-Utah
http://www.visualphotos.com/image/1x9112798/petroglyphs_desolation_canyon_colorado_plateau
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