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On 1 Feb, the following item appeared in the printed version of theGuardian
newspaper-
 (The best places to see stars in Britain, 1 February, page 3, G2).
Itappeared on the online version the previous day, at-

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jan/31/best-stargazing-britain

In the printed version of the paper, the picture was captioned "A meteor
storm over Stonehenge", which was obviously incorrect. The printed version
was a bit different from that shown in this online version, in that the
comet had been cropped off it.

Yesterday, the following correction appeared, in-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/feb/03/corrections-clarifications
as follows-
• A photograph used to illustrate an article about stargazing was wrongly
captioned as showing "a meteor storm over Stonehenge". In fact it was a
photograph of stars taken with a long exposure which, due to the Earth's
rotation, produces the effect of trails (The best places to see stars in
Britain, 1 February, page 3, G2).

=======================

Indeed, that wasn't all that was wrong. The area around Stonehenge does not
have particularly dark skies, and indeed a main road runs right past the
Heel Stone, so it is hardly a good place for "watching stars". But, more
particularly, the star background looks to me to be quite wrong, for
somewhere as far North as Stonehenge, at 51º N. The star pattern should
then be rotating about the South Celestial pole, a point that lies 51º
below the horizon. It looks to me as though the star background shown in
that picture is centred much closer than that to the horizon, perhaps only
25º or so below it, indicating that it was taken from much nearer to the
tropics. Am I right?

To be sure, I need to identify that pattern of stars, and whether it is
indeed that of the Southern stars, or the Northern. I'm not familiar enough
with the stars to identify what part of the sphere is being shown here
(with the comet behind it), but I'm sure it will be instantly recognisable
to some Navlist members. All that's needed is to give a name to one or two
of the stars in the picture, and the rest will follow.

It seems pretty clear, to me, that this is a completely-bogus composite
agency picture, with the stars, and independently the comet (which seems to
show little streaking) superimposed on to the picture of Stonehenge. As it
is against stated Guardian policy to publish such pictures, I am collecting
evidence to show the error of their ways.

George.

contact George Huxtable, at  george@hux.me.uk
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.

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