UMass Amherst Astronomer Receives Start-Up Funding to Erect Sunwheel Project on Campus

Nov. 20, 1997

AMHERST, Mass. - In a field in the southwest corner of the UMass campus, near McGuirk Alumni Stadium, is a wide circle of upright stones, each of them standing two to three feet tall. The structure is a sunwheel, explains University astronomer Judith Young. Like Stonehenge, the stones of a sunwheel align perfectly with the rising and setting sun at the times of solstices and equinoxes. Young recently secured start-up funding for the sunwheel, including $6,000 from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and $2,500 from the University’s Healey Endowment (named for former trustee Joseph Healey), in addition to $2,500 raised privately. She sees the sunwheel as a unique connection between earth and sky, past and present, and science and art.

"For thousands of years," Young says, "human beings have been intrigued by the cycles of nature. Astronomically, these cycles include the daily rising and setting of the sun, moon, and stars, the monthly phases of the moon, and the yearly cycle of the seasons." Young was inspired to create the UMass sunwheel during a trip to Montana in 1992, where she saw a sunwheel constructed long ago, probably by the Blackfeet Indian tribe. The UMass sunwheel is the only one in the country located at a university, according to Young. The public is welcome to visit the sunwheel at any time; it is most striking at sunrise and sunset on the solstices and equinoxes (the winter solstice will occur on Dec. 21; viewing will be impressive the weeks before and after that date).

Young had the site surveyed to accurately locate north, south, east, and west, and spent a year making observations at sunrise and sunset, then hammering stakes into specific points in the field. Earlier this year, large rocks replaced the wooden stakes, creating a preliminary stone circle. These rocks each weigh about 500 pounds. By the year 2000, Young hopes to raise sufficient funds to add more than a dozen 10-foot-tall, rough-cut granite pillars outside the sunwheel will be visible in all seasons, regardless of high grasses or accumulated snow. The final circle will be 140 feet in diameter. In the meantime, the rocks already in place serve as a teaching tool, making astronomical ideas visible and concrete for students ranging from University undergraduates to local schoolchildren.

"Thousands of years ago, this is how people knew what day of the year it was. There was no paper calendar hanging on the wall; there was no electric clock," Young recently told a group of sixth-graders who visited the site. "The sunwheel also provides us with an understanding of the seasons. Astronomy happens outside. It doesn’t happen in a classroom. The sky changes every day, and we don’t notice unless we pay attention."

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