Milk Hill of August 8, 2008 seems to show a series of phases from our current lunar cycle ending on August 16, 2008 (a lunar eclipse): 8 days to go from the day when it appeared by Charles Reed

Milk Hill of August 8, 2008 seems to show a series of phases from our current lunar cycle ending on August 16, 2008 (a lunar eclipse): 8 days to go from the day when it appeared

A new and spectacular crop picture at Milk Hill has attracted much attention, because of its striking overall form as a kind of "figure-8" shape on the calendar date 08-08-2008, as well as its exceptional length of more than 300 meters. But can we be sure that it is paranormally real?

Charles Mallett noted in his early field report: "A five-inch-wide construction line runs under the entire figure, and was clearly laid down prior to placement of the actual circles. It gives the impression of being created by a heavy mechanical process." Yet photos by Janet Ossebaard show detailed features that would have been difficult to create late at night by mechanical means:

So the evidence seems to be conflicting. In any case, the astronomical logic shown at Milk Hill seems quite amenable to ordinary human understanding, whether it was made by friendly extra-terrestrials, or by local talented fellows with a board and rope!

Most readers have likened the overall form of Milk Hill to that of a figure-8 shape or Mobius strip Yet a fairly similar crop picture appeared in South Korea on June 12, 2008, and showed there not only two figure-8 shapes, but also two symbols for "Earth" and "Moon" in standard solar orbit (see HERE). Hence such figure-8 shapes probably connote a somewhat deeper astronomical meaning in terms of the "lunar analemma":

Any "analemma" describes the figure-8 curve that you get, when you mark the position of the Moon (or Sun) in Earth's sky at the same time each day for one entire year. Those analemmas from Milk Hill or South Korea were both drawn somewhat abstractly, as compared to the real ones shown on HERE or HERE or HERE or HERE.

When studied in closer detail, the new picture from Milk Hill shows also another interesting feature, where all phases of the Moon from new (August 1) to full (August 16) have been described by a series of "balls" of varying size. Furthermore, 14 or 15 little "spikes" have been added between those balls, in both its upper and lower halves, to tell how many days our Moon might be visible above Earth's horizon at sunset:

Any monthly lunar phase cycle lasts for 29.53 days, so the number of days when our Moon remains visible above the horizon should equal (29.53 / 2) = 14.76, or somewhere between 14 and 15. Lastly, at the very centre of that new picture from Milk Hill, we can see an ancient Celtic cross symbol for "planet Earth", that has been overlaid across another symbol for "full Moon" on the upcoming date of August 16:

On that day, precisely 8 days after Milk Hill appeared, our planet Earth will come directly into line between the Moon and the Sun as an 81% partial lunar eclipse (see HERE). Two related symbols for "planet Earth" appeared at Knoll Down 11 days earlier on July 28, 2008, or at Morgan's Hill as far back as May 28-29,1990 (see HERE).

Is this explanation plausible? Have any other crop pictures from 2008 described the same, upcoming lunar eclipse? When studied carefully, it seems as if Milk Hill of August 8 may be just the latest of three pictures to give a countdown in days, from when they appeared until August 16, 2008:

East Kennett of July 8 = 2 x 20 = 40 days until August 16

Watchfield Wind Farm of August 1 = approximately 14 days until August 16

Milk Hill of August 8 = figure-8 or 8 days until a lunar eclipse on August 16

Two other pictures from 2008 could be interpreted in terms of similar countdown in days, from when they appeared until August 1, 2008 which was a solar eclipse (visible mainly in Russia or China):

South Field of July 22-23 = 10, 9, 8 days until August 1

Martinsell Hill of July 27 = 5, 4.5, 4 days until a solar eclipse on August 1

Quite a few other crop pictures from 2008 seem to describe the science of lunar or solar eclipses in general: West Kennett of June 6, West Kennett Longbarrow of June 9, North Down of June 10, Ridgeway of June 15, Furze Knoll of June 20, East Field of July 9, Hillside Farm of July 20, Allington Down of July 27, or Hens Wood of August 8.

If this analysis is correct, then few if any of those new pictures should be classed as "informational" per se, where the crop artists might be trying to provide us some kind of "message" in plain English. Instead, they seem at this point to be trying to find a common ground between our two cultures, using universal symbols from math, science or astronomy that anyone skilled at the art can understand. The "pi to ten digits" crop picture that appeared at Barbury Castle on June 1, 2008 would seem to further support such a conclusion (see HERE or HERE).

Photo credits to S and K Alexander, Lim Chang Rok, Lucy Pringle, Janet Ossebaard and Colin Andrews.

Charles Reed