A view of Saturn, Spica and Mars as drawn in crops at The Wrekin on July 21, 2012 was not exactly from Earth, for the night sky of August 5, 2012, but rather from above Earth’s north pole by approximately 20 Earth-Moon distances 

Saturn, Spica and Mars were drawn together as a “triangle” in news releases by NASA over the past few weeks, as part of a public relations campaign to promote their Mars Curiosity Rover landing in Gale Crater on August 5, 2012. NASA told everyone to “look up into the sky and see a Martian Triangle, while our new spacecraft will be landing on Mars!” (see www.space.com or science.nasa.gov).  

Perhaps the citizens of Earth were not the only ones to watch such dramatic events in space? A similar “Martian Sky Triangle” appeared in crops at The Wrekin in Shropshire on July 21, 2012. Then on July 24 in Wilbur, Washington, another “sky triangle” was drawn in crops, halfway around the world from England (see blog.seattlepi.com or Geibs 2012 or www.youtube.com).  

Who made those two “sky triangles in crops”, one in Shropshire and the other in Washington? Could they have been made by visiting extra-terrestrials, studying us from space, to let us know that they are watching the Mars Rover too? 

If we look closely at that diagram drawn in crops near The Wrekin, we can see an interesting and unexpected feature. Namely, the precise locations of Saturn and Mars in Earth’s sky on August 5 (small blue circles shown below) lie slightly above the locations of those same two planets, as they were drawn precisely in a field (small red circles below) relative to a nearby star Spica:  

Each horizontal line in this diagram shows values of sky Declination as 0^o, -10^o or -20^o going top to bottom. Each vertical line shows values of sky Right Ascension as 14 or 13 hours, going left to right. Thus each planetary symbol for “Saturn” or “Mars” has moved down in the crop picture (two red circles) by 1^o to 3^o of Declination (for Saturn or Mars respectively), relative to where they would have been located in Earth’s sky (two blue circles) on August 5, 2012.  

The sky coordinates of Saturn, Spica or Mars as seen from Earth on August 5, 2012 were (RA, Dec) = (13 33, -7 09), (13 25, -11 09) or (13 10, -7 37) respectively.  

If we take the Earth-Mars distance on August 5, 2012 as approximately 3 x 10**8 km, and consider a -3^o shift of Declination for Mars, relative to where it would have been observed in Earth’s sky on that same date, then the tangent of 3^o or 0.05 suggests that those crop artists may be viewing the “sky triangle” out in space, above Earth’s north pole by 0.05 x (3 x 10**8) = 15 x 10**6 km, or approximately 20 Earth-Moon distances.  

The Earth-Saturn distance was approximately four times larger than Earth-Mars on August 5, 2012 as 12 x 10**8 km. Any change of viewing perspective for Saturn should therefore be one-quarter that of Mars, due to a shift in location of the observer to above Earth’s north pole. We measured a change in viewing perspective for “Saturn” at The Wrekin as perhaps one-half that of “Mars” (about -1.5^o of Declination), yet such small differences of angle are hard to quantify.  

Comparison to an upward shift of Declination by +3^o shown in crops at Santena, Italy on June 17, 2012 

At Santena in Italy on June 17, 2012, we saw a crop picture which showed the Sun and Mercury in Cancer for an identical date of August 5, 2012 (Mars Curiosity Rover landing). Somehow that event is supposed to lead us into December 21, 2012 (end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar), as suggested by a nearby “planetary system” in the same field (see Santena 2012). 

Within that crop picture at Santena, both the Sun and Mercury were drawn in Cancer with +3^o more Declination than would be seen from Earth. In this case, the visual perspective of those crop artists would lie approximately 20 Earth-Moon distances below our south pole (exactly the opposite of before).  

The “polar clock” in crops at Manton Drove on June 2, 2012: a clever joke made by our extra-terrestrial friends?  

Thus at The Wrekin (in Shropshire), we saw a change in viewing perspective on August 5 to far above Earth’s north pole. While in another case at Santena (in Italy), we saw a change in viewing perspective on August 5 to far below Earth’s south pole.

On June 2, 2012, we saw a “polar clock” in crops at Manton Drove (near Marlborough), which again showed a date of “August 5, Sunday” when Mars Curiosity Rover landed. It also suggested the Declination of our Sun in Earth’s sky on August 5 as 16 degrees, 45 minutes and 53 seconds (see chalk pit).  

A good joke, is it not? Showing us a “polar clock” in crops, while they are studying Earth from a nearby perspective above (or below) our north (or south) poles! Yet very few humans living on Earth today seem to understand. We react to the star people with irrational fear. Some humans imagined, for example, that “August 4” (an inaccurate reading of “August 5”) would be a day of disaster, perhaps at the Olympics?  

After The Wrekin on July 21, we saw three more beautiful crop pictures at Windmill Hill on July 25, Etchilhampton on July 28, or Owslebury on July 29. All three of those “counted down” to August 5 (Mars Rover landing) with symbols showing “10-8-6 days” before a “day of communication”, while using nearby telephone poles to symbolize long-distance communication between Earth scientists and their space probe.  

A fourth beautiful image of “Mars Science Laboratory” and its landing site in Gale Crater appeared in crops close to Milk Hill on the morning of August 5, just before Curiosity Rover landed. No, we just don’t get it. When will Earth humans wake up and begin to understand?  

Red Collie (Dr. Horace R. Drew)