【BBC纪录片】月球之谜 第二期

The stones seem to be arranged so they track the movements

of the moon through the sky from month to month.

Nowadays we're not really fully aware of

what the moon's doing in the sky, we know short days in the winter,

long days in the summer,

but the moon's plodding on doing the same

sort of thing over much longer cycles.

And whereas we nowadays aren't fully aware of

where the northernmost moon rises or sets,

or the southernmost,

our prehistoric ancestors five thousand years ago

did know and they set these stones out

to mark these extreme positions of the moon.

Most of all the stones could predict the timing

of a spectacular and rare lunar event.

To the south of Callanish is a range of hills

which resemble a woman lying on her back.

Every 18 years the full moon rises out of the hills.

It rolls along the woman's body and then vanishes.

But moments later it is re-born

right in the centre of the stone circle!

Legend says that anyone

who witnessed this magical event

would be blessed with the gift of fertility.

It has always been the full moon above

all else that has stirred the human spirit.

Yet the moon has no light of its own,

its glow is simply reflected sunlight.

As it orbits our planet the portion

of the sunlit surface that we see changes.

This gives us the phases of the moon

a twenty nine and a half day cycle

that waxes to full and then wanes back to new.

When the moon is full the night sky glows

ten times brighter than when it's new.

And on this night the same full moon

can be seen from every corner of the earth.

It has always inspired awe.

In times gone by,

the full moon was believed to bring out

our darker selves in a monthly wave of madness and bloodshed.

The word "lunacy" derives from the Latin word

for moon and crimes that happened at this time

were looked upon more leniently.

But when it comes to nature,the moon's impact isn't legend.

立石的排列

似乎逐月追踪着月亮在夜空中的位置

其实我们现在并不知道

月球在天上做什么，我们知道冬天白昼较短

夏天白昼较长

其实月亮的变化也一样

只不过周期长得多

现代人也许不知道

月亮升起、落下的极北

或极南位置为何

但我们的史前老祖宗在五千年前

就知道了并以这些石头

标示月亮的位置

立石阵最惊人的是可以预测

罕见壮观月球事件的时间

卡拉尼什南部有一座

看似一名仰卧女子的山峰

每隔18年，满月会从山峦间升起

沿着女子身体的曲线移动，然后消失

但数分钟后

在立石圈的中央再度出现

据说

任何目睹此事件的人

都会多子多孙

满月

让人心旌摇撼

但是月亮本身并不会发光

月光不过是反射的阳光

月球绕着地球运行时

被太阳照射的受光面会改变

这就是月亮的阴晴圆缺

月亮将在为期29.5天的周期内

由朔到望，再由望到朔

满月时夜空的亮度

是新月时的十倍

这天晚上

世上任何一个角落都可以看到相同的一轮满月

它向来让人敬畏之心油然而生

过去

人们认为月亮会引出人性的黑暗面

所以每个月都会有疯狂、血光之灾

英文“疯狂”的字根来自拉丁文中的月亮

在满月期间发生的罪案

往往会被从宽发落

但是月亮对大自然的影响并不是神话