Every year I become more aware of the passage of time. And I hate winter more and more. I would like to make an object that marks the winter solstice. I thought that I would just google it and some ideas would pop up but I’m not finding anything. So I come to the smartest people I know. 
I have a small yard, so an actual Stonehenge is out of the question. But I would like it to be made out of stone and to be aesthetically pleasing.
Any ideas?
Mini-Stonehenge?
Around 18"?
Nah, that would be a Micro-Stonehenge.
I think it would be a Spinal-Stonehenge.
I live on a pretty busy corner so a Mini Stonehenge might be a bit much. I was thinking of a single standing stone and then marking its shadow on the ground somehow…
With the real Stonehenge I believe the stones frame the sun at sunrise.
Oh and my googling produced this: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/8eed/
Perhaps I’m not understanding…what’s wrong with a few rocks, strategically placed at the Solstice?
Would you settle for a stone wall?
This years “Old Farmers Almanac” has some planting ideas for marking various astroligical alingments such as summet and winter soltice and equinox.
Making a big thing of it would be a good idea.
How about a single Stonehenge arch, placed so that only sunrise on the winter/summer solstice shines through it and touches something that will light up, like a piece of quartz? This is similar to what has been happening every year for 5,000 years at Newgrange in Ireland, except the quartz is at the back of a very long passage inside a tumulus.
If you want something small, and Stonehengy, what I would do is something that relates to the fact that on the day of the winter solstice, the shadows of objects at noon is as long as it ever gets at noon. So, take some vertical stone, like some kind of gnomon, and then pave with horizontal stone, what its shadow would be on the winter solstice. Then, as the solstice approaches, the shadow will get longer and longer, reaching the end of the paving that you have done on the solstice, and then the shadow will shorten afterward. This is, I believe, the simplest thing you can do that marks the solstice with stone in some way.
Cheesy diagram:
O (Sun at winter solstice)
`
`
`
`
(Stone |`
Pillar) |__`_ (Stone in ground that matches shadow)
O (Sun at every other time of year)
\
\
\
\
(Stone |\
Pillar) |_\_ (Stone in ground does not match shadow)
Mutatis mutandis if you’re in the southern hemisphere.
(Also, on a side note, I hate winter too, but I find that the winter solstice is too close to the beginning of winter to be something I would mark in stone. I would go with something that marks the vernal equinox, because then, once that all works out, you can be relieved that winter is coming to an end at last.)
This is what I was thinking of tho hadn’t thought of jjimm’s quartz thing. Great IMHO.
Plenty of henges around. Copy a smaller one.
I got one of those for Christmas. The problem is that it all comes carefully packed into its box. Once you open it, I don’t know if you can carefully arrangge it to fit into the box again, so you’re forced to build it.
I think this is what happened with the original, full-size Stomehenge.
Build one affixed to a panel that you can fold down out of the way when you want to use the yard for something else, and fold back up for display when you’re done barbecuing.
And call it Stonehinge.
Building a henge are we? Won’t that be lovely.
I’ve thought about the same thing, but never got around to doing anything about it. Now you got me thinking…
Any landscape supply or stone supply retailer should be able to sell you an upright piece of stone you can use for this. I’m thinking of one say 6-8" square, maybe 3-4 feet long. Plant it upright in an open area where the sun do shine, and on the solstice or equinox or whatever, plant another stone where the shadow lands at dawn or noon or whatever floats your boat. I have seen pieces of stone with a hole bored up the middle to make a bubbling fountain, if you want this to do double duty.
Other ideas:
You could bore a slanting hole through the upright if you’re truly creative, so the sun shines through there onto Der Spot on Der Tag. You can decorate the area around your monolith with some cement pavers or flagstone around it, and make one a different color to designate the target where the sun will shine. That might keep the local fundies from suspecting you’re secretly a sun-worshiping heathen, unless they come by on that one day at just the right time.
Here are some Stonehenge replicas built across the US: