Pennsylvania Avenue
Several people have pointed out, and others have produced their own cut and paste versions of the story, that Sirius appears on the horizon, not far from the opposite axis; that is looking at the sunrise over the Capitol as seen from the WH. My intention here, is to point out that it is a stretch of the truth to say that "Pennsylvania Avenue aligns with the rising Sirius, like the axis of the Egyptian temple at Dendera". But that's the extreme version of this tale. Of course you can check for yourself by going to "Your Sky", changin the settings to 39 north and 78 west, and clicking 'make sky map'. Click 'view horizon', set the field of view to 65 degrees and the time for 0:20 on 01-01 and hit update. Now you can advance the time and get a good idea of what the southeastern sky looks like on New Year's at DC. Note that Sirius rises very near the ESE marker, which is 112.5 degrees azimuth, or 22.5 degrees south of due east. Hoovering Let's look first at the more loosely worded version of that. In "DaVinci in America", a book that claims to unlock the secrets of Dan Brown's next book before it even comes out, we read: "Authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval raise the possibility of an alignment along Pennsylvania Avenue, between the White House and the site of the Capitol building (Jenkins Hill), with the rising of the brightest star in the sky, Sirius... (They) point out that any observer looking along Pennsylvania Avenue at dawn in 1793 would have seen Sirius 'hovering' over the proposed site of the Capitol, a feature they believe could not have been missed by individuals like the astronomer Ellicott. "That such portentous astral symbolism could have gone unnoticed by the group of important Freemasons and astronomers who planned Washington and decided the locations of its principal structures, seems most unlikely." This phrase "hovering over the proposed site" is what I want to question. Since the CB is 180 feet tall, this is not saying that the star hovers over the building, just the end of the avenue. You see people claiming that it rises over the Capitol Building, which it does not. [Please note that at one mile, a variation or deflection of 1 degree is 91 feet wide; meaning at the mile and a half between the CB and WH, a degree is 135 feet wide or off.] 22 degrees At opencheops.org we see: "The alignment of roads is very obvious. The city of Washington’s main alignment is of course Pennsylvania Avenue, which links up Capitol Hill with the White House... It is aligned approximately 22 degrees to the North of West and several people have pointed out that there is possibly a solar alignment in consideration here. There is a lot of work being done on this by a British author David Ovason. He has noted that the sun, on a particular day in August, is in alignment with Pennsylvania Avenue. Now the alignment of 22 degrees North of true West... is the alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue, (which) amazingly falls, if... passed over the Capitol and extend it eastward... is the position at sunrise of the star Sirius. Now that this is a coincidence is highly unlikely." Of course the author means to say the rising of the star and not the "sunrise" of it, but we get the point- Penn Ave and the rising of Sirius (as seen from the WH) are 22 degrees south of due east. Note that the meaning that people are reading into the avenue is that is it essentially a solar alignment tool. Ovason's "one day" arguement holds no water, because he is just aiming at a constellation (30 degreres of the sky). The Sirius one depends on what we want to accept as an alignment. 21 degrees In home.hiwaay.net we read: "The 21° angle of Pennsylvania Avenue south of due east has pointed to the rising point of Sirius at the latitude of Washington D.C. since the avenue was laid out over 200 years ago. Looking southeast down Pennsylvania Avenue, Sirius rises directly over the Capitol building." OK, first the author gives us a different angle, which may mean that he was finding a rounded off figure for the azimuth of Sirius when it rises at the latitude of DC. Next we are told that the avenue was "pointed to the rising point of Sirius" when it was laid out, which indicates a monument on the ground, not in the air. Next we see that it rises "directly over the Capitol building". Our monument for this one is considerably eleveated from the previous assertion. Refer to the image at the top of the page as you read more from this page; note that the stars move to the right and up as they rise (2 oclock), and that Sirius is following Orion. "Orion's belt points towards Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and while Orion is rising and low on the eastern horizon. Higher in the sky, Orion is also above Sirius and above the Capitol building from the viewpoint of Pennsylvania Avenue as Sirius rises over the horizon." He says here that Orion as well as Sirius can be seen above the Capitol. Doesn't it seem that, if this were true, that someone would be posting images of this? 19 Degrees Here is a page that deals with the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, located on Penn Ave in Washington DC. The website has pictures of what they call the 19 degree corner of that building. Here's a quote from there: "The West entrance and the famous 19 degree corner. The smaller right triangle, the 19 degree corner of which repeats the angle formed by Pennsylvania Avenue and the Mall, is seen at the center below and in the rows below." [A three degree variation of estimates of the azimuth of PA gives us a 400 foot range. The Capitol of 751 feet wide, so half of that is 375. The variation of three degrees is wider than the half width of the building. 19.5 Degrees The conspiracy contingent tends to support a value of 19.5 degrees, very close to what the people at the National Gallery are claiming; and they offer images like this as support, with half of 39 being 19.5 Remember that the Washington Monument does not bisect this 39 degree angle, as it was located 123 feet to the south of due west from the Capitol. A The notion of Over the Capitol Building doesn't work well, when you look at images of that. In this image you can see Sirius as it breaks the horizon, and Orion is indeed right above it; but the belt doesn't really point to Sirius. The above image puts it between 105 and 120 east, that's 15 and 30 degrees south of due east. The image below (with a little terrain) puts it right ae ESE, that is 22.5 degrees south of due east. Adding a bit of a hill puts it even further south. It's beginning to look like someone read something and went to a book and found the fact that they needed, 22.5 degrees, and claimed that the avenue matched that in one of a sortment of ways. As it turns out, at a mile and a half, 3 degrees (22.5 - 19.5) produces a displacement of about 400 feet, but the Capitol Building is only 750 feet long, so, at best, Sirius at 22.5 would be to the right of the southeast corner of the CB. And the fact that it moves right in our field of view (see image above) prohibits it from ever being over Pennsylvania Avenue or the Capitol Building, which is anothjer 180 feet tall, above it's 88 foot elevation off of the river. Note that the image at the top of the page represents Orion and Sirius as they pass the meridian, due south; in this view, Sirius clearly follows Orion who faces the Bull (see Aldeberan). Virginia Avenue On a webpage named "Secrets of America's Founding" there is an excerpt from a 1994 book that makes another claim about a solar alignment in the DC map: "Just as ancient sites such as Stonehenge are aligned to the positions of the sun and moon, the same is true of the Washington Monument. For example, a line of sight for the winter solstice can be established from the top of the monument to the southeast, down Virginia Avenue." 1994 "The Deeper, Secret Roots of America's Founding" The total solar arc in DC is 62 degrees, meaning that the winter solstice sunrise occurs 31 degrees south of due east there. If you look at the above image you can see that Virginia Avenue, running southeast from the Wash Mmt, parallels the middle section of Penn Ave (between the CB and WH), which we just determined is running about 20 degrees south of due east. It is Not True that Virginia Ave aligns with the winter solstice sunrise. Continue

Pennsylvania Avenue

Several people have pointed out, and others have produced their own cut and paste versions of the story, that Sirius appears on the horizon, not far from the opposite axis; that is looking at the sunrise over the Capitol as seen from the WH.
My intention here, is to point out that it is a stretch of the truth to say that "Pennsylvania Avenue aligns with the rising Sirius, like the axis of the Egyptian temple at Dendera". But that's the extreme version of this tale.
Of course you can check for yourself by going to "Your Sky", changin the settings to 39 north and 78 west, and clicking 'make sky map'. Click 'view horizon', set the field of view to 65 degrees and the time for 0:20 on 01-01 and hit update. Now you can advance the time and get a good idea of what the southeastern sky looks like on New Year's at DC. Note that Sirius rises very near the ESE marker, which is 112.5 degrees azimuth, or 22.5 degrees south of due east.

Hoovering
Let's look first at the more loosely worded version of that. In "DaVinci in America", a book that claims to unlock the secrets of Dan Brown's next book before it even comes out, we read:
"Authors Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval raise the possibility of an alignment along Pennsylvania Avenue, between the White House and the site of the Capitol building (Jenkins Hill), with the rising of the brightest star in the sky, Sirius... (They) point out that any observer looking along Pennsylvania Avenue at dawn in 1793 would have seen Sirius 'hovering' over the proposed site of the Capitol, a feature they believe could not have been missed by individuals like the astronomer Ellicott.
"That such portentous astral symbolism could have gone unnoticed by the group of important Freemasons and astronomers who planned Washington and decided the locations of its principal structures, seems most unlikely."
This phrase "hovering over the proposed site" is what I want to question. Since the CB is 180 feet tall, this is not saying that the star hovers over the building, just the end of the avenue. You see people claiming that it rises over the Capitol Building, which it does not.
[Please note that at one mile, a variation or deflection of 1 degree is 91 feet wide; meaning at the mile and a half between the CB and WH, a degree is 135 feet wide or off.]

22 degrees
At opencheops.org we see:
"The alignment of roads is very obvious. The city of Washington’s main alignment is of course Pennsylvania Avenue, which links up Capitol Hill with the White House... It is aligned approximately 22 degrees to the North of West and several people have pointed out that there is possibly a solar alignment in consideration here. There is a lot of work being done on this by a British author David Ovason. He has noted that the sun, on a particular day in August, is in alignment with Pennsylvania Avenue.
Now the alignment of 22 degrees North of true West... is the alignment of Pennsylvania Avenue, (which) amazingly falls, if... passed over the Capitol and extend it eastward... is the position at sunrise of the star Sirius. Now that this is a coincidence is highly unlikely."
Of course the author means to say the rising of the star and not the "sunrise" of it, but we get the point- Penn Ave and the rising of Sirius (as seen from the WH) are 22 degrees south of due east. Note that the meaning that people are reading into the avenue is that is it essentially a solar alignment tool. Ovason's "one day" arguement holds no water, because he is just aiming at a constellation (30 degreres of the sky). The Sirius one depends on what we want to accept as an alignment.

21 degrees
In home.hiwaay.net we read:
"The 21° angle of Pennsylvania Avenue south of due east has pointed to the rising point of Sirius at the latitude of Washington D.C. since the avenue was laid out over 200 years ago. Looking southeast down Pennsylvania Avenue, Sirius rises directly over the Capitol building."
OK, first the author gives us a different angle, which may mean that he was finding a rounded off figure for the azimuth of Sirius when it rises at the latitude of DC. Next we are told that the avenue was "pointed to the rising point of Sirius" when it was laid out, which indicates a monument on the ground, not in the air. Next we see that it rises "directly over the Capitol building". Our monument for this one is considerably eleveated from the previous assertion.
Refer to the image at the top of the page as you read more from this page; note that the stars move to the right and up as they rise (2 oclock), and that Sirius is following Orion.
"Orion's belt points towards Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and while Orion is rising and low on the eastern horizon. Higher in the sky, Orion is also above Sirius and above the Capitol building from the viewpoint of Pennsylvania Avenue as Sirius rises over the horizon."
He says here that Orion as well as Sirius can be seen above the Capitol. Doesn't it seem that, if this were true, that someone would be posting images of this?

19 Degrees
Here is a page that deals with the East Building of the National Gallery of Art, located on Penn Ave in Washington DC. The website has pictures of what they call the 19 degree corner of that building. Here's a quote from there:
"The West entrance and the famous 19 degree corner. The smaller right triangle, the 19 degree corner of which repeats the angle formed by Pennsylvania Avenue and the Mall, is seen at the center below and in the rows below."
[A three degree variation of estimates of the azimuth of PA gives us a 400 foot range. The Capitol of 751 feet wide, so half of that is 375. The variation of three degrees is wider than the half width of the building.
19.5 Degrees
The conspiracy contingent tends to support a value of 19.5 degrees, very close to what the people at the National Gallery are claiming; and they offer images like this as support, with half of 39 being 19.5

Remember that the Washington Monument does not bisect this 39 degree angle, as it was located 123 feet to the south of due west from the Capitol.

A
The notion of Over the Capitol Building doesn't work well, when you look at images of that. In this image you can see Sirius as it breaks the horizon, and Orion is indeed right above it; but the belt doesn't really point to Sirius.

The above image puts it between 105 and 120 east, that's 15 and 30 degrees south of due east. The image below (with a little terrain) puts it right ae ESE, that is 22.5 degrees south of due east.
Adding a bit of a hill puts it even further south.

It's beginning to look like someone read something and went to a book and found the fact that they needed, 22.5 degrees, and claimed that the avenue matched that in one of a sortment of ways. As it turns out, at a mile and a half, 3 degrees (22.5 - 19.5) produces a displacement of about 400 feet, but the Capitol Building is only 750 feet long, so, at best, Sirius at 22.5 would be to the right of the southeast corner of the CB.

And the fact that it moves right in our field of view (see image above) prohibits it from ever being over Pennsylvania Avenue or the Capitol Building, which is anothjer 180 feet tall, above it's 88 foot elevation off of the river. Note that the image at the top of the page represents Orion and Sirius as they pass the meridian, due south; in this view, Sirius clearly follows Orion who faces the Bull (see Aldeberan).

Virginia Avenue
On a webpage named "Secrets of America's Founding" there is an excerpt from a 1994 book that makes another claim about a solar alignment in the DC map:
"Just as ancient sites such as Stonehenge are aligned to the positions of the sun and moon, the same is true of the Washington Monument. For example, a line of sight for the winter solstice can be established from the top of the monument to the southeast, down Virginia Avenue." 1994 "The Deeper, Secret Roots of America's Founding"

The total solar arc in DC is 62 degrees, meaning that the winter solstice sunrise occurs 31 degrees south of due east there. If you look at the above image you can see that Virginia Avenue, running southeast from the Wash Mmt, parallels the middle section of Penn Ave (between the CB and WH), which we just determined is running about 20 degrees south of due east. It is Not True that Virginia Ave aligns with the winter solstice sunrise.

Continue