mysterious

Cream of the crop circles: New markings snake 350ft across farmer's field as 'mysterious' summer tradition continues

It appeared overnight, a mysterious snake-like crop circle weaving across a wheat field in Wiltshire.The 350ft-long installation is marked out of a field near the 200-year-old Alton Barnes White Horse chalk figure. Dubbed a Venus 'sunfish', the circle is thought to capture the 'transit of Venus', an astronomical phenomenon which began last week and will continue until the beginning of July. The crop circle shows Venus' period of visibility as a morning star, where it rises with the sun, and tracks its ascension in the sky following the sun through its rising and setting stages. The ancient Mayans spent much of their time recording the path of Venus, splitting its 584-day cycle of the planet into four distinct parts. Amateur photographer, Matthew Williams, said: 'I was quite excited to find it in the morning as I hadn't known there was anything there the night before. 'It must have appeared in the hours of darkness. It's very spooky.'