Want software that allows you to draw a variety of gnomonic sundials with a variety of details? Then Orologi Solari e Meridiane is the site for you. Gian Casalegno, an experienced Italian sundialist, offers both software and explanations of sundial construction. Illustrated here is the orologio del pastore, the shepard dial. (To allow easier construction, the gnomon is actually a slit in the top cardboard flange.) Want to draw dials with Babylonian (Hours from Sunrise) or Italian Hours (Hour to Sunset) or Temporal Hours (12 hours in the daylight)? It’s available at the click of a button with Gian’s software.

Sabanski gives the detailed mathematics of building a cycloid polar sundial. The cycloid polar sundial is universal and can be used at any latitude. When one dial is laid out, every other possible dial can be obtained by scaling the cycloid and dial plate. Theoretically, the cycloid gnomon only contacts the dial plate at one point, so construction may be a bit exacting.

The Trigon is a device for laying out the sundial hour lines for large sundials. The device illustrated by Bob Terwilliger is made from a small transit and a pointing laser. By mounting the transit along the polar axis, the azimuth represents hour angles (right ascension) and the elevation represents meridian lines (declination). Bob presents many photos and drawings showing how to assemble and use the Trigon. A more complete discussion of the Laser Trigon, including a description of its origins in traditional dialing tools can be found in the Compendium 3-2 of the North American Sundial Society (June 1996).

Carl Sabanski is a sundial enthusiast who has made sundial kits that can be tailored to your latitude in either the Northern or Southern hemisphere. The sundials are made in a wide variety of types to tell accurate local solar time. His dials come in many types: Equatorial, Equatorial Ring, and Gnomon-less Equatorial Sundials, Horizontal Sundials, Polar and Cycloid Polar Sundials, Cross and Star Sundials, Analemmatic Sundials, a fantastic sundial made from a CD disk and a Digital Equatorial Sundial based on the patent of Thew. There are Ring Dials, a Globe Dial based on the dial of Thomas Jefferson, and much, much more.

This wonderful website has a series of paper sundials that you can make for your latitude and longitude.  Webmaster Fabio Savian has embarked on providing a number of printable sundials, including those designed by the North American Sundial Society.  His apps are easy to use and are accompanied by drawings to assist in construction.  If you search his website, you will find many documents on gnomonics and sundials and of course his sundial atlas...the gallery of sundial photos from around the world.