Bracewell described the sundial in the March 1997 issue of Stanford’s Civil Engineering Newsletter [http://www-ce.stanford.edu/Newsletter/archive/CENL0397.PDF ].  It is a vertical declining dial 15 degrees to the west, approximately 72 x 80 cm in size and made from aluminum  In a plaque prepared by Bracewell and installed beneath the sundial, he states that his dial was modeled after the vertical dials that still faintly adorn the Tower of the Agora in Athens.  The Tower of Agora, also known as the Tower of the Winds, was designed by Andronikos of Kyrrhos, and built in the early Roman period ~1^st century BC.

Instead of a typical gnomon, Bracewell chose to use an oculus: a disc with a central hole.  Standing 8 cm in front of the dial, the disc creates a shadow with a bright dot of sunlight in the center for telling both time and season.  The hour lines are offset by 2 min 40 sec to account for the longitude of the Stanford campus and the hour lines themselves are laid out not as straight lines, but as analemma curves (the figure 8 pattern of the sun’s seasonal movement), with spring colored in green, summer in red, autumn in orange, and winter in blue.  The analemma corrects for the “Equation of Time” allowing Bracewell to create an accurate clock-telling sundial.

The motto “Caelum Scruntando Leges Motus Didicmus” translates to “We learn the laws of motion by studying the heavens”.  And with a bit of subtle math, “d/dt ≠ 0” on the dial plate, one could interpret this to mean “Time changes all things”.  While Dr. Ronald N. Bracewell designed the sundial, his son Mark C. Bracewell constructed it.  Both their initials can be found at the bottom of the dial.

Need a small sundial for your display or science project?  Want to show how different sundials cast shadows?  Need a simple cut-out science exercise for your students?  Fabio Savian of Milan Italy has the solution.  For a number of years he has managed the Sundial Atlas website, ever increasing the number of sundial photos from around the world.  Over the last several years he has worked very hard to create the gnomolab that includes a solar compass map of the earth, cloud software for creating analemmatic (human shadow) sundials, and a section for making paper sundials to your specification.  The analemmatic dial measurements and papger dial designs are created as download PDF files.  Four of those dials were created by the North American Sundial Society.  Enjoy. Sundial Atlas Paper Sundials

The Planetary Society and Bill Nye, The Science Guy, are bringing back the Earth Dial, which is a simple to make gnomonic horizontal sundial reminiscent of the sundial incorporated into the Mars rovers Spirit, Opportunity and now Curiosity.  Their original and fundamental purpose is to serve as test patterns for the rover cameras, but they also provide an opportunity as unique shadow casting sundials.

“Since we had shadows being cast on Mars, I suggested it be a sundial… I admit I was quite enthusiastic about it. Steve Squyres, the Principle Investigator on the Spirit and Opportunity missions, made the call, and the Mars Dials were created. He received the [Planetary] Society’s Cosmos medal a few years ago, for his wonderful leadership of the project.”

 The Earth Dial project was started in 2004 and now, nearly a decade later, is being brought back.  Visit the Planetary Society website Planetary Society - Earth Dial for details and download the attachment below to construct your own Earth Dial.

Professor Dr. Susanne Bickel and her archeological team from the University of Basel found one of the oldest sundials in the world during this year’s excavation in the Valley of the Kings.  A limestone sundial was found near tomb KV61 during a survey of the surface rubble. The location of the dial corresponds to an area where there are remains of workmen’s huts dating to the Ramesside Period of the 13^th century BCE.

The dial was most likely a vertical, south facing sundial. The horizon line of the dial is about 16 cm across with a hole at the mid point to hold a simple horizontal metal rod or wood stick gnomon, indicating that the gnomon displayed shadows of temporal (seasonally uneven) hours. The limestone dial has a black painted semicircle.  On each side of the vertical noon line are 6 segments of about 15 degrees each, representing morning and afternoon temporal (seasonally uneven) hours.  Small dots in the middle of each hourly segment serve for even finer timing.  Nevertheless, the hour lines are not drawn with precision.

 The archeologists speculate that since the subdivision of the solar cycle in hours was a key aspect of depictions on the walls of the royal tombs where illustrated texts describe the nightly journey of the sun god through the underworld, the sundial could have supported the observations and visualization of this journey.  Or the sundial could have been used as a simple clock by the workmen that toiled away digging and decorating the Ramesside tombs.

 University of Basel News Release 14 March, 2013                              [photo courtesy of the University of Basel]

This year’s NASS Conference will be held Aug. 22-25, 2013 in Boston/Cambridge, Massachusetts at the Courtyard by Marriott. Be sure to mark your calendar for this special event celebrating the Society’s 20^th year.  Details on the cost of the conference and accommodations will be posted when details are finalized.

In a departure from the usual agenda of having a bus tour excursion of area sundials, on Aug. 23^rd members will focus on two exhibits at Harvard – the primary one being the exhibit “Time and Time Again” curated by Dr. Sara J. Schechner long time NASS member holding the position as the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. Featured objects will include portable sundials and precision clocks, calendars from different cultures and epochs, time charts shaped like animals, Mesopotamian, Native American, and African ritual objects, fossils, and metamorphosing creatures.  Visit http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hsdept/chsi_tta.html for more exhibit details.

NASS attendees can add their own outlooks on time and sundials by making presentations on the varied arts of sundials and displaying their creative works.  Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to sign up for presentations and display space.

[photo of the Lienhart Miller 1629 sundial from the CHSI by permission]

In 2002, the North American Sundial Society recognized John Carmichael with the Sawyer Dialing Prize as an eminent artisan who creates a wide variety of sundials, principally in stone and glass. In recognition, John received a small brass equitorial sundial made by the renowned British artisan Tony Moss.  But for nearly a decade the sundial remained on John's workbench never seeing the full light of day.

Recently Mr. Carmichael completed a 24:1-scale model railroad in his back yard (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jlcarmichael/sets/72157632430552837/with/8348506244/). Now his Sawyer Dialing Prize sundial finally sits in the Arizona sun as a miniature "Monumental Sundial" at the Trolley Station.  At the 24:1 scale, the 3-inch dial assumes the proportion of a large 6-foot equatorial sundial. You can see John Carmichael's dials at http://www.sundialsculptures.com/.

In 2009 Holland College on Prince Edward Island began a major $17M renovation and expansion program, including a large open-space quadrangle. Vice President Michael O'Grady was commissioned Tony Moss of Lindisfarne Sundials [now retired] to make a replica sundial Captain Samuel Holland had given to Dartmouth College, New Hampshire in 1773. Tony undertook the work to create a copy of the dial, redeclinating it to the new site in Charlottetown in Prince Edward Island with the proviso that he "might replace the original ... chapter ring scrolls with some of my own design." Tony further commented, "I think the engraver was indulging an apprentice with the less-critical parts of the job..."

The full story of the making of this sundial will appear in the Bulletin of the British Sundial Society and in an article of The Compendium of the North American Sundial Society.

Photo courtesy of Holland College:

http://www.hollandcollege.com/news/news_detail.php?id=1669

Meanwhile read more of the history behind this sundial:

Sudhanshu Mishra reports in Mail-Online-India that the World Heritage Site at Jaipur, the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatory is in severe decline because of neglect.

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, also known as Singh II, directed several the building of a astronomical observatories at Ujjain, Varanasi, Jaipur, Mathura, and Deli.  From his research, Jai Singh II concluded that accuracy of observation could only be obtained with large, stationary instruments. The giant Jaipur observatory consisting of 16 different instruments took 15 years to build and was completed in 1734.

Most famous at Jaipur is the Brihat Samrat Yantra (translated as “large sun instrument”) a giant equatorial sundial with a polar gnomon height of 89 feet 9 inches.  It’s thickness of 8 feet is wide enough for a stairway to the top.  The overall dimension of this dial occupies a square 146 feet on a side to hold not only the gnomon but the equatorial band, called the Zodiac Circle (Rashivalaya), for reading the sun’s shadow to a phenomenal accuracy of 2 seconds of time. [1]

But the equatorial circle has worrying fractures and chemical treatments may have hastened structural disintegration.  According reports in Mail-Online-India, “Superintendent of the Jantar Mantar, Om Prakash Sharma, said the matter of cracks and decay came to notice only recently and corrective measures would be taken soon.”   “Jodharam Babar, deputy director in the state's archaeology and museums department, said the matter would be referred to experts before any corrective measures are taken.”

And to date, indeed, no action has been taken.  India is letting the world’s largest sundial, a World Heritage Site, disintegrate before our eyes.

[1] Brandmaier, H. “Famous Sundials of India”, North American Sundial Society’s The Compendium,  Vol. 2 Nr. 4 pp. 4-9,  Dec. 1995

Some sundial artisans and their work are instantly recognizable.  Back in 2010 on the wall of the Yancey Times Journal building in Burnsville, North Carolina, astronomer Bob Hampton and artist Martin Weaver created the Quilt Block Sundial, an 8x8 foot vertical dial colorfully painted by volunteers from the Quilt Trails of North Carolina.

Now in Wilkesboro is another wonderful sundial created by the Hampton-Weaver team.  The new sundial, done as another block-quilt montage (this time in cerulean blues and mountain greens) was dedicated on 19 December 2012 at a ceremony at the south wall of the Wilkesboro Police Department building where the 8x8 foot vertical dial was unveiled.

The new dial is sponsored by the Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes County to promote and increase art awareness of literary, performing and visual arts.  Mrs. McKenzie of the Arts Council said “I had heard about the about the new dial in Burnsville, so I asked my husband, Reid, if we could make a side trip on the way home [to see the Quilt Block Sundial]…the rest is history.”  Read more about how this dial inspired the Wilkesboro dial and the importance of this new sundial for Wilkes County.  This is made possible through the partnership of the Cultural Arts Council and the Wilkes County Quilt Guild.  You never know where a good quilt will lead you.  Read more: Wilkesboro Sundial in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot [photo from the Wilkes Journal-Patriot]

Bill Nye, The Science Guy gives a 7 minute TED-ED talk describing the excitement of creating sundials on Mars.  http://ed.ted.com/lessons/sending-a-sundial-to-mars-bill-nye

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, a nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas of worth.  Conferences are held each year with more than 50 guest speakers to motivate the audience on many different fields and now through YouTube, you can share the excitement of sundialing.

Bill describes his father’s imprisonment during World War II and, as family tradition tells it, used a shovel dug into the ground to tell both time and season.  Upon release after 44 months, “My father became fascinated with sundials, … so he created the well known sand dial which you take to the beach so that you don't get sand in your watch ... oh, everyone needs one believe me ...”

“He wrote articles for the Washington DC area newspapers and he eventually wrote a book about sundials and that's when he was given a lifetime membership in the North American Sundial Society…”

Bill Nye inherited his father's fascination with sundials. At Cornell University Bill saw the design of the Photometric Calibration Target designed for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.  “We’ve got to turn the Photometric Calibration Target into a sundial … [and] there are now two sundials on Mars.” An addendum to the video recognizes that there are now three with the landing of the Curiosity rover.

Want to know what the Martian analemma looks like compared to that of the earth?  Or how sundial people party? (“It’s nuts”).  Or what is “Sundial Obsessive Disorder”?  See the video and find out! http://ed.ted.com/lessons/sending-a-sundial-to-mars-bill-nye

And as part of the excitement of sending sundials to Mars, Bill describes the effort to have people all over the earth create sundials of a standard design (using a ping pong ball as the nodus of the gnomon).  With Curiosity’s landing, again the “Two Worlds – One Sun” sundial and webcam project is underway.  Visit the Planetary Society for detailed instructions in making the sundial at: http://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/earth-dial/instructions.html.