What's New Under The Sun

Saturday, 04 December 2021 17:52

Frans Maes of the Netherland Sundial Society writes: "We deeply regret to inform you that Hans de Rijk, founding member in 1978 and honorary member of the Netherlands' Sundial Society, passed away on November 23, at the age of 95. He served in the Board of the Society for many years and wrote some 150 articles in its Bulletin. Among these were important contributions, such as a latitude...

Tuesday, 28 September 2021 21:55

Sundials have always been part of gardens,e Morse Earle's book Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday written 120 years ago. Her book title expanded on the cover with the subtitile "Garden Delights Which are Here Displayed in Very Truth and are Moreover Regarded as Emblems." Thomas Christopher, a volunteer at the Berkshire Botanical Garden is author of a number of books on gardening and creates the...

Friday, 17 September 2021 17:09

Seattle, WA wants to call itself the sundial capital of the world, but it runs a pale second to Birkenau, Germany. This small village in the south of Germany with about 10,000 inhabitants holds the record as the village with the highest density of sundials in the world. (https://www.sonnenuhren-birkenau.de/service-269/news/news-details/world-record-for-the-village-of-sundials.html). You can find...

Monday, 16 August 2021 16:45

The North American Sundial Society, after by-passing the 2020 Conference due to Covid restrictions, held the 26th annual meeting from August 5th - 8th at the Hilton Garden Inn, Center City, Philadelphia. The venue was similar to past conferences: Thursday night social and door prizes for attendees, Friday a bus tour of 11 sundials in the Philadelphia area, Saturday sundial presentations and...

Monday, 16 August 2021 16:38

This year's Sawyer Dialing Prize went to Dr. Sara Schechner “for her career in education and conservation of our dialing heritage, and in particular for her authorship of Time of Our Lives – Sundials of the Adler Planetarium”. Dr. Schechner is a historian of science, and in particular, of astronomical instruments. She is the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific...

Monday, 26 July 2021 18:00

By the Light of the Moon Photo by Dr. Jeff Kretsch The analemmatic (human) sundial at Turner Farm Observatory Park in Great Falls, VA made by Eagle Scout candidate Kenny Dieffenderfer and Troop 1547 marked a unique place in sundialing history this July 23rd. The Analemma Society sponsors free Friday night public viewing of the heavens through telescopes at Turner Farm's...

Sunday, 30 May 2021 21:42

Dr. Jessica Warren, lecturer of physics and astronomy at Indiana University Northwest, is active in science outreach and education.  She is also passionate about sundials.  For Indiana University outreach shecreated a video "The Garden Sundial - Much More than an Ornament" that presents a brief history of the sundial, how they work, and where to get one or make one.  You can...

Tuesday, 13 April 2021 02:46

The first sundial in the NASS Registry is the dial from Carefree, Arizona. This 35 foot tall dial was designed by architect Joe Wong and solar engineer John Yellott and when built in 1959 was considered the second largest sundial in the world. You can see in the accompanying photo that hanging midway along the sundial's gnomon is a garish colored ball, a "Sunburst". [It is partially hidden by a...

Thursday, 04 March 2021 04:25

Photos courtesy of Kevin Franklin unless otherwise noted   This article is reproduced by permission from Hudson Valley on-line magazine of Feb 17,2021 and can accessed directly at https://hvmag.com/life-style/history/missing-sundial-hudson-valley-hillside-dean-sage/  It was written by Jonathan Ortiz with information from NASS/BSS member Martin Jenkins and fellow researcher Kevin...

Wednesday, 07 October 2020 20:19

Every Thursday at noon central time the Adler Planetarium presnts "Adler Astronomy Live" with a variety of interesting topics and speakers.  On Thrsday Oct 8th, 2020 the series presents Dr. Sara Schechner on the topic of Time, Culture, and Social Change.  As the Adler website states: "The Adler Planetarium has the best and most comprehensive collection of sundials in North America....

Thursday, 07 May 2020 18:12

Google Arts and Culture offers you to take a virtual tour of the 13th century observatory Jantar Mantar in Delhi. At the opening view (see the website link below), the Google tour explains: "Innovations in architectural astronomy: The Jantar Mantar Obervatory, Delhi's outdoor astronomical observatory is the earliest of five observatories built by Sawai Jai Singh II across India. It is dominated...

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