Westminster Dial with Analemma
Westminster Dial with Analemma Casting Mirror on Top Photo Credit: Robert Clark How do you get the people of your town interested in astronomy? Robert (Bob) L. Clark a retired professor of mathematics and computer science and member of the Westminster Astronomical Society had the obvious answer: Build a unique sundial.
In the grassy field next to Hoffman’s Ice Cream in Westminster, the Westminster Astronomical Society dedicated a simple horizontal dial attached to a pole with a unique “ornament” … a vertical south facing mirror.
At the dedication on May 24th 2014 Jim Reynolds, director of the Bear Branch Nature Center Planetarium, demonstrated what will become a weekly noontime ritual of catching sunlight from the first-surface mirror as it hits the ground and marking the spot with a brick at precisely 12:12 Eastern Standard Time.
The sun of course keeps local solar time, not Eastern Standard Time and that extra 12 minutes past noon accounts for the correction to mean solar time as seen from Westminster Maryland.
The resulting difference between local solar time and mean solar time throughout the year is know as the Equation of Time and the path the sun will follow is the analemma. The sun’s excursion during the year travels not only north and south of the celestial equator by 23o ½ degrees, but performs a double east-west swing of about +/- 15 minutes during the year … exceeding or lagging mean solar time, resulting in a figure 8.
The Westminster Astronomical Society intends to place a brick into the ground at the sunspot mark each week, resulting in a giant path of bricks that trace out the figure 8 of the analemma as cast as 12:12pm onto the grassy field. Read more of Jon Kelvey's article at: carroll_county_times
While helping a friend with a camera obscura project, the idea for a mirror to trace the analemma came quickly to Bob who wants to popularize astronomy and get his town behind their Astronomical Society and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
As the Westminster Astronomical Society looks for a permanent site to house their telescopes, they’re looking for a way to make their presence known. And perhaps what a better way than to create an analemmatic sundial? Manchester, you too may have a sundial in your midst.
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Renaissance Dial - It's Academic
Telling Time - Close up of the helical ring contining time marks - courtesy of Precision Sundials - Bill GottesmanThe Andalusia Star News reports that the Lurleen B. Wallace (LBW) Community College in Andalusia, Alabama, has a new timepiece that President Herb Riedel says, “… is a device used for practical purposes to keep time, but they also take on a symbolic meeting. For a college campus, I thought it would be very appropriate because it combines science and art.”
Indeed, the sundial is a large helical sundial, a modern “Renaissance” sundial designed by Bill Gottesman of Precision Sundials in Vermont.
http://www.precisionsundials.com When the dial is adjusted for the day of the year it reflects a beam of light from mirrors sitting on the inclined gnomon back onto a helical band inscribed with hour and minute marks. The dial is a precision instrument, telling civil time to an accuracy of less than one minute. While most sundials tell solar time marking noon as the moment the sun passes the meridian, the Renaissance helical dial is adjusted daily to show true clock time. Several years ago at a North American Sundial Society conference where the helical dial was displayed, observers were able to tell time to 10 seconds. This is rather remarkable since the sun's diameter (measured in time passage) is about two minutes and therefore requires the concave mirrors to reflect a converging beam that sharpen the sun's image, a sundial technique covered by US Patent 6,301,793.
President Riedel is proud to have this timepiece at LBW Community College saying, “It’s been my dream for many years to acquire this particular sundial, and it’s only been here in Andalusia that I was able to get one for LBW… I hope it will generate some thinking and learning, but I also hope that it will inspire people to think about who we are as humans in relation to the world, and that there are things greater than ourselves.”
The dial is made for the location of the College at 31o 19’ 19” North latitude, 86o 27’ 4” West longitude. Other Renaissance sundials dot the academic landscape including the University of Maryland, Rockville campus in Maryland, University of Houston at Clear Lake, Texas, and Louisiana State University, Louisiana.
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Four Minutes Til Sunset
Eight years ago (2005) the University of Western Australia (UWA) commissioned a talented graduate, artist Shaun Tan, to create an impressionistic sundial for the 100th anniversary of UWA. The fundamentals of the west-facing sundial were delineated by UWA Professor Peter Kovesi of the Geophysics and Image Analysis Group.
ShaunTan then took Professor Kovesi's hour lines and artistically designed a ver modern looking western declining vertical sundial, created with a pixilated map that was turned into 337,600 glass chips (tessera) by artisan tiler Iain H. Middleton from V-vo Architectural Mosaics, with Ankit Gakhar, Darren Hay and Brody Osborne. The mosaic suppliers Bisazza from Vicenza, Italy selected the colored glass to give Shaun Tan’s brilliance as well as accuracy. They prepared 375 squares each containing 900 individual tessera and shipped them from Vicenza to Perth. In all, UWA states that “To create the background, place the tiles, clean and detail, grout and polish has taken approximately 560 man-hours.”
The 4.56×8.0 m. sundial was unveiled in January 2013, mounted with precision on a west wall of the University Club building located on the UWA campus in Crawley, Perth. A star-shaped gnomon with an open annulus casts a spot of time on the wall. During the course of the afternoon, the spot moves from the bottom of the wall to the top, recording Italian Hours until sunset, a common and practical way of measuring time used since the Arabic sundial of al-Shatir in 1371. The final sunset line is a race between the gnomon shadow and a shadow from a further western building. Watch the time-lapse video created by Nic Montagu to see which shadow wins the race. The dial marks the annual limits of the sun’s shadow at the solstices (summer on the left hand and winter on the right hand side) and a middle line for the equinoxes.
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Bainbridge Island Equatorial Sundial
The Battle Point Astronomical Association, founded in 1992, provides astronomical observing for science education and public enjoyment at Ritchie Observatory and Planetarium in Battle Point Park on Bainbridge Island, Washington.
UPDATE: In 2013 the Association designed a large equatorial sundial to excite curiosity and demonstrate the basic concepts of time and the motion of the earth. A wooden model of the sundial showed that it will be not only an accurate timepiece using an analemma shaped gnomon to tell civil time, but also would be a beautiful sculpture. “There currently is nothing like it on Bainbridge Island,” stated the Association.
By 2014 the group has raised nearly $20,000 towards the project. "Our community has a strong sense of stewardship of the public good. When you support the sundial, you’ll help create a significant and meaningful work of public art that will bring beauty as well as an appreciation of time and the day sky to the everyday life of our community.” The dial was installed in 2014
In 2025 the group is reaching for the stars: FULL STEAM AHEAD - "At BPAA’s Ritchie Observatory, we believe every child deserves the chance to explore the wonders of the universe. Our STEAM initiative aims to ignite their passion for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) by offering unique, hands-on learning experiences that combine the wonders of the night sky with both technical and creative exploration. Our year-end goal is to raise $50,000 to provide free, hands-on astronomy and art programs to school-aged youth throughout our community. "
In the video below Professor Emeritis Woody Sullivan, "Mr. Sundial", explains the enthusiasm for sundials in the Pacific Northwest and the goal to make Seattle the sundial capital of North America.
DONATE AT: https://bpastro.org/
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Southwind Park to get 20-foot Tall Dial
Southwind Park in Springfield Illinois is a National Model Park. It got its start in October 2004 when trustees accepted the donation of 80 acres of land just off South Second Street. Their website states "Our unique state-of-the-art park serves as a national model by proving a new dimensions of inclusion for all people." A park without boundaries that accomodates people in wheelchairs and visitors with special needs.
Along the 2 1/2 miles of concrete paths are accessible playgrounds, fishing piers and even a tree house. One of the more striking features is the Selvaggio Arches, remounted in the park from the 1892-1893 Columbian Exposition of the Chicago World's Fair. This structure alone would make an interesting sundial.
The Rotary Club chapters throughout Springfield raised $60,000 for a 20-foot tall sundial. As reported by John Reynolds in the State Journal-Register, "Brian Barstead, past president of the Rotary Club of Springfield-Sunrise Club, said the sundial will be at the center of a garden and will be topped with a flower with a giant bumblebee. At noon, the shadow of the bee will mark the date of the year."
It appears that the sundial will be a horizontal dial using the bee as a nodus and the date marks placed on the north noon line. In addition to the main sundial in the garden, an analemmatic or "human" sundial will be constructed to allow interactive participation by children and their parents to tell time using their own shadow.
According to the State Journal-Register, "The five Springfield Rotary chapters are marking 100 years of service in Springfield this year. The sundial donation is part of that celebration." Barstead continued "If you look at what Rotary is all about, it’s about people using their time to do good things. If you look at the sun dial, it’s a symbol of time that goes back forever."
The dials should be completed by the end of the summer. Read more at:
http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x373359352/Follow-up-file-Work-to-start-soon-on-Southwind-Park-sundial#axzz2Vy5HWmxN
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Carmichael's Monumental Sundial
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 equatorial 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. 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/.
Note: When this was first published ore than a decade ago, there was a flurry of email comment on the Sawyer Prize. Some saw it as diminishing sundials in a "child's" setting. Others praised the dial as being "monumental". In any event, John's model railroad has grown. See his photos (and the Sawyer Dialing Prize) athttps://www.flickr.com/photos/jlcarmichael/albums/72157632430552837/
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