Dials of Interest

Dials of Interest

nass news 2023 jun Point of Infinity Julie Baumgardner in The Art Newspaper of Jan 13, 2023 reports on the construction project of Point of Infinity, a nearly 70 foot (21m) hyperbolic cone will reach toward the sky as part of a 50 million dollar park development on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island.

In a competition held by the San Francisco Arts Commision on behalf of the Treasure Island Development Authority, Hiroshi Sugimoto's design won over 500 other submissions with a hyperbolic cone stretching upwards into a needle. "Point of Infinity is not an arbitrary title—the work is based on the mathematical formula for infinity. According to the artist's project proposal, the starting point was not to ‘make’ a sculptural shape but to ask myself what should be ‘given’ to this very specific place'. [Hiroshi] set out to explore the limits of human memory and invention, conceiving 'a hyperbolic curve that would suggest both infinity and eternity: two converging curved lines, getting closer and closer but never meeting."

The sculpture also serves as a meridian seasonal marker, "[evoking] the Tower of the Sun, the centrepiece of the 1939 World's Fair in San Francisco, for which Treasure Island was originally constructed. A large stone will be etched with the position of the sun’s shadow on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes at noon. 'The creation of the pyramids is shrouded in mystery. By contrast, this tower will act as a symbol expressing humanity’s yearning for the infinite even 50 centuries in the future,' the artist writes. "

Details: Last Updated: 25 June 2023; Hits: 6982

nass news 2023 mar Light Times Arsham In the Swiss mountains near the resort of Zermatt just beneath the Matternhorn, Stir World reports that "famed luxury Swiss watchmaker Hublot announced Daniel Arsham as its new ambassador, with a compelling piece of temporary land art. Aptly titled "Light & Time", the work is a Hublot-inspired 20-metre sundial resting in the shadows of the Matterhorn mountain."

This sculptural is billed as an ephemeral horological installation "to merge the roots of timekeeping with the craftsmanship in land art." The central gnomon oblisk is surrounded by 6 symmetric markers of ice. However, to call it a sundial is going a bit too far. Yes, the tip of the gnomon shadow could be capable of telling time if hour marks were created and drawn correctly. Instead, there are size large ice cubes. There's a lot of hyperbolae in the description of this installation, such as Daniel Arsham's own statement: "Physically, the temporary installation will capture something of how fleeting time can feel, but it will also be lasting, creating a memory that transcends the passing of the seconds, minutes, hours and days in all those who make the journey up the mountain to see it." Perhaps more humbly, "When you see the installation, it’s made of ice and snow. Not only is it this thing that tells time and captures time, but it will also disappear and be erased by it."

Photo at right: courtesy of Hublot.

Read more, see more photos, and watch several videos at: https://www.stirworld.com/see-features-light-time-by-daniel-arsham-is-a-horological-land-art-made-of-ice-and-snow

Details: Last Updated: 30 March 2023; Hits: 6342

nass news 2022 dec santafe dial Sklar Bixby and Jeremy Meel, students at Santa Fe College in Florida took on a project to design and 3D-print a new sundial for the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium in Gainesville Florida (located on Santa Fe's Northwest Campus). Under the guidance of Dr. Philip Pinon, Sklar and Jeremy took on a semester long project as part of the Exploring Honors Mathematics class. They designed a horizontal sundial with noon gap, included a table of the Equation of Time, and added a motto Post Tenebras Spero Lucem (After the darkness I hope for light). The December 13, 2022 NewSFeed News from Santa Fe College https://news.sfcollege.edu/2022/12/13/kika-silva-pla-planetarium-gets-a-new-sundial/ quotes James Albury, manager of the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium, saying “I am very grateful for this wonderful gift that Dr. P., Skylar and Jeremy have given to our community. Thanks to them, Gavin Yurchisin’s Eagle project has found new life!”

Details: Last Updated: 18 December 2022; Hits: 6378

nass news 2022 jun smallest sundial nrl Dr. Jeremy Robinson, (Naval Research Laboratory, Electronics Science and Technology Division) combined efforts with his father-in-law, Prof. Woodruff Sullivan (Univ. of Washington Dept. of Astronomy) to construct the World's Smallest Sundial. The competition was sponsored by Cadrans Solaires pour Tous and their record is being entered into the Guiness Book of World Records.

The sundial is not the traditional design that uses a gnomon to cast a shadow onto a dial. In this sundial, the sun's image is projected through a small aperture through a transparent refractive medium onto a lithographically fabricated dial on the opposite side. The dial has hour lines from 8AM to 4PM, and the seasonal lines of the winter and summer solstice limits of the sun and the equinox. The sundial is too small to be read directly. Instead, the assembly is mounted directly onto the image array of a webcam so that the sundial can be viewed on a monitor.

In 2004 Dr. Sullivan and Jim Bell with the support of The Planetary Society and Bill Nye, "The Science Guy" turned a camera color calibration wheel on the two Martian rovers Spirit and Opportunity into sundials. 17 years later the University of Copenhagen created a similar dial for the Martian rover Perseverence, with the motto “Two Worlds, One Beginning”, which nicely refers to Spirit and Opportunity ’s motto “Two Worlds, One Sun”.

Thanks for Eric Snow of the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club (NOVAC) for bringing this sundial feat to our attention.

Details: Last Updated: 12 June 2022; Hits: 7267

nass news 2022 may sundial on grain of rice Perhaps the smallest sundial goes to IBM with the printing of a sundial in a corner of a computer chip. However it lacked a gnomon and could not really tell the time. However, Chen Fong-shean, a Taiwanese miniature craftsman, was challenged by the French astronomical society to beat the Guiness World Record for smallest sundial held by an Italian. The Italian dial created in 1999 measured 6.5mm x 5mm.

After failing a number of times Chen succeeded, carving a sundial on a grain of rice and setting a new world record of 5mm x 3mm. Reported in the Taipei Times, https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2022/05/26/2003778833 "Chen said that the secret of making a sundial out of a rice grain lies in securing the position of the grain during the process. He used tools such as a steel needle and writing brush to write tiny Arabic numbers from 6 to 18, covering the period between sunrise and sunset. Chen said that with the help of a magnifying glass, he wrote the numbers and drew lines on the sundial while holding his breath. The spacing of each number had to be carefully arranged since the rice grain was so small, he added. Chen said he found the work meaningful because it was an act of people-to-people diplomacy."

Details: Last Updated: 28 May 2022; Hits: 6499

nass news 2022 may zweibrüken observatory Hochshule KaiserLautern Observatory. HSKL PhotoWhen is an astronomical observatory not an observatory? When it's playing the roll of R2-D2.

According to Atlas Obscura, "A university in Germany [Hochschule KaisersLautern, University of Applied Scieces Kaiserslautern at the Zweibrücken campus] has transformed its hilltop observatory into the charming likeness of RD-D2. The blue and white building looks like an oversized replica of the beloved Star Wars robot. The project that transformed the building into this pop culture homage was led by Dr. Hubert Zitt, an immense fan of the franchise who even gives lectures on the films. He and his students were quickly able to paint the observatory and turn it into the quirky attraction it is today."

"The building itself is a small public observatory that holds a 14-inch reflector with a myriad of filters and attachments. The place, though part of the university, is not used for science and is instead used for public showings."

Atlas Obscura link: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/zweibrucken-r2-d2-observatory?mc_cid=75548a5d3c&mc_eid=9fa6642923

Details: Last Updated: 05 May 2022; Hits: 5538

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Current Sun

Sundial Question?

Select Your State

Point of Infinity Hyperbolic Monument in San Francisco

Ice Sculpture Ephemeral in Time

New Sundial for Kika Silva Pla Planetarium

World's Smallest Sundial Gets a Lot Smaller

Guiness Record for Smallest Sundial

Germany Observatory Gets Unusual Paint Over