NASS is pleased to announce the upcoming sixth instance of Elements of Dialing, our introductory course about sundials, their history, and the science that makes them work. The free 12-lesson course, intended for those are new to sundialing, runs from 28 October 2026f until 13 April 2027. The course instructor is Robert Kellogg, NASS Vice President and Sundial Registrar. Bob will be assisted from time to time by other NASS officers.
The course is self-study, meaning written lessons are emailed out for course participants to work through in their own time. To help things along, we schedule two optional zoom sessions for each lesson. These optional sessions allow participants to discuss the lessons together, ask about the material, and ask about practice exercise questions.
During each lesson there are practice exercises (with answers later sent during the second week). There is a final quiz of one or two questions for the Lesson which must be submitted to the course instructor in order to receive the next lesson The course itself has no grade nor "pass/fail".
The course is scheduled to start on 28 October 2026 and will operate on a 2-week cycle, although two zoom sessions will not be held to accommodate holidays.
To register, contact Robert Kellogg at rkellogg@comcast.net no later than October 25th. Familiarity with basic geometry, algebra, and trigonometry at High School level is assumed. Membership in NASS is not required to join the course.
NASS acknowledges the efforts of Frans Maes, who developed the original Dutch course which inspired our NASS version.
Course Schedule and Syllabus can be downloaded here:
Elements of Dialing - 2026 Schedule and Syllabus.pdf680.28 KB