2001 Conference - Montreal
Faced with the turmoil of September 11th, many NASS members were unable to attend the conference. André Bochard began by giving description of sundials in the Stewart Museum collection, visited by the conferees the following day. Fred Sawyer described the beginning of the Shadow Catcher series, a set of digital reproductions of historical dialing books. Then, a number of interesting sundials were described, including the Sunmaster universal ring dial, an update on digital sundials, and a new type of horizontal dial from Fred Sawyer. André Bochard gave the conferees information on the formation and operation of Commission des Cadrans Solaire de Québec, the society devoted to French Canadian sundialing. Bill Gottesman spoke about his “Mathematical Expedition to the North Pole”, illustrating the concepts by juggling a bowling ball. The sundial tour included the Steward Museum and outdoor equatorials seen on a sunny day at the Parc régional de Longueuil and the marina de Boucherville.
See these dials and much more in the PDF download: 
2001_NASS_Conference_Montreal.pdf
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2000 Conference - San Francisco
Ron Anthony, Carl Trost and Mark Gingrich organized the 2000 NASS conference in San Francisco. A wide variety of sundial papers were presented, including Carl Trost’s description of the 1913 opening of the Ingleside Terrace sundial with a 28-foot gnomon, Robert Kellogg’s description of the “Amazing Maize Maze” the largest “organic” sundial, and educational insights by Mac Oglesby and Paul Lapp who reminded the conferees that “Toves don’t do Trig”. Download the PDF to read about the other sundial talks and discover the Azimeter and Sawyer Equant dials are all about. The sundial tour included a visit to the Heliodon at the Energy Center of Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and a tour through San Francisco and Berkely to see a number of dials including the Entrada Court horizontal dial at Ingleside Terracethe large horizontal dial at Hunter’s Ridge and the Navigator’s Sundial on the back of a tortoise in Golden Gate Park, and the Sunstone Alignment stones at the Park and at Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley.
Read abou the full conference: 2000_NASS_Conference_SanFrancisco.pdf
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1999 Conference - Hartford
This year’s NASS conference was held in Hartford, CT with 50 attendees. There were many presenters from sculptor and sundial designer Robert Adzema to Mike Shaw, one of four attendees from the UK. There were many interesting dials on display, including Fritz Stumpges “Solar Flair” dial, Larry Bohlayer’s “Sun Vial, Bill Gottesman’s Spiral Sundial, Mac Oglesby’s shadow plane dial, Mayall’s Cube dial at CIGNA, Waugh’s pillar dial at University of Connecticut, and Judy Young’s “Sunwheel” stone alignment circle at University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Tom Kreyche presented a paper describing his computer program to update and expand NASS’s Dialist’s Companion software while Sara Schechner discussed the interrelation of sundials, time and Christianity, drawing upon many European cathedrals that served as giant meridian sundials. As with a number of previous conferences, it rained or was sunless for much of the Saturday sundial tour.
Read about the details of the conference: 1999_NASS_Conference_Hartford.pdf
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1998 Conference - Seattle
The attached PDF file begins “For the second year in a row, the Sun shone brightly on the annual NASS conference,” even though it was held at the University of Washington in Seattle. A large number of sundial related displays, outdoor demonstrations, and a local tour of Seattle area sundials provided “hands-on” experience for the conferees.
Woody Sullivan, conference host, described the “hands-on” experience of designing and building the large vertical dial on the Physics and Science building. Len Berggren presented history of gnomonics in medieval Islam, pointing out that the time of afternoon prayer is defined in terms of gnomon shadow length. The Seattle tour of sundials included the analemmatic sundial in Gasworks Park, dials at Billings Middle School, and the Webster Park Equatorial Sundial among many others. See what you missed, and download the PDF for all the details:
1998_NASS_Conference_Seattle.pdf
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1997 Conference - Chicago
About 45 members of NASS attended the third annual conference in the windy city of Chicago. The Adler Planetarium hosted the conference and provided a tour of their fine collection of astrolabes and sundials. Of particular interest was the special sundial exhibit prepared by Sara Schechner Genuth for the conferees in the History of Astronomy Department. NASS sessions started with John Shephed describing his design of a vertical declining sundial 56 feet wide. Warren Thom talked about sundial computer aided design using several popular programs. Fred Sawyer took the mathematical side and presented a new sundial, described as “Ptolemaic Coordinate Sundials” which he invented in response to a British Sundial Society challenge.
Download the PDF for full details:
1997_NASS_Conference_Chicago.pdf
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1996 Conference - Toronto
The NASS conference was held at the University of Toronto, where a number of unique dials were presented, including Paul Lapp’s garden analemmatic dial, and Bill Buckler’s analemmatic gnomon on an equatorial dial. Sara Schechner Genuth presented a paper on historical dials as evidence of consumer culture and Don Petrie explained his model sundial used to teach gnomonics. The dial tour included the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Michener Institute of Medical Technology.
Download the full details of the conference:
1996_NASS_Conference_Toronto.pdf
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