What's New Under The Sun
Clark College Celebrates Sundial at 40th Anniversary
Thursday, 07 May 2026 20:28
In August, 2009 the NASS Conference was held in Portland, Oregon and visited the sundial at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. The equatorial sundial, built in 1984, had just received a new gnomon: an analemmatic or "bowling pin" gnomon that corrects for the Equation of Time. On May 4th, 2026 the local newspaper of Clark County, the Columbian, reported that more than 40 years after its...
1720 American-Made Brass Sundial up for Auction
Tuesday, 21 April 2026 16:47
Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas, is auctioning a brass dial signed by "Patrick Hepburn, Marlborough, Maryland, 1720".. The dial face has a rich green patina with rough but accurate engraving of Roman numeral hours, delineated with half, quarter and eighth hour marks. The dial has an eight point compass rose with lettered points. Latitude is engraved as "LATT 39".The wide, but...
New Sundial Glossary of Terms
Sunday, 12 April 2026 21:30
Do you wonder what a Bifilar Sundial is? Or a Campbell-Stokes Recorder? Maybe you are studying facts about astrolabes and come across the word almucantar. Are they rings in the sky?
Our perhaps you want to make a vertical dial and need the trigonometric formula to draw the hour lines and have forgotten where to look. All of these questions can be answered plus internet and NASS...
British Columbia goes on Permanent Daylight Time - 2026
Monday, 06 April 2026 01:08
The Times Colonist in an article of March 28, 2026 by Hannah Link, reports that as of November 2026, British Columbia will change to permanent daylight time. "That means sundials in B.C. will always be one hour behind, no matter the time of year, said Victoria-based sundial enthusiast Steve Lelievre."
Photo: Times Colonist - The sun shines on the Sundial Garden in Beacon Hill...
World Sundial Day - UPDATE April 2026
Monday, 09 March 2026 15:10
Building on the success of the 2025 inaugural event celebrating world sundial day on March 20th, 2026. This global online gathering celebrates sundials, timekeeping, astronomy, history, art, mathematics, craftsmanship, and cultural heritage across the world.
World Sundial Day was originally created by Esteban Martínez Almirón on his website Reloj Andalusí. World Sundial Day is celebrated...
NASS Conference Coming to Louisville, KY - June 25-28, 2026
Thursday, 22 January 2026 18:30
UPDATE: We will have a special tour of the Kentucky Viet Nam Memorial Sundial. See the attachment about the construction of this wonderful memorial.
Get ready to travel. This year the 31th NASS annual conference will be held in Louisville, KY at the Hyatt Regency Hotel June 25th - June 28th. The conference starts Thursday June 25th at 4:30pm with an opening reception, introductions,...
Madison Historic Dial Returns
Monday, 13 October 2025 22:49
On October 4, 2025 Madison Historical Society of Ohio was able to have their sundial returned after 32 years, when in 1993 it was moved to the lawn of Lake County Courthouse to reduce the chance of vandalism. The sundial was originally placed at Madison Home 100 years ago on Saturday, October 24, 1925 during a conference of the Women's Relief Society. From 1904 to 1962 the state ran this...
Elements of Dialing Course - 2025
Monday, 15 September 2025 19:42
NASS is pleased to announce the upcoming fifth 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 27 October 2025 until 26 April 2026. The course instructor is Robert Kellogg, NASS Vice President and Sundial Registrar. Bob will be...
Sun Queen of World War II
Thursday, 11 September 2025 23:11
A Hungarian born American scientist, Mária Telkes (1900-1995), was called "The Sun Queen" and among other honors, was postmousthly inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She lived to 95 and for most of her life developed solar power in a variety of forms.
Trained as a biophysicist, she worked for Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, PA, where she...
2025 Conference -Ottawa
Thursday, 28 August 2025 23:25
The annual NASS Conference was held 7-10 August, 2025 in Ottawa. As usual, the conference began late Thursday afternoon with an introduction social and a "grab bag give away", taking your chances with tickets to win the bag's prize. Will Grant was the final winner of the Walton Double Planar Polar Sundial, but Paul Ulbrich beat the statistic odds and won this prize three times,...
Prosciutto di Portici Sundial's Owner
Tuesday, 10 June 2025 18:51
Prosciutto di Portici (Ham) Sundial
Photo: Getty Images
The Prosciutto di Portici Sundial, more often called the Portici Ham Sundial, dates from the first century somewhere between 8 BCE to 79 CE. This small silvered bronze dial was uncovered on 11 June, 1755 in the ruins of Herculaneum (current day Portici) in the "Villa of the Papyri", buried in...
Hamilton Dial Dedicated
Friday, 06 June 2025 21:01
Sundial dedication May 31, 2025. At left is Kathleen Stuckey Fox, with the City Proclamation presented by Mayor Pat Moeller and City Council on-lookers Carla Fiehrer and Susan Vaughn offering congratulations.
On May 31, 2025 at 1pm, the Hamilton, Ohio, sundial (NASS Sundial Registry #1109) was re-dedicated in Monument Park. Originally dedicated in 1941 to the...
Subcategories
Shadow Catchers
The Shadow Catchers Series is a treasure trove of original dialing books. To preserve the art and methods of dialing, The North American Sundial Society began its sponsorship of
Each title in the collection is a reproduction of a centuries-old dialing text not readily available elsewhere. Originally each title was available only for a limited time as a hardbound printed book. Now the entire collection is available now in economical softbound (perfect binding) printed volumes and, of course, they are still available on CD.
The eight volumes span from Samuel Foster's Art of Dylling (1638) to Jacques Ozanam - A Treatise of Gnomonicks (1712) and can be ordered by special arrangement through LuLu Books or you may order a CD disk of the Shadow Catchers: NASS Publications Order Form
Sundial Registry
The Sundial Registry is a list of sundials registered with The North American Sundial Society that contains nearly 700 dials across North America. These dials represent significant sundial art, sculpture, and historical works that are on public display.
It is the intention of the NASS Register to list every significant sundial on the North American continent and surrounding islands. We have a good head start, but there are many dials yet to be recorded, and even recorded dials change over time.
You can to help by visiting sundials in your area and sending pertinent information (1) by mailing in the PDF form at the bottom, (2) by using the on-line form, or (3) by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We need basic descriptions of dials that have reasonable public access. Go dial hunting! Visit the dials in your area or as you travel, and send us your updates and discoveries. We need your input and we like surprises!
For the first time we are able to present the COMPLETE Sundial Registry database of public dials, some of which have many interesting photos never seen before.
NASS Members and the NASS Registar thank Chi Lian who visited 112 dials in 15 states and submitted numerous, excellent photos.