After two sunny days, we were greeted with the famous morning fog of San Francisco for our Saturday sundial tour! We then knew what Carl meant about wearing layers of clothing for the unexpected. We boarded the bus at 9 am and had a brief tour of the downtown area on our way to the first stop. Carl Trost treated us to local stories on the way.
Our first stop was the Energy Center of the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. Charles Benton and Ryan Straupe guided us through this center featuring ways to conserve energy including architectural uses of the sun. This is aided by the use of the Heliodon which holds models in the light of a fixed light to simulate the sun at different times and seasons.
 The Heliodon. |
Charles Benton, who designed the device, demonstrated its use and also mounted some sundials that had been brought along. We found that his Heliodon tested fairly well with our sundials. Charles described the work of his class in which students are asked to make sundials. Fred told him about Fer deVries' donation and asked how it could be used. Prof. Benton was overjoyed and said that it would enable the school to keep some of the better projects by offering a purchase prize.
Back on the bus, we traveled to a photographer's studio that featured a stylish vertical dial at the entrance.
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Then, still waiting for the sun to break through, the bus wound its way up one of the many hills to a park on "Hunter's Ridge". Here a 70-foot diameter horizontal sundial is dominated by a 78-foot yellow steel gnomon. An amphitheater of dark brick stands within the Southeast side of the time ring! We had a picture of the group standing under the gnomon - making toves of us all!
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Our next stop was the Ingleside Terraces Carl had shown us in pictures the day before. It is the site of a turn of the century racetrack now filled with homes. The fountain around the large gnomon is now filled in but we could still imagine where the maidens had danced.
 Entrada Court in Ingleside Terraces |
 The Gang - President Fred at right |
We traveled on toward Golden Gate Park warmed by more stories from Carl as the fog continued to scurry overhead. We went first to the Navigators' Dial by E. Earl Cummings. A half globe of the Western Hemisphere with a vertical dial on the other side commemorating the first three old world explorers of the Pacific coast of North America.
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Then we went to a small, "Shakespeare Garden" which had an English garden dial with a gnomon that had been cut down for 38 degrees, the latitude of San Francisco.
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The highlight of our Golden Gate Park visit was to have been "Sunstones I". Carl and Mark had carefully planned our tour so that we could be at this sculpture at noon in order to observe how the 16 tons of granite marks its passage. Indeed, the fog overhead cleared briefly for a glimpse of the shadow line on the rear stones.
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The fog overhead cleared when we arrived in the park's "Fuchsia Dell". This allowed us to check the misalignment of the unexpected horizontal dial there. In frustration and jest, a vain attempt was mounted to realign the massive pedestal and dial - all to no avail. Thanks to Ron Anthony's crew, Irene Webster and his daughter, Reenah Anthony, tasty box lunches and table and chairs were waiting.
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We crossed to Oakland getting a great view of the city and the bay. The sun shone brightly when we arrived at the courtyard at CHORI (Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute) where Carl had aligned the statue, and we all witnessed that it did read quite accurately.
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Traveling through Berkeley, the bus climbed above the university campus to the Lawrence Hall of Science. To our surprise, as we walked out on the plaza in front of the museum Charles Benton was there pursuing his hobby of flying a camera overhead by use of a kite! We gathered around for what proved to be another group photo. You can find out more about Prof. Benton's hobby at his web site: www.arch.ced.berkeley.edu/kap.
Behind the museum, on a bluff overlooking the bay, was another sculpture by Richard O'Hanlon aided by astronomer David Cudaback. "Sunstones II" had many alignments besides noon including planets. Even without the moon, planets or setting sun, the view of the Golden Gate Bridge was spectacular.
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Our last stop was on our way back to the Oakland Bay Bridge. Berkeley Pier used to be used for ferryboats before the bridge was built and extends for what seems to be a half-mile out over the shallows. At the shore there is now a marina where a large horizontal dial of poured concrete acts as a bench for visitors.
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Even for a Saturday the traffic going into San Francisco was just inching its way over the bay bridge. We had plenty of time to plan another evening in the city.
Return to the Conference on Sunday Morning