California
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San Diego |
California |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 815 |
| This broad band equatorial dial was dedicated in 1978 to George A. Koester, former Executive Dean of San Diego State University. The approximately 3-foot dial is on a brick pedestal situated on on a small dais. Concentric brick circles complete the large dial plaza. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 417 |
| A plain but nicely done brass horizontal dial about 2 feet in diameter mounted on a simple concrete pedestal. The dial is in good condition, but about 50 degrees out of alignment. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Sun Alignment |
Dial 418 |
| This is a 16 ton granite statue by Richard O'Hanlon entitled "Sunstone I" and was designed in collaboration with astronomer David Cudaback. A small wall of rock with a round inlay of dark stone is supported high upon two tall vertical slabs of granite. At the back is a "heel stone" with marks to show where the sunlight strikes at the Equinox and Solstice. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 419 |
| Hilltop Park was built by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in 1987. The Landscape Architect was Michael Painter and Associates. Here is a giant sundial 70 feet in diameter with a bright yellow painted steel gnomon 78 feet long. The dial has a cement base and was designed to be used as the stage for a surrounding amphitheater. Dial shows wear and abuse, with graffiti covering the lower portion of the gnomon. Still, it is awe inspiring. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 420 |
| A small 10-inch cast iron dial from England honors Shakespeare in a garden of the same name. The dial is on a small pedestal in the middle of the courtyard walkway and surrounded by trees. Lovely, but many shadows pass over the dial during the day. The dial plate was made for latitude 54 degrees. The gnomon appears to have been cut down to accommodate the 38 degrees for San Francisco. This "hack" method of correcting a sundial does not give correct time. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 421 |
| Dial is on an outside wall above the entrance to a private residence. The dial was designed by Stan Musilek. The dial back is made out of galvanized steel. Metal rails indicate the hours. Instead of Arabic or Roman numerals, the proper number of steel balls indicate the time of each hour. Overall, the dial is 4 by 6 feet. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 20 |
| Known as the "Navigators' Dial", this sundial is dedicated to three early explorers of the California coast. The dial itself is a sliced bronze globe of the earth sitting on the back of a tortoise. Overall, the globe hemisphere is about 2 1/2 feet in diameter, showing the world in relief centered on California. The flat face of the hemisphere is a beautiful vertical reclining dial. The dial sits atop a cylindrical stone column. |
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San Francisco |
California |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 82 |
| Built in 1913 as a promotion for a housing development that was once a racetrack, this dial boasted (incorrectly) that at 34 feet in diameter and a gnomon style 28 feet in length, it was the largest dial in the world. Nevertheless it gathered much publicity and newspaper articles thanks to the Urban Realty Improvement Co. The company put out a brochure "The Sundial at Ingleside Terrace with Comments on Homes" using the sundial as a lure to attract home buyers to the newly constructed residential neighborhood. On Oct 10, the same day the Panama Canal was opened, a festive gala was held at the sundial dedication attended by more than 1500 people. Photos show young girls dancing around a small pool that surrounded the gnomon. A light (visible in several early photos) dangled from the tip of the gnomon. Bronze statues of seals were originally in the pool, but by 1920 the pool was filled with concrete and the seals were gone. Today the pool area is painted green. |
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San Juan |
Puerto Rico |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 349 |
| A round pillar supports a rock cube with vertical dials on all four faces. This is one of the oldest in the Americas, erected by the Spanish around 1645 during the rule of Fernando de la Riva y Aguero. The vertical dial cube was crowned with a weather vane on top. This sundial was the first to be installed in the Antilles and was probably the second sundial to be placed in the New World. |
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San Ramon |
California |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 726 |
| This 5 x 5 x 6.5 foot stainless steel bow-string equatorial sundial is a precise heliochronometer with internal cam mechanism to correct for the Equation of Time. This exceptional dial is made of welded stainless steel sheet and weighs 330 pounds according to the designer Lee Palmer Stephenson. The dial face of the 60 inch diameter equatorial ring is marked with hour, half-hour, 15 minute, 5 minute and one minute lines and Arabic hour numerals showing PST and PDT. |
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San Ygnacio |
Texas |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 571 |
| A stone equatorial dial with an iron gnomon. Inscribed on both sides with hour lines. Placed above an entrance to a walled fort also built in 1851. Legend says Jose Villarreal designed and built the dial to celebrate his escape in 1820 as a child after capture by Lipan Apache Indians and being guided by the north star in his return home. Dial Recorder Mary Garza is the great-great-granddaughter of Jose Villarreal. |
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Sandwich |
Massachusetts |
USA |
Armillary Sphere |
Dial 175 |
| Bronze armillary dial about 40 inches in diameter, weighing between 1100-1200 pounds. The dial has wide 4 inch meridian and equatorial rings. The equatorial ring is flanked with small arctic and antarctic circles near the poles. The gnomon is a brass rod 1 inch in diameter. According to Heritage Museum, "Originally the sundial was highly polished and the engravings on the dial and the instruction plaques were all filled with red paint to make it easier to read. The piece has acquired a patina now and traces of the red paint are still visible." The dial is corrected for longitude and along one side of the octagonal stone pedestal is a graph of the equation of time with instructions on how to read corrected time from the dial. |
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Santa Barbara |
California |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 232 |
| A small bronze equatorial dial made by Victor E. Edwards in the 1920's. It has an unusual crescent shaped arm with notch at the upper end. The arm is rotated until sunlight through the notch strikes an analemma on the lower inner curve of the crescent. Time is then read on a circular dial from an "hour hand" pointer extending from the base of the crescent. The dial is mounted on a granite pedestal with spherical top 21 inch high. |
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Santa Clara |
California |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 774 |
| A 5 foot 9 inch wide cast bronze ring equatorial dial on a low brick mortared pedestal. The full semicircular hour ring has hour, half-hour, fifteen minute and 5 minute marks, and Roman hour numerals. The dial is lightly patinated and has a central gnomon rod with arrowhead. |
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Santa Cruz |
California |
USA |
Globe or Hemispheric |
Dial 824 |
| This is a globe dial with a twist: a glass sphere is used to represent the earth with continent lines scribed on the globe along with hour lines, analemma figure for each hour, tropic of cancer, tropic of capricorn, equator, and a line representing the local horizon. The globe is etched with the dial site at the globe's zenith. The dial has a central gnomon. When the shadow of a pointer falls on the gnomon the time is read using the correct side of the hour line analemma. |
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Santa Cruz |
California |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 1044 |
| This is a colorful dial raised on a dais so that traffic doesn't hit it. Called "Light Time", the center of the dial has an artful yellow-orange impression of a sun surrounded by planets, moons and even a comet. Hours are marked in two colors for standard and savings time. The gnomon is 3/8 inch steel in the silhouette of a light house beneath the style line acting as a beam of light. |
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Santa Cruz Island |
California |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 899 |
| This vertical dial has undergone a number of restorations since it was set in lime in 1889. A photograph from 1900 shows the placement of a gnomon rod is horizontal. In 1992 before the National Park Service restoration in 2012 the gnomon is set in a polar orientation. But it doesn't really matter since the hour lines are marked at nearly regular 15 degree intervals with half hour sub-marks. |
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Santa Rosa |
California |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 476 |
| An bronze equatorial dial about 2 feet in diameter. Stands in the middle of a Lotus flower |
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Santo Domingo |
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Dominican Republic |
Pillar Dial |
Dial 348 |
| At the upper end of a tapering pillar is a rock cube with vertical dials on two faces. The dial was erected during the administration of Francisco Rubio y Pernaranda around 1753 in front of the Governor's Palace and was used during the centuries of Spanish rule as the official marker of time. An equatorial dial was placed on top of the cube probably around 1787 and was later broken off by a hurricane. In 1992, as part of the Fifth Centennial Discovery activities, the equatorial dial was reinstalled on top. Dial sits atop a mortar or rock block. |
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Saratoga Springs |
New York |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 304 |
| A horizontal dial 43 feet in diameter, built on a raised circle flower bed raised about 3 feet above the ground. Outside the raised circle the hours are shown by roman numbers are embedded in the walkway. The metal gnomon is approximately 20 feet above ground and is centered in the raised flower bed. |
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Saratoga Springs |
New York |
USA |
Armillary Sphere |
Dial 951 |
| Beautiful iron armillary sundial about 6 feet high. Painted black it has gold Roman numeral hours on the equatorial time band. On the outside of the equatorial band are the twelve zodiac motifs and stars are on the meridian band. The gnomon deviates from the classic arrow, having a gold flange at the base and a spiked orb at the north end. |
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Saratoga Springs |
New York |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 954 |
| The beautifully engraved horizontal dial plate is a reproduction of the original 1901 dial. It is inscribed with “Lat 43 degrees 5 N, Long. 73 degrees 46.40 W.” This is at slight variance from the current GPS position, implying that the dial has been moved from its original position. The dial plate is 18 inches in diameter and the gnomon has a vertical height of 8.5 inches. The gnomon and dial plate are aligned at 12 degrees west of true north. Significantly, the compass magnetic declination for this location is 13.5 degrees west of true north. This misalignment makes the dial about 30 minutes fast. This is particularly unfortunate since the inscribed dial is capable of showing time to the nearest minute. The stone table upon which the sundial rests is a reproduction of a table found in the ruins of Pompeii. |
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Saratoga Springs |
New York |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 532 |
| A marble horizontal dial on marble sculpture pedestal. The original bronze Treble Cleft gnomon is now missing. |
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Saskatoon |
Saskatchewan |
Canada |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 980 |
| It is a replacement for a south-facing vertical dial that was in the same location until the 1990s. It is approximately 4-foot wide by 12 -foot long. The gnomon is a metal rod held by four struts. The dial tells local solar time, showing Roman hours from 6am to 6pm. There is an elaborate Equation of Time graph and instructions for use at the bottom of the dial. At the top is latitude, longitude and elevation. |
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Savannah |
Georgia |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 942 |
| An 8-inch diameter bronze dial, with the traditional hourglass and wings says "Grow old along with me, the Best is yet to Be", The chapter ring has Roman numerals with hour marks delineated every 15 minutes. The dial sits upon a concrete pillar inscribed to Louis Burke Toomer. |
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Savannah |
Georgia |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 705 |
| A 10 inch round bronze horizontal dial on an octagonal stone atop a 3 foot high brick pedestal. The pedestal is in the center of a 10 foot square stone area raised about 6 inches. Dial face has Roman numerals, hour lines, five minute marks and a central compass rose. This dial is located under a heavy canopy of trees and likely never gets direct sunlight today.
Surrounding plaques read, "In the center of this square the early colonists placed a sundial" and "Erected by the society of colonial wars in the state of Georgia Feb 1933 in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Georgia. |
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Savannah |
Georgia |
USA |
Armillary Sphere |
Dial 706 |
| A six foot diameter armillary sphere of steel and bronze with equatorial, meridian, equinoctial colure, ecliptic, Arctic and Antarctic rings. Equatorial ring has Roman hour numerals but no hour marks and includes gold plated Zodiacal symbols on exterior of ring. The sphere base is supported on the backs of cast tortoises atop a 3 foot high square marble pedestal. This dial is located under a heavy canopy of trees and likely never gets direct sunlight today. |
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Scarborough |
Ontario |
Canada |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 790 |
| A 45 inch diameter bronze equatorial ring dial with an arrow-pointed rod gnomon. The dial is mounted atop a 36 inch square pink granite plinth with chamfered corners sitting on a concrete base. |
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Schenectady |
New York |
USA |
Sculpture/Artwork |
Dial 322 |
| Sundial in the shape of a Crouching Indian |
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Schroon Lake |
New York |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 184 |
| 7-sided metal plate, about 9.75" on a side. Bronze. Unusual 7-sided dial plate, Arabic numerals. Hour and half-hour marks on outside rim. Image of bible and cross on plate left of gnomon, and 'Word of Life' on right. (These are the standard logo of the organization.) Fabricated by Colonial Brass Co, Middleboro MA. |
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Seaside |
Florida |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 551 |
| A large horizontal dial of cement and gravel within a 30 foot diameter hedge. Unfortunately, this dial no longer exists and was lost to commercial development. |
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Seaside |
Oregon |
USA |
Analemmatic Dial |
Dial 583 |
| A granite analemmatic dial on the Promenade sidewalk near overlooking the beach. This dial, built in 1987, replaces an earlier dial painted on this sidewalk. Dial face is inscribed, "Enjoy your time in Seaside." While evoking the earlier painted dial, this new dial is not well designed and will have serious errors through the year. See the NASS Registry for a picture of the earlier painted dial. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Gnomonic or Projection Dial |
Dial 577 |
| A colored-aperture projection calendrical sundial with one functional and four decorative 18 inch round clear stained glass apertures. Markings on floor indicate positions of projected orange light spot at solar noon from the spring to fall equinox. An additional noon mark indicates opening date of library. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 744 |
| A 10 x 18 foot vertical dial on a south-facing brick wall. The hour lines are stainless steel sheet and are formed to create shadow effects that change with the position of the sun. The stainless steel Arabic hour numerals are on disks that are held on the wall by magnets, allowing them to be placed for ST or DST. A stylized school emblem is placed at the base of the gnomon. A round, two-sided plaque in the wall below describes the use of the dial, designed by Mindy Cameron of Lehrman Cameron Studio. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 745 |
| A 12 x 30 foot vertical dial on a brick wall that declines 0.5? west of south. The 5 foot stainless steel gnomon tip carries a sheet metal sculpture of an eagle, the school mascot. The hour lines are aluminum strips terminating in Arabic hour numerals. The dial face includes ceramic disks painted by school students and are placed so that the gnomon shadow falls on then on their birthday. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Cylindrical Dial |
Dial 746 |
| A unique, 10 foot tall, 2 foot diameter (base) tapered cylinder dial similar to a traditional shepherd's dial except that the cylinder orientation is fixed and the gnomon is rotated about the dial axis by the user to align with the sun. Time is read from the vertical hour and date lines. The dial is fabricated from bronze plate and is hollow. Lines are formed by individually cut hour and date line segments welded on from inside the cylinder. A lever at hand height is moved to rotate the gnomon to face the sun, providing a vertical shadow. A slit in the gnomon tip provides a more accurate sun spot on the dial face. The cylinder is tapered top to bottom for aesthetics and to minimize the effect of solar altitude variation through the seasons. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 747 |
| A 20 inch diameter cast bronze horizontal dial atop a 30 inch high one-piece stone pedestal. The dial face has cast quarter-hour marks and Roman hour numerals. The dial, built in 1912, has been refurbished and relocated several times and has a new bronze gnomon. Prof. Woody Sullivan and Kurt Kiefer did the last restoration in 2002. Dial times are inaccurate 5-7 minutes. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 748 |
| A 35 foot diameter horizontal dial of concrete and stainless steel with an 8 foot gnomon. Hour marks and Arabic hour numerals are shown on the inner circle and outer ring. A meridian line has markers for solstices and equinoxes, for cardinal directions and magnetic bearings. The dial was constructed using material obtained from Boeing Surplus. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Analemmatic Dial |
Dial 74 |
| 27 foot circle containing a fanciful analemmatic dial made of bronze and concrete with countless embedded items. Seattle Sundial Trails notes "It requires more than a casual look to recognize the paving that tops Kite Hill as a sundial. At first glance, it seems as if the high tide washed over a bed of fresh concrete, leaving lots of marine creatures and wave prints behind.....The structure is colored concrete, with many interesting inlaid objects scattered throughout, including a bronze bear claw, a ceramic crab, pieces of pottery and glass and shells, etc. Many features are in bronze (such as some hour numerals and the [zodiac walkway] on which one stands.... Bronze casts of three pairs of footprints are those of Greening, the (anonymous) donor of the piece, and the donor’s dog! There are, however, so many inlaid objects and the hour numerals are so stylized that the dial pattern is somewhat obscured." At the center of the dial is a large yin-yang symbol, made from light and dark concrete. Within this is the zodiac walkway to stand for casting the hour's shadow. However normal dates have given way to elongated bronze band loops around a wavy center line using zodiac signs to indicate the months. For example: Equinoxes are indicated by Aries and Libra while the summer solstice is the Tropic of Cancer and winter solstice is Tropic of Capricorn. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 117 |
| Large vertical dial declining 36? west of south with hour lines, analemmal lines, sunrise and sunset limits, solstice lines. Metal structure mounted slightly away from brick building surface. Gnomon is a ball mounted on a rod emanating from sunburst. Visit the university of Washington web page to see this beautiful dial. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Sculpture/Artwork |
Dial 306 |
| 3x9x4 feet cast bronze sculpture of two gibbous shaped circles, each with supports. The sculpture called "Gnomon" could have been better called "abbreviated millipede" |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Equatorial Dial |
Dial 315 |
| An interesting equatorial dial 30 inches in diameter, made of bronze and terrazzo, sitting upon a tapered concrete pedestal cylinder that almost, but not quite, looks like a large flower pot. The dial plate is plainly decorated with a gnomon pole about 1.5 inches in diameter. Sitting at the north end of the pole is a very nice globe of the earth with continents in relief. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 791 |
| A south facing vertical dial on a chamfered triangular pillar. The gnomon is slightly bent. The dial face includes hour lines with Arabic numerals for Pacific Standard Time and PDT, the approximate coordinates and the magnetic declination. |
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Seattle |
Washington |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 795 |
| A 4 foot wide by 1.5 foot high etched glass plate vertical dial. The gnomon is formed by crossed bars several inches behind the plate and casts its shadow on hour line analemmas. Roman hour numerals for 10 AM to 4 PM are scribed under each analemma; other hours are Arabic. Solstice and equinox lines are scribed across the plate, as are narrow lines at 10 day intervals. Months of the year are scribed about the plate perimeter. A description of the dial is marked on the left side of the plate and the fountains are visible through the plate |
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Sebastopol |
California |
USA |
Obelisk or Vertical Gnomon |
Dial 428 |
| This is a vertical obelisk 3 foot on a side and 9 foot tall. It is more of a sun calendar than a sundial. The tip of the obelisk's shadow is tracked by marks on a concrete pad on the ground. The summer and winter solstices and equinoxes are indicated by tiles set in the pad. |
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Sebastopol |
California |
USA |
Globe or Hemispheric |
Dial 522 |
| The sundial is a cement globe of the earth 28 inches in diameter inclined at 40 degrees, a bit off the site's 38' 20" N latitude. The globe is oriented with the site longitude on the upper meridian so that shadows across the globe represent the true sun angle at that moment. A rod through the globe casts a shadow onto the north polar regions in the summer. At the southern end is a small equatorial dial with hour lines from 8am to 4pm. |
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Senatobia |
Mississippi |
USA |
Vertical Dial |
Dial 792 |
| A south facing vertical dial placed above a window high on a wall of a high school. The dial face includes hour lines and Arabic hour numerals 6 AM to 6 PM. The dial is a separate plate affixed to the wall. The dial may be viewed from College Street side of the building. |
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Sewickley |
Pennsylvania |
USA |
Analemmatic Dial |
Dial 910 |
| Sewickley is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, 12 miles (19 km) west northwest of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River. Riverpark was created in 2010 with a meandering path. At one stop is a plain analemmatic sundial approximately 15 feet across on a gravel bed. Hour markers are granite stones showing 4am-8pm. The analemmatic walkway has engraved abbreviations of the months, looking like granite blocks, but actually clever and beautiful concrete. |
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Sheboygan Falls |
Wisconsin |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 550 |
| A 20 inch octagonal dial of bluestone on a 28 inch high base. The gnomon matches the latitude angle and the hour lines are approximate for a generalized geographic area. |
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Sheridan |
Wyoming |
USA |
Horizontal Dial |
Dial 840 |
| This monumental horizontal dial is 15 ft. in diameter sitting on a foundation of poured concrete and rebar. The dial face is etched on 4 large granite slabs from Canada. The gnomon is a 6-inch diameter steel pipe 97inches tall with a welded nodus ball and a triangular sheet beneath the gnomon that has a sun and the school logo (a mountain range) cut into it casting projected images onto the sundial face. |
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