Selected Sundials of North America

This is a selected listing of sundials in the North American Sundial Society Registry. Click on any dial thumbnail picture or city name to display the full dial description with additional information and images.

 

Nevada

 
Black Rock City Nevada USA Sculpture/Artwork Dial 439
The Pyrolarium was a sundial designed for the Burning Man Festival (1999) to shoot exploding mortars into the sky at each hour of the day. The structure was 12 feet in diameter and nearly 18 feet high. On an upper platform out of the reach of people were a series of tubes loaded with black powder. Around the perimeter of the platform were a set of Fresnel lenses, igniting them in succession throughout the day. The last mortar ignited at sunset and the Pryolarium was incinerated, as is the custom of all artwork displayed at the Burning Man Festival.
 
 
Black Rock City Nevada USA Equatorial Dial Dial 1002
"About Time" was a 30 foot long, 3000 pound wooden pyramid. This installation projected time using two sundials: a gnomonic vertical sundial that swept its shadow of time out across the desert floor and an equatorial dial located on one faces of the pyramid. A platform at the peak of the pyramid allowed observers to become the gnomonic sundial’s apex and to experience 360 deg views of the landscape. At the end of the installation the piece was burned, a testament to the unidirectional march of entropy and time, underscoring the fleeting nature of the present moment.
 
 
Boulder City Nevada USA Vertical Dial Dial 691
A 2x3 foot vertical stained glass dial declining 44.3° west of south permanently located in the living room window of a private residence. Dial has a uniquely attached point-in-space nodus on a perpendicular gnomon secured with a magnet to an embedded steel disk in the glass dial face, preventing damage should the gnomon be struck. Dial face includes hour numerals, half-hour lines, solstice and equinox lines and a solar noon mark. Dial face consists of 210 pieces of glass, 40 feet of lead and zinc came and 20 engraved and hand painted pieces of glass. The frog-shaped perpendicular gnomon can be replaced with a ball-shaped gnomon.
 
 
Hawthorne Nevada USA Horizontal Dial Dial 1080
Farenholt sundial for U.S. Naval Ammunition Depot Hawthorne Nevada. This cast bronze dial was designed and commissioned by RADM Farenholt for U.S. Naval Hospitals at bases where he was commanding officer, visited, or had special meaning to him. The dial is 18 inches (46cm) in diameter. The outer chapter ring has the motto, followed by a chapter ring with Arabic hours 6am to 6pm, raised hour lines that radiate from near the foot of the gnomon and short half-hour lines. The gnomon has graceful curves and a star cut-out in the center. Below the gnomon is the naval command name, followed by the commissioning date in the southern portion of the hours chapter ring.
 
 
Las Vegas Nevada USA Equatorial Dial Dial 581
An equatorial dial with partial armillary rings made of stainless steel and brass with chrome trim. Dial face has hour lines for solar and longitude-corrected time. Inscribed with zodiacal symbols and dates. Dial is on private property but may be viewed from street.
 
 
Las Vegas Nevada USA Analemmatic Dial Dial 634
An approximate 10 foot x 6 foot analemmatic dial on pavement sloping 3° to east. Hour lines and sunrise/sunset markers are brass inserts placed in pavement.