What's New Under The Sun

Thursday, 10 October 2024 17:56

Photo of the Canadian $20 Silver Coin with the reverse as a Sundial.  Photo courtesy of the Royal Canadian Mint.  Sundial design by Anna Bucciarelli. The Canadian Royal Mint will release a fully functioning sundial coin expected to ship on 12 December, 2024.  The obverse is a profile of His Majesty, Charles III (designed by Steve Rosati) and the reverse is a...

Monday, 07 October 2024 03:03

Once again NASS presents Elements of Dialing, a twelve week course covering the basics of sundials, led by Steve Lelievre. The course covers basic principles of how sundials work, calculations involved in designing sundials, types of time (systems of time measurement), and some of the history of sundials.The course is intended for people who are new to sundialing and who wish to learn some of...

Tuesday, 24 September 2024 16:47

Dario Radley reports in Archaelogical News Online Magazine (Aug 24, 2024) that an ancient observatory from the 6th century BCE was found by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities at Tell El-Fara'in archaeological site. “It highlights the advanced astronomical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, including their ability to determine the solar calendar and  significant religious and...

Saturday, 22 June 2024 19:38

Off Interstate 405 in the hills of Los Angeles is the Getty Research Institute, part of the campus of The Getty Center. The Center houses the free Getty Museum, the Getty Library, Getty Research Institute, Getty Foundation, and Getty Conservation Institute. The Getty Research Institute opened its doors to the public in December of 1997, where besides the thousands of books, art collections,...

Sunday, 24 March 2024 18:30

There are lots of maps showing where to go for the April 8th 2024 total solar eclipse and others showing the statistical chance of clouds such as https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/02/22/april-eclipse-clouds/  From Little Rock Arkansas to the Mazatlan coast there is a high probability of clear weather.  The cities from Indianapolis through Cleveland OH, Rochester and Syracuse...

Sunday, 24 March 2024 01:42

When is a watch not a watch? When it unfolds into an equatorial sundial.  The watch, designed by Yu Ishihara is called a "Watch Exclusively for Sunny Men" and was part of a contest sponsored by Seiko to "help reimagine what a watch can be", aimed at creativity and perhaps for eventual production. Read about it at...

Wednesday, 06 March 2024 00:17

  Dr. Federica Gigante, from Cambridge Univerity's History Faculty, discovered a rare astrolabe sequestered in a museum at Verona, Italy.  Publishing in Nuncius (1 March 2024) Dr. Gigante presents "a hitherto unknown remarkable astrolabe from Al-Andalus which likely belonged to the collection of Ludovico Moscardo (1611–1681) assembled in Verona in the seventeenth century. The...

Friday, 23 February 2024 16:53

Spanish sundialist Esteban Martínez has launched the resolution to establish the World Sundial Day to occur each year on the Spring Equinox.  According to the petition circulated by Martinez, "Reason  Sundials represent the union of disciplines as disparate as Astronomy, Mathematics, [and] Geography...They have an undoubted didactic value in teaching astronomy to young people and as...

Sunday, 05 November 2023 16:30

Smithsonian Magazine holds a photo-of-the-day contest. Winner on 30 Oct 2023 was Harita Sistu who took a photo of the large sundial of Jantar Mantar, Jaipur India (taken in July 2022). Harita notes: "I wanted to try my best to capture just how massive the instrument is and bring focus into the incredible skill that went into designing and constructing it." See other NASS...

Friday, 14 July 2023 23:08

A sundial or performance center or solar generator? It's all three. Called the Arco del Tiempo (Arch of Time), the design by Berlin architect Riccardo Mariano provides the projection of the sun's rays onto the ground through tinted glass apertures spanning the length of its arching ceiling. The elliptical shaped spots change every hour, telling "the solar time each day and delight visitors with...

Saturday, 01 July 2023 00:36

According to NewAtlas.com (https://newatlas.com/architecture/sun-tower-open/), construction of the Sun Tower exhibition building and outdoor theater is underway in the Chinese city of Yantai. The tower is being constructed by a French firm, Ducks Sceno and the engineering firm Arup, raising to 50m (164 ft) gracefully into the sky.  The tower symbolizes the historic watch towers of...

Sunday, 25 June 2023 22:17

Julie Baumgardner in The Art Newspaper of Jan 13, 2023 reports on the construction project of Point of Infinity, a nearly 70 foot (21m) hyperbolic cone will reach toward the sky as part of a 50 million dollar park development on Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island. In a competition held by the San Francisco Arts Commision on behalf of the Treasure Island Development Authority, Hiroshi...

AnalemmaticSundial LaLande 1784Drawing of Horizontal and Analemmatic Sundial
"Analemmatic or Azimuthal Dial"
J.J. de LaLande 1784

The Analemmatic Sundial SourceBook was first published in 2004, revised in 2014, and now is again available in digital form on CD or by download from the north American Sundial Society. What is it? It is a very comphrehensive reference to the origins, history, and modern evolution of the analemmatic sundial compiled and edited by Fred Sawyer III, President of NASS.

It started with J.L de Vaulezard publishing a small work of 15 pages in 1640 descibing the dial in vague terms, promising to reveal its construction later "if I see that the work has been well received by you...." Four years later de Vaulezard published his "Treatis of the origin, demonstration, construction and usage of the analemmatic dial". A decade later Samuel Foster published "Elliptical or Azimuthal Horologiography" further describing the analemmatic sundial. The SourceBook reprints a facsimile of this and three other of Foster's original works.

The Historical Period includes not only the works of de Vaulezard and Foster but works by Aubri, Tuttell, Richer, Parent, Bion, Lalande, Bedos de Celle, Lambert, Oberreit, Boutereau, Meikle, Perret, Peaucellier, Viala, Lisbonne, Gruey, Marchand, Roguet and Chomard. For over 250 years these authors provide the earliest proof of the analemmatic dial, the introduction of the Foster/Lambert, diametral, and Parent variations, as well as many important historical and theoretical discussions of the analemmatic dial and its properties.

Study of the analemmatic sundial had a revival at the turn of the 20th century and again beginning in 1986 with the publication of "Equator Projection Sundials" by de Rijk. Other articles include R.J. Vinck's "Times of Sunrise and Sunset on the Analemmatic Sundial" further descriptions of seasonal points by Bailey and Sonderegger.  Vinck's "The Elliptical, Circular and Linear Dials" detailing of the mathematical foundation of a whole class of azimuthal sundials with examples of strange looking sundials by Sawyer, Olgesby, Gianni, Massé, Sassenburg, Sonderegger, and Rouxel.

Fred Sawyer III has a number of articles within the Analemmatic SourceBook, including "Of Analemmas, Mean Time and the Analemmatic Sundial", "Foster's Diametrical Sundial", and many more.

The Analemmatic Sundial SourceBook provides a rich historical and mathematical account of the Analemmatic Sundial and its modern derivatives. Order yours today by clicking here: NASS Publications Order Form

Open the "Read More" to see the detailed contents

Section I An Historical Overview

1 Janin, 1974. The analemmatic sundial: history and developments.

2 Sawyer, 2003. Desperately seeking Vaulezard – a tale of frustration.

Section II The Historical Period

3 de Vaulezard, 1640. Treatise or usage of the analemmatic dial.

4 de Vaulezard, 1644. Treatise of the origin, demonstration, construction and usage of the analemmatic dial.

Analemmatic Elliptical Horologiography Foster 16545(1) Foster, 1654. Elliptical or azimuthal horologiography.

5(2) Foster, 1654. Circular horologiography

5(3) Foster, 1654. Rectilineal or diametral horologiography.

5(4) Foster, 1654. Elliptical horologiography

6 Aubri, 1680. The use of the horloge or dyall azimutall.

7 Ozanam, 1694 Drawing a horizontal dial on the ground with plants

8 Tuttell, 1698. The description and uses of a new contriv'd eliptical double dial.

9 Richer, 1701. To trace a portable analemmatic dial, which can also be traced in a garden.

10 Parent, 1701. Universal horizontal dial composed of an azimuthal and a horizontal.

11 Parent, 1701. Of a new analemmatic rectilinear universal dial which orients itself.

12 Bion, 1709. The construction and use of the analemmatick or ecliptick horizontal dial.

13 de LaLande, 1757. Problem of gnomonics. To trace an analemmatic, azimuthal, horizontal, elliptic dial whose style is an indefinite vertical line.

Analemmatic de Celles 176014 Bedos de Celles, 1760. Analemmatic dial.

15 Lambert, 1770. Remarks and appendices on gnomonics.

16 Lambert, 1775. A new type of sundial.

17 de Castillon, 1776. Azimuthal or analemmatic dial.

18 de Lalande, 1784. Dial. Analemmatic or azimuthal dial.

19 Oberreit, 1786. On a new kind of sundial invented by Lambert.

20 Anonymous, 1808. A horizontal sundial. Without center, without hour lines and without gnomon.

21 Boutereau, 1845. Azimuthal dials.

22 Meikle, 1852. Dials with variable centres.

Analemmatic Oberreit 178623 Perret, 1856. Description of the Dijon sundial.

24 Peaucellier, 1856. Theory of the Dijon sundial, its generalization.

25 Viala, 1862. Theory and construction of the portable sundial called analemmatic.

26 Lisbonne, 1873. Azimuthal sundial

27 Gruey, 1902. The Dijon sundial.

28 Gruey, 1902. On a problem of gnomonics.

29 Marchand, 1902. Sundial.

30 Chomard, 1906. The analemmatic dial and the retrogradation of the shadow.

31 Roguet, 1912. The sundial at Brou.

Section III The Modern Era

Analemmatic de Rijk 198632 de Rijk, 1986. Equator projection sundials.

33 Rohr, 1989. Lambert’s circles

34 Sawyer, 1991. A self-orienting equiangular sundial.

35 Sawyer, 1992. Foster's diametral sundial.

36 Sawyer, 1994. Of analemmas, mean time and the analemmatic sundial.

37 Oglesby, 1995. A sundial to enjoy.

38 Terwilliger, 1995. Two layout tools for analemmatic dials.

Analemmatic Angle Sawyer 199939 Vinck, 1996. Times of sunrise and sunset on the analemmatic sundial.

40 Aulenbacher, 1996. Analemmatic sundials.

41 Vinck, 1996. The elliptical, circular and linear dials.

42 Massé, 1998. Central projection analemmatic sundials.

43 Massé, 1998. Two mean-time analemmatic sundials.

44 Sassenburg, 1998. Analemmatic sundial with fixed gnomon

45 Ferrari, 1999. Rectilinear analemmatic sundials.

46 Sawyer, 1999. The NASS angel.

47 de Vries, 2000. Multiple analemmatic sundials.

48 Bailey & Miklos, 2003. Elliston Park analemmatic sundial: Calgary, Alberta.