What's New Under The Sun

Thursday, 05 May 2022 15:48

Hochshule KaiserLautern Observatory.  HSKL Photo When is an astronomical observatory not an observatory? When it's playing the roll of R2-D2.  According to Atlas Obscura, "A university in Germany [Hochschule KaisersLautern, University of Applied Scieces Kaiserslautern at the Zweibrücken campus] has transformed its hilltop observatory into the charming likeness...

Friday, 22 April 2022 14:45

On April 2, 2022 the Perseverance Martian rover's Mastcam-Z camera looked sunward and took a video of the eclipse of the sun by the "potato-shaped" moon Phobos.  According the NASA Mars Exploration Program site, "It’s the most zoomed-in, highest-frame-rate observation of a Phobos solar eclipse ever taken from the Martian surface."  NASA reports that "Several Mars rovers have observed...

Saturday, 26 February 2022 17:52

The North American Sundial Society will hold its 27th annual conference in Nashville from Aug 11-14, 2022. Come to the Home of the Grand Ole Opry.  Our hotel is next to Vanderbilt University and close to downtown, with the Country Music Hall of Fame, National Museum of African American Music, and Frist Art Museum.  Don't forget lower Broadway, the center of Nashville's most famous...

Thursday, 17 February 2022 20:35

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, 12 December 2021 01:17

John Krieger, a former science teacher, is a strong supporter of STEM in the classroom and science in the real world. Bollards at Laguna Nigel in southern California might offer the opportunity to teach a bit of astronomy.  John says, "I don’t mean to imply that every concrete curb stop should be turned into an astronomical instrument. But why can’t we have more of these things around...

Tuesday, 28 September 2021 21:55

Sundials have always been part of gardens, as witnessed by Alice Morse Earle's book Sun Dials and Roses of Yesterday written 120 years ago. Her book title expanded on the cover with the subtitile "Garden Delights Which are Here Displayed in Very Truth and are Moreover Regarded as Emblems." Thomas Christopher, a volunteer at the Berkshire Botanical Garden is author of a number of books on...

Friday, 17 September 2021 17:09

Seattle, WA wants to call itself the sundial capital of the world, but it runs a pale second to Birkenau, Germany. This small village in the south of Germany with about 10,000 inhabitants holds the record as the village with the highest density of sundials in the world. (https://www.sonnenuhren-birkenau.de/service-269/news/news-details/world-record-for-the-village-of-sundials.html). You can find...

Monday, 16 August 2021 16:45

The North American Sundial Society, after by-passing the 2020 Conference due to Covid restrictions, held the 26th annual meeting from August 5th - 8th at the Hilton Garden Inn, Center City, Philadelphia. The venue was similar to past conferences: Thursday night social and door prizes for attendees, Friday a bus tour of 11 sundials in the Philadelphia area, Saturday sundial presentations and...

Monday, 16 August 2021 16:38

This year's Sawyer Dialing Prize went to Dr. Sara Schechner “for her career in education and conservation of our dialing heritage, and in particular for her authorship of Time of Our Lives – Sundials of the Adler Planetarium”. Dr. Schechner is a historian of science, and in particular, of astronomical instruments. She is the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific...

Monday, 26 July 2021 18:00

By the Light of the Moon Photo by Dr. Jeff Kretsch The analemmatic (human) sundial at Turner Farm Observatory Park in Great Falls, VA made by Eagle Scout candidate Kenny Dieffenderfer and Troop 1547 marked a unique place in sundialing history this July 23rd. The Analemma Society sponsors free Friday night public viewing of the heavens through telescopes at Turner Farm's...

Sunday, 30 May 2021 21:42

Dr. Jessica Warren, lecturer of physics and astronomy at Indiana University Northwest, is active in science outreach and education.  She is also passionate about sundials.  For Indiana University outreach shecreated a video "The Garden Sundial - Much More than an Ornament" that presents a brief history of the sundial, how they work, and where to get one or make one.  You can...

Tuesday, 13 April 2021 02:46

The first sundial in the NASS Registry is the dial from Carefree, Arizona. This 35 foot tall dial was designed by architect Joe Wong and solar engineer John Yellott and when built in 1959 was considered the second largest sundial in the world. You can see in the accompanying photo that hanging midway along the sundial's gnomon is a garish colored ball, a "Sunburst". [It is partially hidden by a...

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1. Rates
(Category)
Created on 18 February 2017
2. Lafayette Celebrates 20 Years of Millennium Sundial
(Dials of Interest)
In October 1999 the cities of Lafayette and West Lafayette, IN dedicated a modern looking 8-foot high equatorial dial in honor of the coming millennium. The dial was designed and built by David Aho with ...
Created on 14 October 2019
3. Campbell University Sundial Commemorates Math Professor
(Memorial Sundials)
Mathematics professor Jerry Duncan Taylor passed away in 2013, but his 46 years of teaching lives on at Campbell University in Buies Creek North Carolina just south of Raleigh.   A commemorative sundial ...
Created on 01 April 2016
4. Astrolabe in the Tradition of Chaucer
(Astrolabes)
... fortresses from Antioch to the Euphrates River and was about a day's journey from Aleppo. He not only wrote in Syriac a treatise on constellations, but he composed, also in Syriac, a treatise on the astrolabe ...
Created on 24 November 2021
5. Join or Renew Membership
(Compendium)
... generally made for Windows PC devices. Membership Rates Our members outside of North America have paid an additional charge for shipping the print edition. With our new format and printer, The Compendium ...
Created on 10 November 2021
6. The Compendium - Sep 2016
(Compendium)
...  article "Sundials and Smartphones" where he ponders if a modern compact smartphone could meet all the traveling needs of a modern sundial enthusiast.  He demonstrates the smartphone's usefulness to searc ...
Created on 28 March 2020
7. Daku's Shadow Writin
(Digital Sundials)
... "As part of the St.Art festival, which curates public art in Delhi’s Lodhi district, Daku’s carefully realized [shadow] installation demonstrates the power of words. The artist, whose name means 'bandit' ...
Created on 24 October 2019
8. Waterloo 3D Sundial Arches
(Sundial Construction)
Students at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Ontario are experimenting with the benefits of 3D design and printing. In particular Joanne Yau created a set of hexagonal hollow ...
Created on 17 June 2019
9. Schmoyer Sunquest Introduction
(Schmoyer Sundial)
... armillary to nested crescents demonstrates how a pleasing shape can emerge from a functional necessity.  A good time-telling device should always fulfill its mission." There are a number of Schmoyer ...
Created on 26 February 2018
10. Lord Nelson's Memorial Dial Dumpe
(Lost Damaged & Restored Sundials)
... how it might be repositioned so that it operates exactly as before. Sundials of this accuracy are scientific instruments which have been designed solely and uniquely for the exact latitude and longitude ...
Created on 14 April 2017
11. Hilltop Park Renovation
(Lost Damaged & Restored Sundials)
... barbecue pit, and telescopes as well as educational signage to enhance science and cultural learning opportunities." Read more in an article by Meaghan Mitchel (January 2, 2017): http://sfbayview.com/2017/01/bayview-community-celebrates-newly-renovated-hilltop-park/ ...
Created on 05 January 2017
12. Join or Renew Membership-Test
(Rates)
... now using worldwide rates. New Format of The Compendium In recent years, The Compendium has been a Letter size (8.5” x 11”), 40-page journal with stapled binding.  Beginning with our March 2021 ssue, ...
Created on 02 December 2016
13. Join or Renew Membership-2022
(Rates)
... now using worldwide rates. New Format of The Compendium In recent years, The Compendium has been a Letter size (8.5” x 11”), 40-page journal with stapled binding.  Beginning with our March 2021 ssue, ...
Created on 02 December 2016
14. Join or Renew Membership
(Rates)
... now using worldwide rates. New Format of The Compendium In recent years, The Compendium has been a Letter size (8.5” x 11”), 40-page journal with stapled binding.  Beginning with our March 2021 ssue, ...
Created on 02 December 2016
15. Greenwich Globe
(Transits Time and Longitude)
... hour is represented through a constant degree of elevation and a 15o angle bend.  The elevation based map projections gives easy-to-read shape to the complex man-made system of time-zones.  It also operates ...
Created on 06 September 2015
16. NASS Financial Statement
(Policies & Finance)
The North American Sundial Society operates with transparency.  Attached are Statement of Financial Position and Statement of Financial Activity and filings with the Internal Revenue Service and the State ...
Created on 04 February 2015
17. Auction of Rare Foster Manuscript
(Old and Historic Sundials)
... to Foster. Second, it includes an interesting approach to drawing a dial on an arbitrary plane: Foster demonstrates how any plane can be treated as though it were the special case of a direct east - west ...
Created on 01 November 2014
18. LEGO Sundial
(Cut-Out Sundials)
What can 62 LEGO bricks build?  An equatorial sundial.  A recent dial building project demonstrates a very nice looking sundial dial built from regular LEGO elements.  The design is a classic equatorial ...
Created on 16 September 2014
19. 2002 Conference - Tucson
(Conferences)
... month. Claude Hartman demonstrated a model of his award winning sundial structure that incorporates ten separate sundials. These dials can be read on the walls and inside the stained glass structure. Bill ...
Created on 13 February 2011
20. 1026
(Louisville)
... ring with semi-circular words around the dial: "We live by deeds, not years". A classic hour glass with wings decorates the dial face. The gnomon is in good condition, but slightly bent. The dial sits ...
Created on
21. 927
(Vancouver)
... is labeled twice; red for Daylight Saving Time and in blue for Standard Time. The dial incorporates a longitude correction for the time zone, and features Sunrise & Sunset Markers ("Bailey Points"). All ...
Created on
22. 890
(Palo Pinto)
... incorporates many iconic boy scout and camp related bas-relief elements, including an eagle clutching longhorns in its talons, program logos, references to camp legends and history, and representations ...
Created on
23. 853
(Nashville)
The equatorial dial made of aluminum operates on a unique principle. The equatorial time ring is allowed to rotate. Fixed to its co-rotating noon hour meridian ring is a plate with the analemma, extending ...
Created on
24. 816
(Grande Prairie)
... and one celebrates the youth of today and the stars of the future. The first capsule will be opened in the year 2005 recognizing our provinces 100th Anniversary. The remaining capsules will be opened on ...
Created on
25. 604
(Colorado Springs)
... is vertical. Two bronze plaques give instructions for reading and equation of time correction. Seen from above, the overall design incorporates a Yin Yang symbol appropriate for this elementary school ...
Created on
26. 392
(Lloydminster)
At 197 feet in diameter, this is one of the largest horizontal dials in North America. It's location is on the 4th meridian at 110:0 west, a line that separates Alberta and Saskatchewan and divides the ...
Created on
27. 389
(Bumble Bee)
Horizontal dial approximately 10 feet in diameter. Made of concrete and granite. Commemorates Arizona Dept. of Transportation employees who were killed in the line of duty.
Created on
28. 257
(Washington)
The bronze armillary sphere dial is unremarkable yet is oriented accurately and is complete. About 2 feet in diameter. Hour numerals are Roman and show 5 AM to 7PM. It commemorates a longtime gallery ...
Created on
29. 256
(Washington)
Octagonal bronze horizontal dial, mounted just above the ground level. Designed by Richard Schmidt of the USNO staff and cast by Alex Bigler of Equestrian Forge celebrates the 100th anniversary of the ...
Created on
30. 166
(Knoxville)
78" w x 168" h x 78" d Steel, brass & etched glass As the sun penetrates the building a shadow is cast from the gnomon onto the 1 inch thick laminated glass which has hour lines etched into its surface. ...
Created on
31. 47
(Heber City)
... marked. The gnomon is a pointed brass rod. Instructions for use are included on dial face. The dial is mounted atop a 4x4 inch steel post 30 inches high tiled with travertine and marble. This dial demonstrates ...
Created on