St. Mary's City  

 Sundial: 374
State/Province:  Maryland Country:  USA
Dial Type:  Equatorial Dial Condition:  Excellent
  Latitude and Longitude: 38° 11.319' N  76° 25.998' W
Location:
  • St. Mary's College Turner Sailing Center, on the shore just off Route 5 before entering Trinity Church Rd. From parking lot, walk south past the marina building, to find dial is in a small circular plaza.
 
Description:
  • Cement half-cylinder acting as an equatorial time ring with an inside radius of about 18 inches and a concrete gnomon 5 inches thick that looks more like a piece of lumber set on edge than a gnomon. There is no nodus such that the gnomon shadow is a straight line on the wide equatorial band. The cylindrical inner face is stainless steel with an engraved grid of quarter hours and months. The hours are marked in Arabic every half hour and at every hour is a graphical curve of the equation of time (EOT). Using the time of month, one reads across from the month mark to the EOT, giving the time offset. All in all, a very clear way of integrating the EOT with the hourly shadow.
 
General Information:
  • Owner: St. Mary's College
  • Designer: Everett Merritt
  • Builder: Everett Merritt
  • Construction Date: 1979
 
References:
  • NASS Compendium, Vol. 5 No. 3, p.9, Sept 1998

Last Revised: 2019-08-03 01:41