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.

 

Hawaii

 
Ewa Beach Hawaii USA Horizontal Dial Dial 1011
This is a large horizontal dial with a blue metal gnomon. At 21 deg latitude, the gnomon's low angle is distinguishing. Along the perimeter of half circle are Arabic numbers marking the hours from 6am to 6pm set between two concrete chapter rings. Just beyond the dial to the north is a an concrete bench that arcs across the 10am-2pm shadow line. The dial and bench are situated at one end of a long green corridor between the school buildings.
 
 
Honolulu Hawaii USA Horizontal Dial Dial 278
The dial is a raised horizontal circle 18 inches in diameter. The nearly inch-wide brass gnomon supports a raised relief globe, with the Hawaiian Islands uppermost to accurately show which part of the world is in sunlight. The dial has hour lines and a ring of 5-minute marks. Hours are numbered from 6 until 18. Cardinal points and magnetic north are indicated. Dial shows some signs of deterioration. Designer Ginnosuke Ohara is a dialist with Japan's Research Institute for Sundials. The dial base is a mushroom design of concrete about 40 inches high and 40 inches in diameter. A time capsule is located in the base, to be opened in 2030.
 
 
Honolulu Hawaii USA Equatorial Dial Dial 340
As of May 2012, this dial was removed from display by museum staff. Bronze equatorial dial 20, inches in diameter. The dial is outlined by an ornate ring tilted in the plane of the polar axis with extending flames representing the sun. A gnomon rod bisects this ring. The dial base is a statue of the Hawaiian mythological figure Maui snaring the sun, Kala, with ropes to snare the sun. The dial itself is a semicircular portion of an equatorial ring with inscribed hour lines and raised Roman numerals. The dial has been exhibited in various museums in San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver before permanent installation at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Gnomon and equatorial ring appear misaligned for 21 degree latitude. The museum is will correct the dial in the near future.
 
 
Honolulu Hawaii USA Vertical Dial Dial 481
An elegant vertical declining and reclining dial built on the sloping face of a large lava boulder. Total size of the dial is 4 1/2 x 6 feet and uses a half-inch thick copper gnomon 6 x 10 inches. Hour lines and numerals at 9, 12, and 3 are of brass. The dial is corrected for longitude and was designed to fit its deep valley location and orientation of the boulder. Tradition holds that these rocks have spirits and must be treated with respect.
 
 
Honolulu Hawaii USA Sun Alignment Dial 1090
"Sky Gate" is a huge 24 foot (7.3m) undulating sculpture of black metal is known as one of Honolulu's most distinctive pieces of public art. There is a hidden astronomical alignment. On zenith days (~28 May and ~18 July) when the sun is directly overhead at the zenith at the moment of local solar noon, the shadow of the sculpture forms a perfect, large circle on the ground directly below. The zenith day noon is known as "Lāhainā Noon", a term coined by the Bishop Museum, and in Hawaiian means "Cruel Sun". Noguchi, the sculptor, didn't leave a plaque, but Tory Laitila, registrar at the Mayor’s Office of Culture and the Arts, says, "Art is a subjective experience, and artists like to leave things for the viewer to discover." Now the Lāhainā Noon is well known and there is usually a crowd with cameras to document this twice annual event.
 
 
Kaneohe Hawaii USA Armillary Sphere Dial 543
A 32-inch diameter bronze armillary dial with extensive Polynesian-themed motif. An integral plaque provides corrections for EOT and longitude within HST. The armillary includes ten bronze rings: horizon; solstitial colure (meridian); equinoctial (equator); Tropic of Cancer; Tropic of Capricorn; Arctic circle; Antarctic circle; "prime vertical circle" perpendicular to the meridian circle and horizon that spans from east to zenith to west; equinoctial colure perpendicular to meridian circle and equator passing through the north and south poles; and an "upright ring" inscribed with Zodiacal signs between the prime vertical and equator.
 
 
Kaneohe Hawaii USA Horizontal Dial Dial 715
the original 12 inch diameter bronze horizontal dial has been replaced with a large armillary. The bronze meridian ring is approximately 24-inch in diameter. The equatorial band is about 4-inches wide with Roman numerals marking the hours. The gnomon is a traditional arrow rod. The dial base is approximately 12-inches in diameter with the zodiac names, pictograph, and symbols surrounding the dial. The dial base rests on a square pedestal of mortared stone .
 
 
Laie Hawaii USA Vertical Dial Dial 1105
To accommodate Hawaii's low latitude, this is a reclining sundial more than a meter (3 feet) in diameter and stands over 2 meters (6 feet) tall. It is carved from a dark, igneous stone with a bronze conical gnomon and set on bronze legs. The sundial includes a separate, stone-carved legend that includes an explanation of how to correct the gnomon shadow-time indicated on the dial for the time of year. The sundial, taken as a whole is reminiscent of a bird, enhanced by the conical gnomon and sun on the horizon given two eyes. At the edge of the dial are symbols of the zodiac
 
 
Pearl City, Oahu Hawaii USA Horizontal Dial Dial 535
A 28 foot stone horizontal dial with 8 foot high black wood and fiberglass gnomon located in a children's Sundial Garden. Hour markers are Roman numerals cast into concrete blocks. Dial is screened by koa and lonomea trees.