What's New Under The Sun

Tuesday, 21 April 2026 16:47

Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas, is auctioning a brass dial signed by "Patrick Hepburn, Marlborough, Maryland, 1720"..  The dial face has a rich green patina with rough but accurate engraving of Roman numeral hours, delineated with half, quarter and eighth hour marks. The dial has an eight point compass rose with lettered points.  Latitude is engraved as "LATT 39".The wide, but...

Sunday, 12 April 2026 21:30

Do you wonder what a Bifilar Sundial is? Or a Campbell-Stokes Recorder? Maybe you are studying facts about astrolabes and come across the word almucantar.  Are they rings in the sky? Our perhaps you want to make a vertical dial and need the trigonometric formula to draw the hour lines and have forgotten where to look.  All of these questions can be answered plus internet and NASS...

Monday, 06 April 2026 01:08

The Times Colonist in an article of March 28, 2026 by Hannah Link, reports that as of November 2026, British Columbia will change to permanent daylight time.  "That means sundials in B.C. will always be one hour behind, no matter the time of year, said Victoria-based sundial enthusiast Steve Lelievre." Photo: Times Colonist - The sun shines on the Sundial Garden in Beacon Hill...

Monday, 09 March 2026 15:10

Building on the success of the 2025 inaugural event celebrating world sundial day on March 20th, 2026. This global online gathering celebrates sundials, timekeeping, astronomy, history, art, mathematics, craftsmanship, and cultural heritage across the world. World Sundial Day was originally created by Esteban Martínez Almirón on his website Reloj Andalusí. World Sundial Day is celebrated...

Thursday, 22 January 2026 18:30

UPDATE:  We will have a special tour of the Kentucky Viet Nam Memorial Sundial.  See the attachment about the construction of this wonderful memorial. Get ready to travel. This year the 31th NASS annual conference will be held in Louisville, KY at the Hyatt Regency Hotel June 25th - June 28th. The conference starts Thursday June 25th at 4:30pm with an opening reception, introductions,...

Monday, 13 October 2025 22:49

On October 4, 2025 Madison Historical Society of Ohio was able to have their sundial returned after 32 years, when in 1993 it was moved to the lawn of Lake County Courthouse to reduce the chance of vandalism. The sundial was originally placed at Madison Home 100 years ago on Saturday, October 24, 1925 during a conference of the Women's Relief Society.  From 1904 to 1962 the state ran this...

Monday, 15 September 2025 19:42

NASS is pleased to announce the upcoming fifth instance of Elements of Dialing, our introductory course about sundials, their history, and the science that makes them work. The free 12-lesson course, intended for those are new to sundialing, runs from 27 October 2025 until 26 April 2026. The course instructor is Robert Kellogg, NASS Vice President and Sundial Registrar.  Bob will be...

Thursday, 11 September 2025 23:11

A Hungarian born American scientist, Mária Telkes (1900-1995), was called "The Sun Queen" and among other honors, was postmousthly inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. She lived to 95 and for most of her life developed solar power in a variety of forms. Trained as a biophysicist, she worked for Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, PA, where she...

Thursday, 28 August 2025 23:25

The annual NASS Conference was held 7-10 August, 2025 in Ottawa.  As usual, the conference began late Thursday afternoon with an introduction social and a "grab bag give away", taking your chances with tickets to win the bag's prize.  Will Grant was the final winner of the Walton Double Planar Polar Sundial, but Paul Ulbrich beat the statistic odds and won this prize three times,...

Tuesday, 10 June 2025 18:51

  Prosciutto di Portici (Ham) Sundial Photo: Getty Images The Prosciutto di Portici Sundial, more often called the Portici Ham Sundial, dates from the first century somewhere between  8 BCE to 79 CE.  This small silvered bronze dial was uncovered on 11 June, 1755 in the ruins of Herculaneum (current day Portici) in the "Villa of the Papyri", buried in...

Friday, 06 June 2025 21:01

  Sundial dedication May 31, 2025.  At left is Kathleen Stuckey Fox, with the City Proclamation presented by Mayor Pat Moeller and City Council on-lookers Carla Fiehrer and Susan Vaughn offering congratulations. On May 31, 2025 at 1pm, the Hamilton, Ohio, sundial (NASS Sundial Registry #1109) was re-dedicated in Monument Park. Originally dedicated in 1941 to the...

Monday, 24 March 2025 21:33

Several years ago Frans decided to write the course on sundials that included self assessment questions to force students not only to read the text, but to internalize the concepts. And a final submittal question "not necessarily a difficult question, but: no answer, no new lesson." Thus Frans Maes began writing lessons and sending them out to students. NASS has now used his material to create...

Details
Hits: 13063

Deteriorating Cranford SundialThe North American Sundial Society likes to record public sundials that are in good or excellent condition.  Dial #797 in Cranford, New Jersey is a sad exception. In 1972 the Kiwanis Club of Cranford presented a 15-foot diameter sundial to Union College as an expression of interest in the college and the youth of Cranford. But the years have taken a toll where it sits adjacent to the William Miller Sperry Observatory. The dais stonework mortar has given way and the concrete dial face has deteriorated.

A plan to restore the dial is underway.  Dr. Stephen D. Nacco, of Union County College, Vice President, Administrative Services & Executive Assistant to the President set up a Sundial Fund under the Union County College Foundation, a 501(C ) 3 not-for-profit organization. Donations can be made online via the Web Site, http://www.uccfoundation.org/give.html with the donor selecting GIVE ONLINE NOW. Choose Donation Type "Other", and then put “Sundial” in the Additonal Comments Area as the reason for the donation.

Checks can be made out to:
Union County College
Sundial Fund
1033 Springfield Avenue
Cranford, NJ 07016

Details
Hits: 17494
nass_news_2014_jun_Cranmer_Sundial_Damage
Damage to Erickson Equatorial Sundial in Cranmer Park, Denver, CO.  Photo Credit: Save Our Sundial

What happens to old sundials?  In Denver, citizens of Cranmer Park are taking matters into their own hands.  The City of Denver has generously committed $545,000 to the restoration of the Cranmer sundial and plaza through the Parks and Recreation and the Arts and Venues departments... but the citizens must raise another million dollars.

Details
Hits: 13266

 

nass_news_2013_aug_Oatlands_tortoise
Photos Courtesy of Oatlands Historic House and Garden

Sitting peacefully in the garden of the Oatlands Historic House and Garden near Leesburg VA, is a beautiful, but sadly in need of repair sundial.  Each year the Virginia Association of Museums, comprising over 500 museums and historical sites within the state, receives nominations for conservation of Endangered Artifacts. 

Details
Hits: 19050

Many sundials do not survive the raveges of time.  Buildings are destroyed and the sundial goes to oblivion.  However, Panama City Commissioners had a different view of the sundial once located across from the Marina Civic Center.

Details
Hits: 15255

nass_news_2012_dec_JaipurObservatory

Sudhanshu Mishra reports in Mail-Online-India that the World Heritage Site at Jaipur, the Jantar Mantar astronomical observatory is in severe decline because of neglect.

Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh, also known as Singh II, directed several the building of a astronomical observatories at Ujjain, Varanasi, Jaipur, Mathura, and Deli.  From his research, Jai Singh II concluded that accuracy of observation could only be obtained with large, stationary instruments. The giant Jaipur observatory consisting of 16 different instruments took 15 years to build and was completed in 1734.

Details
Hits: 12345
nass_news_2012_oct_denver_NASS-24Want to know the history of Cranmer Park in Denver Colorado and why the current Erickson equatorial dial is there on the terrazzo plaza?  Downtown Main Street provides a glimpse of its history and the dynamiting of a dial that stood in the park for 25 years before. Read the article in Downtown Main Street and visit the North American Sundial Registry Entry NASS Denver Sundial-24.

Details
Hits: 13972

nass_news_2012_july_moore_sundialUpdate: On Saturday July 22nd, less than two weeks after the Henry Moore sundial was stolen, it was recovered by detectives after receiving tips from the British Crimewatch television series.  Three young men, all from Essex, have been arrested on suspicion of two counts of theft and are currently in police custody.

Details
Hits: 13740
nass_news_2012_jan_chatham_square_dial
[photo credit: Steve Bisson -
Savannah Morning News ]

Lesley Conn reports in the Savannah Morning News the restoration of its vandalized sundial.  This is no college prank, but a malicious and repetitive attack on the Louis B. Toomer sundial in Chatham Square in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia. Conn reports that “City officials are adding new elements to the repair process – a public plea for help and a reminder to the monument marauder that destruction of public property is a felony. They made their case Tuesday after sealing a new sundial to the stone base.”

Details
Hits: 10452
nass_news_2011_oct_SunCity
[photo courtesy of John Carmichael]

The restored Sun City dial re-dedication ceremony held October 7th, 2011 was a huge success.  The sundial originally schedule for demolition is proudly located at The Sundial Recreation Center located at 14801N. 103rd Avenue, Sun City, AZ 85351.

  1. Lost and Found
  2. Sun City Sundial Saved
  3. Avington Park Sundial Stolen
  4. Help Find a Stolen Dial
  5. Board Elects to Repair Sun City Sundial
  6. VSSC Space Museum gets Polar Sundial
  7. Shelbyville Sundial
  8. Sun Tower Competed