RE; Endangered Sundials
Hi All, We've been discussing sundial 'safety' in regards to publishing photos on the web. I still believe it is a good project. The following URL shows a prime example of the stupid nonsense that goes on out there. For me it is a real eye-opener. Please visit this URL: http://members.aol.com/rusty39538/sundial.html Not even shear size protects some works. Chuck.
A Memorial Sundial
Hi All, I won't bother you with any more URL's for a while, but I found this one and it really touched me. You may already know about it, but I didn't. Kentucky is a state in the USA. These people were lost in the vietnam war. The following text is part of a web-page about it: 'There are 1,100 names of Kentuckians on the memorial, including 23 missing in action. Each name is engraved into the plaza, and placed so that the tip of the shadow touches his name on the anniversary of his death, thus giving each fallen veteran a personal Memorial Day. ' URL: http://www.helmr.com/ky.htm Chuck
Damned fools...
Tony, I am reminded of an ethics class in college where I was told of the damned fool clause as it relates to product design. If a damned fool can hurt himself with the thing, get insurance and write disclaimers! Jim Tallman, FX Studios. -- From: Tony Moss [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Mac Oglesby [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Sundial List sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de Subject: Re: Sundials not needing corrections Date: Friday, May 14, 1999 4:48 AM Mac Oglesby wrote: Imagine that - a dangerous sundial! Before trading with the US my insurers insisted that at least £1m worth of public liability insurance was essential. A metal spike pointing upwards in a public place with no shielding or guard rails Are you quite mad sir? and as for my helpful leaflet on how to erect a pedestal for a sundial You're advising clients to dig a hole and use tools!! - absolutely not!! We suggest that you say that all installation work is done by qualified tradesmen working to local safety standards and codes etc. etc. A safe sundial? -imagine that! Tony Moss.
Re: Sundial for downed pilots
Arthur Carlson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I do think being able to look at the sun and estimate directions could be useful (in case you forgot to pack a compass, shame on you!). On my list of things I would like to do and know how to go about but haven't found the time is to investigate telling directions from the moon. I read an article in the magazine of the German Alpine Club a few years ago on this topic and found it incredible. With a Ph.D. in physics I think I can figure out how many hours to add or subtract in which direction to convert moon position to sun position and then to direction, but I bet very few people dumb enough to get lost at night without a compass can. But even without a watch, if you see the moon rising, you know that's east. And if the shadow is oriented straight up and down, then the moon is in the south. You don't need to know much more than that to find the nearest road. --Art Carlson Except for a new (which you can't see) or full moon, you can use the terminator as an indicator of a perpendicular direction to the plane of the ecliptic. Follow the implied ecliptic to either horizon to get a sense of east and west. If you're familiar with astronomy and can anticipate whether the ecliptic should be north or south of the celestial equator for the current date and time you can refine this indication of east or west direction. Jim --- -- | Jim Cobb | 540 Arapeen Dr. #100 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Parametric| Salt Lake City, UT | (801)-588-4632 | | Technology Corp. | 84108-1202 | Fax (801)-588-4650 | --- -- With lies you may go ahead in the world, but you can never go back. -- Russian Proverb
Re: Sundial for downed pilots
A minute ago I wrote: Except for a new (which you can't see) or full moon, you can use the terminator as an indicator of a perpendicular direction to the plane of the ecliptic. Follow the implied ecliptic to either horizon to get a sense of east and west. If you're familiar with astronomy and can anticipate whether the ecliptic should be north or south of the celestial equator for the current date and time you can refine this indication of east or west direction. I should have been a little more specific here: If you're familiar with astronomy and can anticipate whether the ecliptic should be north or south of the celestial equator at the two horizon points for the current date and time you can refine this indication of east or west direction. Jim --- -- | Jim Cobb | 540 Arapeen Dr. #100 | [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | Parametric| Salt Lake City, UT | (801)-588-4632 | | Technology Corp. | 84108-1202 | Fax (801)-588-4650 | --- -- Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.-- Mark Twain
Re: Sundials not needing corrections
Roger Bailey wrote: The UV indicator dial looked much like the Martian dial of Bill Nye and Woody Sullivan. The circular lines did not just show the altitude of the sun or rate the hazard as a simple cosine function. The thickness of the ozone layer penetrated by UV rays at different angles was also considered. Now I wish I had kept the article and built the dial. The article in question (with an accompanying photo) is called The Ultraviolet Sundial, _Sky and Telescope_, July, 1994, page 94. The author, John Adair, even went so far as to apply for a U.S. patent on the gadget. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Mark Gingrich [EMAIL PROTECTED] San Leandro, California
Solar Eclipse
Hi all, As all of you know by now, August 11 solar eclipse will be a 'special' one for Europe as it will be seen by millions. I would like to know, and would be grateful if somebody would work it out for me or tell me how to find out when the last total solar eclipse was visible from my country, Malta...at latitude 35.8 degrees North, and longitude 14.4 degrees East and when will the next one be visible (total eclipse). Lastly, if anyone knows of some place where I can buy eclipse shades (those paper sunglasses with mylar protection for viewing the eclipse) not in 100+ bulk quantities but in small ones... I need just 2, then please tell me :) Regards + sunny skies! Alexei Pace
Re: Word plays and identification (off-topic)
John Pickard wrote: BUT I am curious about sundial jokes. Does anyone know any sundial jokes John, You probably already know the following by Hillaire Belloc I am a sundial. Ordinary words Cannot convey my thoughts on birds! I am a sundial turned the wrong way round. I cost my foolish mistress fifty pound and of course I am a sundial and I make a botch Of what is done much better by a watch He must have had a bad experience with a sundial as a child? Tony Moss
Re: Sundials not needing corrections
Mac Oglesby wrote: Imagine that - a dangerous sundial! Before trading with the US my insurers insisted that at least £1m worth of public liability insurance was essential. A metal spike pointing upwards in a public place with no shielding or guard rails Are you quite mad sir? and as for my helpful leaflet on how to erect a pedestal for a sundial You're advising clients to dig a hole and use tools!! - absolutely not!! We suggest that you say that all installation work is done by qualified tradesmen working to local safety standards and codes etc. etc. A safe sundial? -imagine that! Tony Moss.
2 quickies
1. About a website, I agree with more light; dials are there to be enjoyed! and surely no one is going to steal the multi-ton behemoths in full sight in large cities, dials high up on walls, painted dials, etc. (I've taken a few pictures of dials in odd places in Italy, and will contribute if this is useful to someone.) A number of sundials are of course on the Web regardless of what we do. A first step might be to catalog what's already online. I'd be interested in funnelling URLs to anyone in charge of this type of project; it's someting I'm good at. 2. Ah, but wait till governments learn that contributors to sundial are a wonderful bunch of freethinkers who explore the universe from all directions! Sounds like a dangerous group of radicals to me. Plato, Cicero, C.S. Lewis and others have pointed this out; and governments *do* know. Any group of people who think about something, and it doesn't much matter what, are a potential threat to those who deal in power. (Let's on keep on thinking...) Bill Thayer LacusCurtius http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/Roman
Sundial for Downed Pilots
Roger Bailey wrote: I recommend the old Air Force Survival Manual (AFM 64-5). ... Art Carlson wrote: ... And if the shadow is oriented straight up and down, then the moon is in the south. You don't need to know much more than that to find the nearest road.(*) As a biologist, I'd like to mention that plants, especially trees and woody shrubs, record in their growth patterns, a record of many ambient factors, including integrated light direction, prevailing wind, etc.. Some of this information can even be read in from growth rings of long- dead trees. If you are lost in the eastern U.S. woods, try to find an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia.) This widely distributed tree is easily identified even by laymen, winter or summer, by its unique, SMOOTH, silver-grey bark. Examine the bole of the tree, and place your back against that side of the trunk that has the greatest concentration of carved initials, hearts with arrows, and other such grafitti. Walk straight ahead, and within 50 yards or less, you will encounter a public road.(*) Bill Maddux
