Hello Brent,
There is a very simple solar tracking sundial in my province, Limburg in
Flanders (Belgium).
It is siutated in the city of Maaseik.
It has no sophisticated electro-mechanical tracking system.
See on my website the page: http://www.wijzerweb.be/maaseik002A.html
Translation of the Dutch text of the webpage.
The pictures (click the thiumbnails to enlarge) alone are already clear.
Maaseik
Monastery Garden of the Canons Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross
(Croisiers).
Sphere sundial
Year: 1953
Design: Anthony van Dooren, croisier-geography teacher
Restoration 2003: Julien Lyssens, president Sundial Association of Flanders
(Belgium)
Motto: none
Description
The sundial has the look of a globe.
Its axis is tilted to the north at an angle of about 51 ° (the latitude of
Maaseik) with the horizontal plane.
Meridian lines serve as hour lines.
The meridian line of Maaseik is the 12-hour line.
It is directed to the south.
An accessory device has a hollow pipe and four supports.
This device is placed so that the sun shines through the pipe and a spot of
light cast on the sphere.
The meridian that runs through the light spot indicates the hour.
The spot indicates also the place on the world where at that time the sun was
right above the head of the residents (the zenith).
On the photo (taken on May 28, 2003) it is a few minutes after 16 hours (solar
time in Maaseik).
The sun is in the zenith in the Atlantic, northeast of the Caribbean.
Willy Leenders
Hasselt in Flanders (Belgium)
Visit my website about the sundials in the province of Limburg (Flanders) with
a section 'worth knowing about sundials' (mostly in Dutch):
http://www.wijzerweb.be
Op 16-mrt-2011, om 21:50 heeft Brent het volgende geschreven:
Hello;
I have an idea to build a mechanical sundial.
It would have a moving gnomon that would track the sun.
If the gnomon was a hollow pipe, a spot of light would
shine out of the bottom that could be used to indicate a
time and date.
With all of the photo voltaic systems available now the
hardware is fairly easy to find.
I'm thinking I could use a simple dual axis photo sensor
tracking device such as this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Complete-Solar-Tracker-Sun-Tracker-Kit-/400187219850
Has anyone seen a sun dial like my idea before?
I Googled solar tracker and they also talk about a
chronological tracker. That rotates one axis at the speed
of the earth but in the opposite direction. That would make
a fun sundial as well.
Modern technology offers lots of new possibilities for
sundials. Is anyone trying new designs?
thanks;
brent
---
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
---
https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
