Dear Shadow Watchers,
We were travelling on the London Underground this week and were astonished to
see an advertising poster for San Miguel beer, supposedly depicting a sundial!
The glass acts as the gnomon but the real horror was when I looked at the
numerals, going clockwise from I to XII,
I dug a hole in my backyard and filled it with concrete and shoved a
pipe in it and pointed it the sun at solar noon on an equinox so it
cast no shadow. Very simple thing to do.
I can use it as a calendar by marking the noon shadows.
I can use it as compass to find true north, south east and
In general the full moon is directly opposite the sun, both in longitude and
declination. It is 12 hours, 180° out of phase and the sign of the
declination is reversed The sun, moon and planets generally follow a path
through sky called the ecliptic as this is where eclipses happen.
This is
I have an interest in sundials used in Beer advertisement. I made a
place-mat for an advertiser in 2000 for a limited circulation. (see below)
In trying to find more about the San Miguel ad I found an amusing Alan
Wake sundial at
Hello, I am afraid that if you wanted to make the sort of
observations that you suggest to any accuracy then the gnomon set up
that you have used is incorrect. It should be set to point to true
north (not
compass north) and be at an angle to the horizontal which is equal
to your latitude.
Hi Claude,
Do you have a larger image of the place-mat sundial, it would be good to be
able to read the writing.
Roderick Wall.
--
From: Claude Hartman sunlightdesi...@cs-collectibles.com
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 3:46 AM
To:
Dear Claude,
I also collect sundials used in advertisements and have a number used in beer
and whisky ads. Is the attached gif the San Miguel ad you mention or is it the
placemat you created? The image was too pixilated to tellbut it's great.
Sara
Sara J. Schechner, Ph.D.
David P.
Hi Brent,
It is only a coincidence that the full moon/ lunar
opposition happened so close to the equinox this year, AD 2010. It could
happen any of the 14.5 days around the equinox, so roughly September 5
to October 5.
Last year the closest lunar opposition to the equinox was October 2 (or 3
Hi Jim,
For me, Pluto is a planet. This is based on what led to its discovery, not
the rewriting of science and history by the the new generation that knows
everything and values nothing.
For a while I was on the advisory board for the Lowell Observatory. My
mountaineering friend, William
