Larry, I agree that waiting an hour (or 15 minutes, even) between brief illuminations would make it less usable. A couple of suggestions:
A bunch of fiber strands spread across the bottom of each (larger diameter) well, converging into a single lighted spot. The brightest spot indicates the closest hour (or other interval), and an estimate can be made from the next-brightest. A graded filter, clear in the center, covering each well, with a single fiber in the center of the base. Works similarly to the above. Dave > Rodney, > > Great illustration of what I call an incremental time dial (i.e., it only > tells time at set increments throughout the day). > > About 20 years ago I had a dream of just such a hollow, thick skinned > sphere > (actually two spheres - one for each solstice to solstice period), but > drilled with holes pointing to the sun's position (split analemmic > pattern, > one hole for each hour on the first, tenth, twentieth, thirtieth days of > the > month. > > Now envision each hole as a "well" and have fiber optic strand recessed > inside the well such that the end of the strand is illuminated for just a > short period that the sun is directly in line with the axis of the well. > The fiber can be run to a display readout indexed for the date and time by > which fiber is illuminated. > > While all of this might be technically possible, it strikes me that this a > would be very expensive dial to make as well as being disappointing to > users > in having to wait for the sun to hit one of the wells in order to tell the > time. The only solution to the latter is to create more holes and fiber > strands and adding further to the cost of construction. > > I leave the idea to anyone who wants to pursue it. > > Larry Bohlayer > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de [mailto:sundial-boun...@uni-koeln.de] > On > Behalf Of David Bell > Sent: Sunday, September 06, 2009 2:42 PM > To: Rodney Heil > Cc: sundial@uni-koeln.de > Subject: Re: gnomon protection - shadow ridge dials > > Very nice! I was thinking of it on a flat surface, with the tubes > variously inclined, but this spherical model works great, too. Call it > a Sea Urchin dial, maybe... > > Dave > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Sep 6, 2009, at 11:36 AM, Rodney Heil <rodney.h...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> I made a quick POV-ray model of my conception of an "anemone dial" or >> "porcupine dial" and it is posted at >> www.flickr.com/photos/sundialstuff. Thanks to Roger for suggesting >> flickr. >> >> Respectfully, >> >> Rod >> ~35.5 N 117.5 W >> --------------------------------------------------- >> https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial >> > --------------------------------------------------- > https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial > > --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
