Ryan Weh wrote:
> > (Would it be called "equitorial"?--the dial plate is perpendicular to the > gnomon) to set in my office window right now. > Equatorial. Yes, that is a characteristic. The gnomon will point north and should be tilted upward from horizonal at an angle equal to your latitude, which makes the gnomon parallel to the earth's axis and the dial face parallel to the plane of the equator. -=-- ...and it occurs to me that if you were to take a miniature globe, such as the kind often found on pencil sharpeners or key chains, and stick the south pole of it on the end of your gnomon, then rotate the globe so that your location on the globe is on top (pointing toward the zenith) then natural sunlight on the sundial would make the sunlit face of the miniature globe exactly mimic the sunlit face of the earth. This would be much like the globe found in many model celestial spheres suspended within a transparent globe of stars. You could then tell what time it was in other locations at a glance. It would even compensate for latitude differences and seasonal differences automatically. Hmmm.... ...there's a sundial design in there somewhere. Jeff Adkins
