Zoom Sundial Event - Tomorrow 16:00 UTC (17:00 UTC)

2024-04-25 Thread Frank King
Dear All, Tomorrow, Friday 26 April at 16:00 UTC (17:00 BST), Frank King and Martins Gills are hosting a Sundial Zoom Event. Here is the formal invitation: Invitation..., Frank King – BSS is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: BSS March 2024 Bulletin Follow-up Time: Apr 26, 2024

Photograph of the Princess of Wales

2024-03-11 Thread Frank King
n the same direcion as the light. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader :-) Frank King Cambridge, UK --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Octahedral Sundials

2024-02-20 Thread Frank King
Dear All, I am trying to find examples of sundials that have been set out on some or all the faces of a REGULAR OCTAHEDRON. There are many examples of Dodecahedra and Icosahedra but I can't find ANY Octahedra. If you know of any, please share the knowledge!! Very best wishes Frank Frank King

Zoom Sundial Event - Today 17:00 UTC

2024-01-24 Thread Frank King
Dear All, Later today, with Martins Gills, I am hosting a Sundial Zoom Event. Here is the Zoom link: Invitation... Frank King - BSS is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: BSS December 2023 Bulletin Follow-up Time: Jan 24, 2024 17:00 London Join Zoom Meeting https

Re: How to turn ecliptic longitude into solar declination?

2022-10-16 Thread Frank King
Dear Steve, Michael, Werner and Fabio have provided some excellent responses to your question. If you are ONLY interested in relating three ANGLES - solar longitude, solar declination and the obliquity - then this relationship is indeed all you need: sin(lambda).sin(obliquity) =

Happy New Year

2022-09-23 Thread Frank King
in the engraving alluding to casting off the old ways and introducing new ways. It is worth reading all the writing which is in very simple French! Enjoy your day. Enjoy Year 231. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. Full instructions for examining the Calendar: Visit: https://en.wikipedia.org

Re: Republican Calendar, Year 231

2022-09-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Michael, I am most grateful to you for pointing out an error in my message. I referred to: > ... your hero Pope Gregory III and you correctly commented: > I doubt that he called himself Gregory... Quite so, BUT you missed a MUCH more serious error. He was neither Gregory III nor

Re: Republican Calendar, Year 231

2022-09-20 Thread Frank King
out. As others have said: this calendar is GREAT FUN. Have a good year! Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Computing hour lines for horizontal sundials

2022-08-10 Thread Frank King
Dear Steve, R. Hooijenga is right. Adding 10 was a common way to proceed. We are talking about log-to-base-10 which I imagine is rarely used these days but when it was in common use there were all kinds of tricks. I suspect these were different in North America from in Europe Consider the logs

BSS Sundial Zoom Event - 16:00 UTC, 17 April

2021-04-14 Thread Frank King
Dear All, The British Sundial Society is hosting a Zoom event this coming Saturday 17 April at 16:00 UTC. [Note 16:00 UTC = 17:00 BST/IST = 18:00 CEST and = 09:00 PDT = 12:00 EDT etc!] The outline programme is: Frank King: Welcome and Introduction Roger Bailey: French Alpine Sundials

Re: sundials marked 1671

2020-03-16 Thread Frank King
Dear Sara, It would be good to see a photograph but, from your description, this/these sound very like the kind of sundial that was almost mass produced in England in the 1920s. The old dates were not in intended to be fraudulent but to add an element of quaintness. Very best wishes Frank On

Ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martii

2020-02-24 Thread Frank King
Dear All, A Happy Leap Year Day to everyone. Should any reader be unfamiliar with my four-yearly greeting, please look at the sundial list archive for Wed Feb 24 09:11:48 CET 2016 with the Thread Name "Happy Leap Year Day to everyone". I was delighted, in 2012, to note that not a single

Re: Can anyone help me to contact Paul Ratto ?

2020-01-01 Thread Frank King
Dear Isabella, As I expected, there are plenty of list members happy to offer advice. You have to be a bit circumspect when reading some of it! Willy Leenders is right to comment unfavourable on the drawing you find at: http://www.sunclocks.com The drawing and the wording round it are

Re: Can anyone help me to contact Paul Ratto ?

2019-12-31 Thread Frank King
uses this mailing list can advise you! Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Worldwide project EarthLAT1200.org

2019-12-16 Thread Frank King
Dear Daniel, Thank you very much for your excellent explanation. This is exactly what I was hoping for! Your answer also shows just how useful the Sundial Mailing List is; we must always thank you for setting it up and for running it. I enjoy WOZ(G) where G is for Görlitz and this would

Re: Worldwide project EarthLAT1200.org

2019-12-02 Thread Frank King
Dear Kurt, Many thanks for your help. I shall try to remember Gmünd as an important place and, like Greenwich, it begins with 'G' :-) You have four abbreviations: WOZ, MOZ, MEZ, MESZ We agree that the English equivalents are LAT, LMT, CET, CEST. My thesis is that we need two more names for

Re: Worldwide project EarthLAT1200.org

2019-11-30 Thread Frank King
Dear Jürgen and Kurt, Thank you both very much for your explanations: WOZ =A6 Wahre Ortszeit =3D LAT =A6 Local Apparent Time MOZ =A6 Mittlere Ortszeit =3D LMT =A6 Local Mean Time My memory must be fading=21 I had forgotten Ortszeit and, now, I remember that Reinhold Kriegler explained

Re: Worldwide project EarthLAT1200.org

2019-11-29 Thread Frank King
you help me with MOZ? I guessed Mittel Ost Zeit but this doesn't seem to exist!! Very best wishes Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. On Tue, 26 Nov 2019 at 20:48, wrote: > Dear Sundialists, > > > > there has been some progress within the latest months. You are invited to >

Re: Brief explanation/derivation for Horizontal-Dial's declination-lines?

2019-11-16 Thread Frank King
ANT Teaching geometry in schools seems to have gone out of fashion in most of the world. In my day, we were taught how to calculate conic sections at 16 years old. Very best wishes Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mail

Re: Equinoctial Puzzle

2019-10-06 Thread Frank King
or DE406, etc..) that could be different from > JPL and IMCCE. This does not mean that one is better than the other one. > > I have not investigated Sol et Umbra yet, because of lack of time, but > this could come from the selected location not being the center of the > Earth. > > >

Re: Equinoctial Puzzle

2019-10-04 Thread Frank King
Dear Hervé, Congratulations on your comments on my puzzle about the September Equinox last month... > It seems that the answer to your question > can be found in the attached picture > inclosed in a recent information letter > issued by the French IMCCE institute > specialised in celestial

Re: maximum size of e-mails to sundial list including attachments

2019-10-01 Thread Frank King
the advice given in: https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial Here it still says that the limit is 50kB and that is definitely too small! Very best wishes Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman

Re: Changing to Summer Time

2019-04-01 Thread Frank King
Dear Fabio, Yes, in England, there are some very unusual traditions at the start of summer each year! Ciao Frank --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Changing to Summer Time

2019-04-01 Thread Frank King
to change the clock on an oven. I managed to set the timer to cook for an hour but changing the main clock defeated me. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Gianni

2019-03-28 Thread Frank King
Dear Fabio, This is very sad news indeed. I was in correspondence with Gianni only a few months ago. I learnt a huge amount about sundials from him over the past 20 years. His book about Islamic sundials is a masterpiece. We shall miss him very much. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K

Reinhold Kriegler

2019-03-26 Thread Frank King
dimenticherò. Lux perpetua luceat eis Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Equinox, Full Moon and Easter

2019-03-23 Thread Frank King
Dear Fabio, Many thanks for your follow-up. I look forward to hearing more when you get your book back. I wonder how many people know how difficult it is to define 'Sunday'!! It is possible to define Sunday so that, sometimes, half the planet has Easter after one full moon and the other half

Re: Equinox, Full Moon and Easter

2019-03-22 Thread Frank King
Dear Fabio, I think the Spencer-Jones algorithm is now widely accepted as defining when Easter will be observed (by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church for the foreseeable future). What is interesting is just how often it produces the same date as the naive rule of 'the first

Re: Equinox, Full Moon and Easter

2019-03-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Roger, I note that you say: > My reference on this topic is The Sun in > the Church by J L Heilbron. He is pretty sound on this and, as early as page 3, notes that the time of the equinox and the time of full moon depend where you are on the planet. He adds, "as, of course does Sunday".

Re: Heliodrome

2019-03-21 Thread Frank King
ion is one of the greatest gnomonic inventions. You don't have to have the zenith in the centre. On astrolabes, the centre is a projection of the north celestial pole. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Heliodrome

2019-03-18 Thread Frank King
last year and you can see: 1. There is no nodus. 2. The surrounding circle is the projection of the horizon so you can see the WHOLE heliodrome. I think I shall use this word more frequently! Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https

Re: dischrony

2019-03-17 Thread Frank King
eliodromo highlighted? Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: dischrony

2019-03-13 Thread Frank King
is more challenging! In English, this translates literally as "eye-cap" which I think of as something for medical use, for washing your eyes. I rather suspect that the French also use this to mean aperture nodus but I should like confirmation. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --

Re: dischrony

2019-03-12 Thread Frank King
>From where I am sitting: My longitude offset (from the Greenwich meridian) is one-eighth of a degree east or 30 seconds of time. 'Offset' is used for angles, time or distance. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni

Re: Article about Armenian sundials

2019-03-02 Thread Frank King
seem very nicely made. Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Frank King

2019-02-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Willy et al, My suspicions ares confirmed... I have just received a message from David Leafe: Unfortunately, although I sent them the revised scientific information as we agreed it, they had to cut it down and I'm not sure that it now all makes sense... The errors are NOT the fault of

Re: Frank King

2019-02-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Willy et al, You are quite right... > There are two fundamental errors in the > article by David Leafe for the Daily Mail. He spent an hour on the telephone to me yesterday evening. He went through his text about 20 times. The big problem, for me, was trying to explain the difference

Re: Gnomon Gap Puzzle

2019-01-03 Thread Frank King
Dear John, Many thanks for your seal of approval... > Bravo - two quarters of a double horizontal dial! A fair summary, but note that it doesn't suffer from the knife-edge gnomon bug that most double horizontal dials suffer from. Fancy going wrong at noon of all times of day. Grrr! The

Re: Gnomon Gap Puzzle - wonderful

2019-01-03 Thread Frank King
Dear Alastair, Many thanks for your kind words... > Your design is wonderful... I hope you enjoy the book. You ask... > ... have you come across the term 'azimuth > circles', how would you define this term? I have heard this term in several contexts. In an astronomical context, any great

Re: Gnomon Gap Puzzle

2019-01-03 Thread Frank King
Dear All, I have a simple rule with my puzzles: wait for a reply from Geoff Thurston and then reveal all. The time has come! In the recent spate of messages, both Bill Gottesman and Steve Lelievre were very close. Bill is the only person to suggest an azimuthal dial with vertical styles

Re: Gnomon Gap Puzzle

2019-01-02 Thread Frank King
Dear Maciej and Sara, Gosh. Those are really incredible dials. The Nested L-shapes of the chapter rings on the Jacques Le Marie dial are very cleverly set out. I wonder how big a market there was for this kind of dial! Maciej's description of a Nuremberg Diptych - The shadow was cast by the

Re: Gnomon Gap Puzzle

2019-01-01 Thread Frank King
Dear Maciej, John and Steve Congratulations on coming up with several ideas. I should have asked your advice several months ago! Although your ideas seem wildly different, they all share elements of the actual design which I shall reveal in due course. Maciej: I am most grateful to you for

Gnomon Gap Puzzle

2019-01-01 Thread Frank King
DIAL FITS INSIDE THE GNOMON GAP Question 1: What does the design look like? Question 2: Can this possibly look good? Question 3: What is the 'unusual space'? A Happy New Year to you all. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de

Re: EU backs ending Daylight Saving Time

2018-08-31 Thread Frank King
Dear Steve, Your subject line is ambiguous... EU backs ending Daylight Saving Time Does this mean: A: The EU wants to give up DST? or: B: The EU wants DST not to end? The report suggests the latter: Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said millions "believe that in future,

Re: Is this sundial business 'genuine', or not?

2018-07-09 Thread Frank King
Dear Bill, Sunclocks are genuine. Some people are very enthusiastic about them, others are not. You have almost certainly seen a Sunclocks dial without realising it. They have an interesting business model... If you want a sundial you are given several options: 1. Buy a full set of

Re: blank subject line

2018-05-23 Thread Frank King
Dear Doug, On Tuesday 22 May you wrote: > I regard a subject line as a > simple courtesy! As Fred noted, the irony is that your own message didn't include a subject line. I endorse Fred's suggestion that you should study Steve Lelievre's note. I would add a personal plea not to go in for

Re: The Palace Sundial

2018-04-11 Thread Frank King
Dear All, Rest assured that our Queen is well advised... If she wants to discuss trees, she brings in Sir David Attenborough. If she wants her sundial moved, she consults me. This sundial has been moved before. Its most recent location was fine when it was placed there

Re: Gianni Ferrari March 31, 1938

2018-03-31 Thread Frank King
Dear Reinhold, Yes, let us all join the party on Asteroid 315046 and celebrate the birthday of the greatest living diallist. Happy Birthday Gianni Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Hail to the Chief

2018-01-23 Thread Frank King
Dear Rolf, Many thanks for that diagram. It makes everything very clear. Where I live, at 52N, there is very little change in the width of the shadow of a rod gnomon over the course of the day. Almost no one notices it. In the tropics, the change is much more obvious. You can see why I chose

Re: Hail to the Chief

2018-01-18 Thread Frank King
Dear Geoff and John, > Surely Geoff Thurston is right? Yes. He is! You don't even need to think in three dimensions. The edges of the shadow must run to the base of the gnomon and must touch tangentially. The base is indeed an ellipse. The contact points are always opposite one another (by

Re: Hail to the Chief

2018-01-18 Thread Frank King
Dear John, A moot point... > ... why should any sane normal > person want to help Trump... Ah. I was thinking in terms of "displacement therapy". Thinking about sundials must be better for one's mental health than drinking copious quantities of Diet Coke? Just trying to be helpful :-) Frank

Hail to the Chief

2018-01-17 Thread Frank King
Dear All, I gather from the UK media that the recent medical check-up undertaken by the U.S. President involved some "cognitive tests" and he scored 30 out of 30. One of these tests requires the subject to mark in the hands of a clock at a specified time. It is, of course, reassuring to know

Re: Hemicyclium correction

2017-10-19 Thread Frank King
Dear Brad, I'm delighted that you enjoyued my "tutorial"... > However, its your step 19 I am > interested in. Ah yes. That's where I mention marking out equal hours. I thought you would be most interested in that step :-) You add... > And if I do tilt the hemispherium > so that the horizon

Re: Hemicyclium correction

2017-10-16 Thread Frank King
Dear Brad, You say: > I am looking to make a > hemicyclium-type sundial > (half-hemisphere) in a > metal working class. > Am I missing anything? Er, yes. Rather a lot alas... Before you start bashing metal it may be worth spending rather less effort on a prototype. > ...they are

Re: Golden Ratio and Sundials

2017-06-24 Thread Frank King
Dear Geoff, Many congratulations on your proof... When I set the puzzle, I thought three things: 1. I am really setting this for Geoff to solve. 2. He will certainly solve it and will probably be the first to publish. 3. His proof will either match mine or be more elegant. I was

Re: Golden Ratio and Sundials

2017-06-23 Thread Frank King
Dear All, Referring to the Golden Ratio and Sundials, Donald Snyder wrote: I see nothing obvious except ... trivial possibilities. Try Googling Dodecahedral Sundial and you will see many examples. Here is one chosen at random:

Re: Mounting Sundials...securely

2017-05-17 Thread Frank King
at a time. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Inquiry - Part 2

2017-04-26 Thread Frank King
Dear Steve, Part 2 of your enquiry asserted that... ...throughout the 19th century... the French railways system used heliochronometers installed at each station for daily calibration of station clocks? Again, this is a good story but I simply cannot see why this would be

Re: Inquiry - Part 1

2017-04-26 Thread Frank King
Dear Steve, I have read the replies to your enquiry and I am not yet convinced by the responses to either Part 1 or Part 2! I'll restrict myself to Part 1, where it is asserted... ...that Louis XIV issued some kind of edict that all clocks manufactured in France were to be Equation

Re: The duration of the year

2017-02-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Doug, The answers to your first question about noting seasonal drift 1000 years ago have all missed something crucial... The astronomical comments have been very sound but what is missing is any account of just how you would maintain your records? These days you could buy a desk-top diary

Re: Unusual bi-annual sundial

2017-01-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Roger, Thank you for your comments on the John Dee implementation of the Omar Khayyam calendar. > At one longitude, 77° W, the equinox > would always be on the same day. Is this > God's Longitude? Yes. At that longitude the vernal equinox would invariably fall on 21 March. Sadly, this

Re: Unusual bi-annual sundial

2017-01-21 Thread Frank King
Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Dear Geoff, As so often, you cause me to reflect a little and to refine my analysis... > I wonder if the errors might be masked > by the 32 arc minute solar penumbra. In pondering this "instrument" I made the naive assumption

Re: Unusual bi-annual sundial

2017-01-20 Thread Frank King
Dear John, I am not sure the Chief Engineer fully grasped what is going on though he has indeed appreciated that, at the required moment, both the altitude and the azimuth of the sun change from one year to the the next. In a crucial sentence he asserts: Each year, the center of the sun is

Re: Unusual bi-annual sundial

2017-01-19 Thread Frank King
t the result is that we are lumbered with an unhelpful calendar which is, I suppose, upward-compatible with its predecessor. I share the view that "upward-compatibility is the business of deliberately not putting right someone else's mistakes". Many apologies. Another rant I fear! Very best wishes Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

RE: Leap Second Quiz Question

2017-01-02 Thread Frank King
Dear All, Many interesting comments... David Brown wrote: > ...the place where you add/remove the coins > is below the current C.G. This is a theoretical possibility but all the large pendulum clocks I have looked at have an annular tray round the shaft ABOVE the pendulum bob... There are

Re: Leap Second Quiz Question

2017-01-01 Thread Frank King
Dear All, The voting pattern has swung away from 1.5s to 0.5s and we shall see whether this trend continues! There is an embellishment to Mike Shaw's comment: The radio clock stopped for 1 second at midnight This isn't quite what happens. Indeed, there seems not to be a general pattern.

Leap Second Quiz Question

2017-01-01 Thread Frank King
Dear All, I hope you all enjoyed the extra second in bed this morning and that your alarm clock didn't go off one second early. Here is an easy question to start off the New Year... Every Sunday at 08:00 I check the first stroke of the hour-bell of the University Clock against a

Re: Are there some Sundial Designers, in INDIA ?

2016-12-21 Thread Frank King
Dear Roger, Delighted to see that you heed my Rule 2: 2. Never believe anything you read anywhere [else] without checking. Very properly you have checked my assertions and found them wanting! That's the kind of guy I like! I was basing my false assertions on a report from an erstwhile

Re: Are there some Sundial Designers, in INDIA ?

2016-12-20 Thread Frank King
Dear Frans, I was interested and amused by your comments on the Delhi sundial... > According to the newspaper article... Huh! I live by two simple rules: 1. Never believe anything you read in Newspapers without checking. 2. Never believe anything you read anywhere else without

Re: Are there some Sundial Designers, in INDIA ?

2016-12-19 Thread Frank King
Dear Beverley, You ask: > Do the members of this list know, > whether there are some (or even ANY) > sundial designers in INDIA... There are several modern sundials in India so someone must be designing them! I have even had a hand in a dial in Goa [do you count that as India?] myself. To

Re: Permanent DST

2016-11-25 Thread Frank King
Dear John, You are right to point out the error of Doug's ways. I have been known to do this myself :-) That said, this isn't quite right either... > It is only the benighted people who > are forced to live in the northern > hemisphere who persist with the > belief of a southerly sun. I have

Re: Permanent DST

2016-11-25 Thread Frank King
Dear Doug, It is probably time to conclude this fascinating discussion so this will be my final public offering (for a while). > A significant part of my note is > reporting the work of others... Indeed so. I am familiar with most of your citations, especially, the report by the Cambridge

Re: Permanent DST

2016-11-23 Thread Frank King
Dear Doug, I read your message and your attachment. There are so many flaws in your analysis that it is difficult to know where to begin. Since you find road accident statistics so compelling I shall confine myself to demolishing all you have to say there... There is a wonderful book by

Re: Permanent DST

2016-11-21 Thread Frank King
Dear John, You reply... > I have to take issue with your notion > that God ... handed us a 24 hour clock. I suggest you read my message a little more carefully. a) I didn't mention God at all. b) I was exceptionally careful to spell out that the 24-hour clock was irrelevant. I was

Re: Permanent DST

2016-11-20 Thread Frank King
ff one end of a blanket and stitching it on to the other end you get a longer blanket. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: PuzzleCorner

2016-11-13 Thread Frank King
Dear Rolf, Yes, this is indeed the answer that I was hoping for: The midpoints M1 and M2 of parallel chords lie on a (conjugate) diameter. And its midpoint M is the centre of the ellipse. The proof is trivial. You just have to consider what the figure looks like if you project the

Re: STONE SUNDIAL

2016-11-05 Thread Frank King
Kevin Karney wrote: Oops - misread for Mike Cowan Ah, much better. Now try Mike Cowham and you will neatly illustrate the meaning of Third Time Lucky :-) Frank --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: STONE SUNDIAL

2016-11-04 Thread Frank King
Kevin Karney wrote: Dennis, Your nearest port of call would be the geology department at the Sedgwick museum in Cambridge... Many readers will find this a little puzzling given that Dennis lives but a stone's throw from The Cockburn Geological Museum at the University of Edinburgh whereas

Re: Sundial Puzzle Corner

2016-10-31 Thread Frank King
Dear Karl, Your idea is not without merit: > Wrap the slate with a reflective strip ... > Playing around with a laser should find the > focii. This is sometimes referred to as the "Elliptical Billiard Table Problem"... If you aim at a focus, the laser path will reflect through the other focus

Re: Sundial Puzzle Corner

2016-10-30 Thread Frank King
Dear Andrew, You are quite right... > I thought that you were looking for a > "straight-edge" and compass construction > on the sheet of paper. Yes. I was! Don Snyder gave us pointers to what I was hoping for... > first find the ellipse center > >

Re: Sundial Puzzle Corner

2016-10-30 Thread Frank King
Dear Rudolph, Glad you enjoyed the puzzle or, at least, the solution... > Brilliant! You add... > I never realized that the distance from > the focus to the end of the minor axis > equals the half major axis... Have you never tried drawing an ellipse with a Length of String and Two Pins?

Re: Sundial Puzzle Corner

2016-10-30 Thread Frank King
Dear Dave and Donald, This puzzle actually has serious practical sundial applications as I shall illustrate. First: Good try Dave... > Personally, I'd fold the paper, > superimposing the reflected > half-ellipse, crease it, unfold, > rotate ~90 degrees and repeat! Although this is not what I

Re: Sundial Puzzle Corner

2016-10-29 Thread Frank King
Dear Geoff, I had a private list of people I expected to respond and I have been waiting for your answer! > I think that these instructions might > work if you ventured to the antarctic > circle during the southern winter and > then trecked to a position such that > your latitude is greater than

Sundial Puzzle Corner

2016-10-28 Thread Frank King
anet would you have to be, and at what time of year, for these instructions to give the correct result? Moral: It is better to learn from other people's mistakes than from your own. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. P.S. The home page of the website is: http://wiki.dtonline.org

Re: Sombrero as a sundial

2016-08-18 Thread Frank King
ore > a sundial hat to the Ascot Races > back in 2009. Yes, a truly stunning hat! Mike Shaw added: > Note Lord White with compass in hand He is still "Sir George White" as far as I know? Frank King Cambridge, U.K. ---

Re: Sawyer Dialing Prize 2016

2016-07-31 Thread Frank King
Dear All, I add my congratulations to Roger Bailey and note that he generously refers to my article on "Sundials and Leap Years" in the BSS Bulletin of December 2011. Bob Kellogg referred to this in one of his excellent "Sundials for Starters" pieces: "Bisextile Years and the Analemma" in the

Re: Using analemmatic sundials for determining sun exposure times

2016-06-15 Thread Frank King
Dear John, At last! Congratulations! You go to the top of the class and put all those youngsters to shame!! > ... a north-facing wall on the > Arctic Circle at the summer > solstice, or a south-facing wall > on the Antarctic circle at the > summer solstice down under. The analysis is easy...

Re: Using analemmatic sundials for determining sun exposure times

2016-06-14 Thread Frank King
Dear Willy and Geoff, Good answers but the correct value exceeds both your scores. Let's see who else will rise to the challenge before I declare my hand! Frank --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Using analemmatic sundials for determining sun exposure times

2016-06-14 Thread Frank King
shine on a vertical wall? You can choose the latitude and you can choose the orientation of the wall and you can choose the solar declination. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

A Happy Leap Year Day to everyone

2016-02-24 Thread Frank King
at they do not indulge in the dumbing-down from which we in the U.K. seem to suffer. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Diamond Fuji

2016-01-07 Thread Frank King
ight. In short, the bite taken out of Mount Baker has nothing to do with diffraction, refraction or the atmosphere (or lack of it) on the mountain. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: Diamond Fuji

2016-01-06 Thread Frank King
by Huygens and Fresnel. I should be interested to hear whether this is right. Should one expect a slight change in colour between the sun ABOVE the bite and IN the bite? Very best wishes Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.

Interesting Dial for Sale

2014-11-05 Thread Frank King
for 164-year-old stonework. I have asked for the name of the property and who owned it in 1850 but I have not had an answer! Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

The BSS Horizontal Sundial

2014-09-21 Thread Frank King
extensive European coverage too. Have fun! Frank King --- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial

Re: leap year

2014-08-28 Thread Frank King
Day is really 24 February but there are probably only two other people on this list who agree with that assertion! [I distinguish here between the extra DAY and the extra DATE in a leap year.] Very best wishes, Frank Frank King Cambridge, U.K

Re: Shaggy Longitude Story

2014-08-24 Thread Frank King
Dear Doug, You say... Not the only problem in this area! I rather fancy they should go back to having a resident aggressive Astronomer Royal; someone like Nevil Maskelyne would do. He would crack the whip over all these surveyors and give them the choice of putting their work right or being

Shaggy Longitude Story

2014-08-23 Thread Frank King
Dear All, Here is a cautionary tale. In summary: NEVER believe ANYTHING without checking! A little while ago, Doug Bateman mentioned that there were some lines of longitude marked in the paving of Peninsula Square by the O2 Arena in London. You can see these as follows... Enter Google Maps

Re: Map required

2014-08-20 Thread Frank King
Dear Geoff, Given that you have checked the Ordnance Survey's A guide to coordinate systems in Great Britain you will know everything that I know on this and, no doubt, much more besides. What I didn't quite deduce from the document is how individual features get into the grid squares! You

Re: Map required

2014-08-18 Thread Frank King
Dear Geoff, I share your lament... I thought that I understood the principles of the OSGB but since Keith said that it is not strictly based on a transverse Mercator projection, I am now confused again. Well, the Ordnance Survey certainly WAS based on a transverse Mercator projection, and

Re: Map required

2014-08-17 Thread Frank King
Dear Tony, What a fun thread you have spawned! Mercator is possibly the most famous Belgian, not that Belgium existed in his day but let's overlook that detail. The mathematics of Mercator's projection is quite challenging. Certainly Mercator himself didn't understand it! The first proper

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