Hello Jeff,
You are indeed correct and this is a perfect example of a intuitive
approach towards dialing, I can't think of a more direct means to
visualize the Sun's path. Alas, like a lot of great ideas its been
thought of already (nothing new under the Sun?), see The Amateur
Scientist column in the August '59 issue of Scientific American. Also,
you may want to see Daniel Wenger's masterfully crafted sundials (URL
below) which use the same approach with a wonderful twist of using a
clear sphere, which are read using inverted gnomic projection.
http://www.wengersundial.com/Description.html
Best,
Luke
Jeff Adkins wrote:
- snip -
> ...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
