Karl Schwarzinger's very nicely designed Analemmatic Sundial in Tyrol (URL below) integrates both a raised and slopping platform to add some compensation for height limitations in a larger sized dial.
http://tirol-php.highway.telekom.at/k.schwarzinger/a_3500.htm Cheers, Luke Steve Lelievre wrote: > > John, > > The NASS site has some DeltaCad macros. > > As regards how big to make the dial, I suspect that people size will not be > a meaningful starting point. In the extreme case, there is hardly any > shadow. > > Your dial is S.Calif - say about 33 and a bit degrees N. At the Summer > solstice, the sun at noon is 23 and a bit degrees N, so the sun gets to > within 10 degrees of being overhead. Thus a person of height 1.70m will cast > a noon shadow of only 1.7m x tan(10), which is 30 cm. That's a 5 foot 7 > inches person giving a 1 foot shadow, in imperial units. Some men (including > me!) and many women aren't that tall, so most users would have even shorter > shadows. At other times of day and other times of year the problem would be > less noticable, but I reckon that overall for that location the shadow often > won't reach edge of a sizeable dial. So what I'm saying is that people will > often have to make a imaginary line to the edge of the dial anyway to read > the time, so why not just make the dial to suit the location and don't put > lots of emphasis on getting the dial size to match shadow sizes. > > I saw instructions for an Aussie analemmic dial which told users to clasp > their hands together above their heads in order to lengthen their shadows. > > Cheers, Steve
