Good idea John. But when you say "tightly focused" I take it you mean a flashlight with a wide beam emanating from a small aperture. This is what gives a sharp edge to the shadow. Conversely, a flashlight with a narrow beam from a large reflector would be poor. The poor man's laser trigon, indeed.
Chris John Carmichael wrote: > Hi once more: > > Just read all your e-mails on drawing hour lines by shadow tracing. Chris > Lusby Taylor pointed out that it would be difficult to trace the whole hour > line because the shadow is constantly moving; so he suggested drawing a > point on the hour line first and then visually guestimating the entire hour > line's position on the ground. This seems like it might cause small errors > in the hour lines because it is based on a guesstimate and not an actual > shadow tracing. > > I have an idea, though, that might facilitate drawing an hour line from the > face edge to the center: How about first marking only the hour points as > Chris suggests. Then, at night, fasten a high power, tightly focused > flashlight to a ladder to simulate the sun. Position the light so that the > style's shadow falls on the hour point that was marked earlier using the > sun. The wiggly hour line could then be traced at one's convenience using > an unmoving "sun". > > Whadaya think? > > John
