Hi Chris: You're right! I realized as soon as I sent my message that a small diameter floodlight with a wide beam would be better than a tight beam, because it must illuminate the entire style and not just a portion of it.
Thanks for confirming, John >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 > >
