Dave Bell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I'd call it a fairly expensive joke! > > Note that a "real" dial should, roughly speaking, have the hours from 0600 > to 1800 in a semicircle, running from East through North to West (in the > northern hemisphere). This is a clock face, with only room for 12 hours in > a day!
The sundial at http://www.shopoutdoordecor.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/online-store/scstore/p-AWS209S.html?L+scstore+wxsc3599ff367336+981445839 is certainly poorly (criminally?) designed in that it gets out of whack as the declination changes (by about +/- 1 hour, even if properly mounted). The simple fact that there are only 12 hours in a circle does not, however, make it totally useless. Since the foot of the gnomon is on the circle rather than in its center, the shadow falls at about the right spot near sunrise and sunset. In fact, if the circle were either perpendicular to the gnomon or elongated to an ellipse along the 6-12 axis, it could be turned into a perfectly fine sundial. In the "Sundial Installation Instructions", the company states, "These sundials are designed for ornamental use and give an approximation of time. As a very accurate sundial would require constant adjustment and less ornamentation, these models have been selected to give years of enjoyment without the aggravation of constant tuning." I find these words rather painful, knowing that sundials certainly can be accurate (limited in most cases by the Equation of Time), and having seen many examples of the beauty the artisans of this list can bestow on such an accurate dial. --Art Carlson
