Roger Bailey wrote: > ... Sundials are just not part of Portuguese culture. But armillary > spheres are. They were everywhere, so we changed the rules of > engagement and began searching for armillary spheres. ...
I find this interesting, Roger, because there happens to be a small armillary sphere atop a roughly 3-meter-tall pillar in the nearby city of Hayward, California, part of a monument honoring the local Portuguese immigrants. (A large number of Portuguese arrived in this area during the early decades of the 20th Century, most of whom came originally from the Azores, then migrated to Hawaii, then moved here because of our climate's similarity to Portugal's.) I was riding the bus one day when I spotted it; I nearly blurted out, "Hey, a sundial!" But upon closer inspection, this particular armillary sphere's north pole is aimed almost at the zenith and the ecliptic band is set at about a 40-degree rake to its equator -- in other words, an item purely for decoration. If anyone in the San Francisco region is curious, you'll find it in downtown Hayward, near the spot where First Street, C Street, and Foothill Boulevard all converge. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Mark Gingrich [EMAIL PROTECTED] San Leandro, California
