Hello Moon Diallists, There is a sun dial on the Moon!
With Apollo 17 a gnomon (vertical rod) is placed on the moon and with this instrument it is possible to read the position of the sun. Let's transport a camera to this spot and we may read this dial at home. Or is there still a camera? Just as proposed for the Mars dial we can add any hour, day, altitude, azimut, ..... pattern as we like. So it is very easy to make our Moondial. In "Jahresschrift 2000" of the "Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie" an article by Heinz Sigmund about extraterrestial dials is published. In that article also the Apollo17 gnomon is mentioned. Best wishes, Fer. Fer J. de Vries [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.iae.nl/users/ferdv/ Eindhoven, Netherlands lat. 51:30 N long. 5:30 E ----- Original Message ----- From: The Shaws <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Sundial, List <[email protected]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2001 9:55 AM Subject: A sundial on the Moon > Help please. > > Under circumstances that I will not bore you with, Tony Moss and I had > dinner this week with Dr Joe P.Allen, (the American astronaut) and that well > known English eccentric and astronomer Sir Patrick Moore. > Naturally, our main topic of conversation was sundials, and there was some > talk of the Mars sundial. > We also talked about this sundial mailing list, and what a wealth of > knowledge is contained in it. > > Patrick Moore then asked if we could design a sundial, to be placed on the > moon at "Tranquility Base" - Joe Allen to be responsible for getting it > there!! > Should a successful dial be designed, he might feature it on his "The Sky at > Night" television programme. > Tony has offered to make it. > > So, we have a challenge > > I regret that I don't know much about the Moon. > I guess with a day of 27 days or so, we won't be able to use Earth time. > Tony has suggested a "Luna", subdivided, naturally, into "tics". > > All help and any suggestions for a design would be greatly appreciated. > > > Mike Shaw > > Wirral, UK > 53' 22" N > 03" 02" W > > >
