Since I don't think traditional tools like a level or inclinometer can precisely align or measure the tilt of such a tiny mirror, perhaps the best alignment tool is the Optical Lever Effect (OLE) itself.
But I can think of a simple but very precise way to level a tiny mirror so that it is perfectly horizontal... You could float the mirror inside a cup containing liquid mercury. You'd make the cup slightly larger in diameter than the mirror, but not so large that it could float too far. For my size room, I'd use a round 1 cm. mirror and a round 1.2 cm. cup and I'd hermetically cover and seal the cup with a thin piece of glass. The whole thing would then be securely mounted to the outside structure of the house (maybe a steel rod?) This is the only sure way I can think of to perfectly level a mirror. So, you could start out by permanently installing your floating horizontal mirror. Mark the meridian on both solstices using the sunspot. Then, using Fer's ZW2000 program, you get a drawing of the face in PAPER form that you got from the sign company. Then attach the paper to the ceiling so that it is correctly aligned with the meridian and solstice points. You can either leave the drawing up there permanently like wallpaper or you can transfer the drawing to the plaster by punching little holes through the paper, then remove the paper and connect the dots. This is the only method I can think of to save yourself all the trouble of physically marking the ceiling every day all year especially if you're drawing furniture like analemmas and declination lines. But something tells me that even this method could be riddled with errors. (i.e.. what if you give ZW2000 the wrong information because your measurement of the ceiling height was 2 mm. off? Or, will the glass cover on the floating mirror refract the sunspot?) John John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr. Tucson Arizona 85718 USA Tel: 520-696-1709 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: <http://www.sundialsculptures.com>
