Re: Does your watch do the same?

[John Pickard]

Anselmo,   You are of course perfectly correct. But we rarely find pine cones in Australian forests (other than in pine plantations which are not terribly interesting places).   What about a GPS? Tells me my position, the time, and it has a built-in almanac that tells me the time of sunset in my present position. And the new small GPSs cost less than a mid-range analogue or digital watch.   BTW: have you seen the new multi-sensor digital watches? They have built-in digital compasses, thermometers, barometers, altimeters, and presumably back-scratchers. Have a look at some of the stuff offered by the US outdoor suppliers, e.g. www.cabela's.com Try the Casio Satellite Navi GPS Watch. Exactly what you buy your partner who literally has everything!   I have a digital watch with digital compass. Not the most accurate device, but pretty good for a rapid choice between tow ridges when I am out bushwalking. Now that I have seen the Casio above, all I have to do is convince someone to spring the necessary $US 500 to buy one for me.   Cheers, John   "Far better an approximate answer to the right question which may be difficult to frame, than an exact answer to the wrong question which is always easy to ask" John W Tukey, statistician ----- Original Message ----- From: Anselmo Pérez Serrada To: Sundial, Mailinglist Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 9:10 AM Subject: Does your watch do the same? Hi everyone!   Last Christmas a mate of mine told me this conversation he had with somobody:      --- And what's your hobby?    --- In my spare time I make sundials.    --- Huh, sundials ?! My watch tells the time more accurately and it's much cheaper. What a waste of time and effort!    --- But, tell me, does your watch tell you how much time is left for the sunset?    --- Well, no, what should I need know it for?    --- Maybe you're travelling by car or on a trip through the forest and want to know how much time of light you've left, maybe you like fishing or birdwatching and want to know when the animals leave,... (and so on). And my dial does it in very a simple and elegant way: it can be just a cone lying on the ground with its axis pointing towards the North Star. So it is not so much useless as you thought!   Ah, the old italic hours and the splendid conical-gnomon dial coming to our help!   Does anybody know more about other kinds of italic hour dials (apart from the flat ones, of course)?   Anselmo Perez Serrada   [ 41.63 N   4.73 W]