I totally agree with Gianni's remarks on his 'Five Reading Suggestions'.
I would add another
two italian books: 'L'ombra e il tempo' by Aldo Trinchero and the
'Prontuario Gnomonico'
by Fabio Savian. In my opinion Mayalls' book is very good for beginners
(better than Waugh's).
On the other hand I do not completely agree with Claude:
However, it requires a computer! The reason to discuss the use of the hand
calculator was because many of NASS beginners do not use computers. Indeed, a
common complaint when I was the membership chairman for NASS was about the
"mathematics" involved in most books or articles.
First, you don't need a computer to program these formulae: you may use
a programmable calculator
that may be bought for less than 20 euro and, second, I bet that
everyone interested on calculating a
sundial is also interested on computers... which can be used in public
libraries for free.
I do believe that the spreadsheet approach is much simpler and easier
for interested beginners but, anyhow,
Claude's formulae could be very easy to dump into the computer, so for
beginners the difference is more
theoretical than practical. Only if (s)he becomes more interested on the
topic I'd recommend an strict mathematical+
computer based diet.
Best regards,
Anselmo
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