<x-rich>Fellow dialists:
We're delayed by about 2 months from our plans, but at last at the Web
site mentioned below, you can now get full instructions for how to
build your EarthDial, which is a sundial of a standard design (although
allowing for individual variations, especially reflecting local
cultures) with a Web camera on it. We then will display near-real-time
images of all these dials so that one will be able to look over a
single Web page and see how solar time varies all over the Earth!
So please participate in this project or encourage someone else in
your club or society or school. I'd also be *extremely* grateful if
you'd forward this information to sundial enthusiasts whom you may know
that live in "unusual" longitudes (and latitudes - we've already got a
letter of interest from the research station at the South Pole!).
["Unusual" refers to those longitudes and latitudes not in Europe and
North America....]
Please look over the detailed, illustrated instructions, etc. at the
Website below, and let me know if you're likely to participate. Let's
make this truly a planet-wide project!
Cheers, Woody Sullivan
P.S. The Marsdials are now ~70% of the way to Mars on the 2 identical
Mars Exploration Rover spacecraft; landing dates are 4 January and 25
January (UT) and we're all hoping that NASA can really land OK this
time....
<fontfamily><param>Times_New_Roman</param><bigger>http://www.planetary.org/mars/earthdial.html
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<bold>University of Washington press release
Nov. 20, 2003
<bigger>Mars landers create opportunity for Web-linked sundials around
the world
</bigger></bold> Woodruff Sullivan wants to see sundials spread all
over our planet.
Sullivan, a University of Washington astronomy professor, is teaming
up with television personality Bill Nye, "the science guy," and The
Planetary Society on EarthDial, a project to get schools, community
organizations and individuals around the world to build their own
sundials and display them on the Internet using 24-hour webcams.
Their hope is to have a broad sample of sundials from each time zone,
illustrating the difference in shadows between the northern and
southern hemispheres and the equator. The plan is to display the images
together on a single Web site during the working life of two Mars
landers, Spirit and Opportunity, that are scheduled to land on the red
planet in January.
Both Spirit and Opportunity are equipped with sundials, referred to as
Marsdials, that were largely designed and fabricated at the UW. They
evolved from earlier Mars missions that were to land on Mars in 2002
but were postponed. In examining the plans for those missions, Nye
noticed a small square and post that were to be used as a kind of test
pattern to calibrate the spacecraft's color panoramic camera. He
suggested that it could double as a sundial.
Now he and Sullivan, a sundial expert, have devised what they call the
EarthDial project in which they are providing sundial construction
plans that are adaptable for any place on Earth. Though each EarthDial
will have room outside the main circle for individual touches and
expressions of local culture, everything within that circle is expected
to be relatively uniform so that they will be similar to each other and
representative of the Marsdials.
"We'll have all the dials around the Earth and the two dials on Mars
with the same general design," Sullivan said. "And they will have the
same motto - 'Two Worlds, One Sun.'"
A big difference is that the motto, inscribed in English on the
Marsdials, will be in the local language of each EarthDial built for
the project. In addition, the Marsdials carry an inscription of "Mars
2004," while the EarthDials will be inscribed "Earth 2004," also in the
local language.
The cost to individuals, schools and groups undertaking an EarthDial
project is likely to be around $50 for building materials, plus the
cost of acquiring and maintaining a webcam with around-the-clock
Internet connection that refreshes the image regularly.
The EarthDials will be about 32 inches across, 10 times the size of
the Marsdials. At any time, half of the EarthDials will be in darkness,
Sullivan said, but displayed together on a Web page they will provide a
unique look at the world.
"You'll get a palpable sense of what time is on this globe," he said.
"As your eye sweeps across the screen, you'll see the shadow angles
changing just like the hands on a clock in different time zones."
The project is being conducted in partnership with The Planetary
Society, an organization that encourages exploration of the solar
system and the search for extraterrestrial life. The society will host
the EarthDial Web site throughout the Spirit and Opportunity missions
on the Martian surface. Sullivan expects the project will prove to be a
valuable education tool.
"Any teacher should be able to use this site for all kinds of
interesting things having to do with timekeeping and with Earth as a
planet," he said.
Those who want to build their own EarthDials can find further
information and construction plans at
http://www.planetary.org/mars/earthdial.html
</bigger></fontfamily>
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Prof. Woodruff T. Sullivan, III Center for Astrobiology & Early Evolution
Dept. of Astronomy Box 351580
Univ. of Washington tel. 206-543-7773
Seattle, WA 98195 USA fax 206-685-0403
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