>This reminded me of a question I've long wondered: Are there any other >cathedrals in Europe that emulated the noon mark in the Church of San >Petronio, Bologna, Italy? >
There is a noon mark in Palazzo della Ragione (the city hall) in Padua. This palace have the largest suspended roof in Europe made like a ship bottom. Its major axis is aligned east-west and the meridian line is in the center of the floor. The palace was build in the mid-XIIIth century but the noon line was designed in mid-XVIIIth century when a thunderstorm destroied part of the roof. At difference with the Cassini's noon mark in San Petronio (which is a real scientific intrument), the meridian line of the Palazzo della Ragione was build by the engineer who rebuild the roof and it is completely wrong. Few years later, the director of the Padua Observatory (Prof. Toaldo) calculated the deviation of this meridian line to the true meridian line and he found that it was offsetted and also tilted. The same director, built a meridian line in one of the observatory's observing room. This meridian line is still there and working very well. I hope in the future to have time to set up few web pages to show these two meridian lines and to better describe the history of their construction. Simone ############################################################################### Zaggia Simone email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dipartimento di Astronomia Tel: +39-49-8293435 Universita' di Padova Fax: +39-49-8759840 ###############################################################################
