25 years 'Arbeitskreis Sonnenuhren'
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Last month the German sundial study group - called Arbeitskreis
Sonnenuhren - celebrated its 25th anniversary. It is the oldest
sundial society in the world and its roots go even five more
years back into the year 1966. One of the founders was Martin
Bernhardt the engineer who is well known for his sundial type
giving the mean time by a specially formed shadow caster.
One goal of this - at that time small - group of enthusiasts was
to continue the work of Prof. Ernst Zinner, an astronomer who
catalogued several thousands of old sundials in Europe. This
work just found its highest point two years ago with the release
of a catalog of the sundial sites in Germany and Switzerland
giving detailed information on 8000+ sundials.
The members aim at the construction of sundials, gnomonic advice
for everybody, restauration of historical sundials, cataloging
of sundial sites, studies on the history of time measurement,
unification of gnomonic terms, cataloging literature about
sundials, and the interchange of knowledge between the members.
Every year a conference is held including lectures on gnomonic
topics and an excursion to beautiful sundials in the vicinity
of the conferences place. This year it was held in Oberschleissheim
near Munich in southern Germany and next year it is going to be
in Bremen in northern Germany.
If you want to learn more about the 'Arbeitskreis Sonnenuhren'
please contact the president:
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Aulenbacher
Eibenweg 48
55128 Mainz
Germany
- Daniel Roth, Oct 1996
P.S. Gnomonists visit http://www.ph-cip.uni-koeln/~roth/slinks.html
