On Thu, 16 Jan 1997, Rik Hill wrote: > > > >The city of Ghent (Belgium) plans to place 4 sundials on one > >of the chimneys of the town hall. The surfaces of the dials > >will be squares, with sides 1.5 m. They will be placed about 35 m > >above the ground.......... > > I am a bit confused here. (I missed the original post on this which > admittedly may be the source of my confusion.) If there are to be > four dials on the sides of this chimney, one would be facing north > and, at Ghent, not see sunlight during the year, no? -Rik >
Yes, it sure would, during the early morning and late evening in June and July. The Sun would rise well to the NE and set well to the NW. You could not read that part of the dial around mid day, though. Actually, you would not require the 4th northern face dial to tell time but it is probably being added for architectural reasons, and also so that someone on the north side of the chimney would not have to walk around to the side to tell the time. Mike Dworetsky, Department of Physics | Tell a student that there are 100 & Astronomy, University College London | billion stars in the Galaxy, and he Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT UK | will believe you. . . .Tell him email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | that a bench has wet paint on it and Tel: +(44) 0181 959 0421 | he will have to touch it to be sure. Fax: +(44) 0181 906 4121 |
