Carl Sabanski wrote: (snip) > The >longer the shadows become relative to the length of the stick the less >distinct the shadow is. I viewed the shadow from a thin wire rod on the >snow and very quickly there is no distinct shadow at all that could be used. (snip)
Thanks for your comments and photos, Carl. For what it's worth, my experiments with shadows indicate that the smoothness of the surface receiving the shadow has a huge impact on the quality of the shadow. With a smooth white matte surface, the shadow of a fairly distant taut wire may be faint and indistinct, but often it's still possible to make a good guess as to where the center of the shadow lies. Of course, there's a limit to how far one can read a shadow -- eventually it does disappear altogether -- but it's surprising how useful the shadow of a rod or taut wire can be, given a proper receiving surface. Best wishes, Mac Oglesby --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
