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It seems as though gnomonicists are like politicians: when asked a question, 
they’ll always give a reply but generally not an answer to the question that 
was asked!

John’s question relates to declining vertical dials which have been correctly 
designed but have subsequently been moved to a nearby location but on a wall 
with a different declination.

Regards,

John D

Dr J Davis
Flowton Dials http://www.flowton-dials.co.uk/
BSS Editor http://sundialsoc.org.uk/publications/the-bss-bulletin/


> On 8 Nov 2021, at 18:18, "[email protected]" 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> dear John
> 
> there is a precise theoretical procedure to relocate a sundial so that it 
> works correctly in a new location (for the hour lines).
> 
> In the most general case, the sundial must be placed with a new orientation 
> so that the style keeps the polar orientation in the new location (thinking 
> of the stylus and dial as one whole).
> This condition provides for many orientations, all the orientations obtained 
> by rotating the dial around the polar stylus.
> The difference caused by these rotations is the meridian to wich the time 
> marked will refere, that is, as well as orienting the polar style correctly, 
> a rotation around the axis may be necessary for the marked time system to be 
> correct (local sun time, time-zone sun time).
> 
> It seems a little bit complicated, indeed it is, but it can be solved.
> 
> If the new location is very close there are not all these complications, you 
> have only to keep the same orientation.
> If the difference are few degrees in declination of the wall, you can place 
> the sundial not parallel to the wall (keeping polar the stylus), otherwise, 
> as you write, you have to accept an error.
> The error is not constant at the same time, it also changes with the 
> declination of the sun, that is, it is seasonal.
> The answer to your question is a three-dimensional graph, with time and 
> declination of the sun on x and y axes and the error on the z axis.
> The error doesn't depend on latitude but on the angle between the polar axis 
> and the non-polar stylus.
> 
> Not last, there is a consideration similar to that of Lewis Carroll about the 
> stopped clocks that strike the right time twice a day:
> a non-polar stylus, whatever its orientation, always shows the correct time 
> once a day, when the sun is in the hourly plane that contains the non-polar 
> stylus and the polar axis. This plane relates to two times 12 hours apart.
> In the other times the error occurs according to the declination of the sun, 
> cancelling itself every 12 hours, whit the max error about halfway.
> The paradox would therefore be that accepting a little approximation in the 
> direction of the stylus is not important. This is the reason why even in 
> front of a wrong sundial there are those who can say that they saw it strike 
> the right time.
> If it were not a paradox it would be the end of gnomonics :-(
> 
> I think that few degrees of error in the direction of the stylus (2-3°) might 
> be acceptable, but it also depends on the size of the sundial and therefore 
> on the comparison between the accuracy in the reading and the error due to 
> the non-polar stylus.
> 
> ciao Fabio
> 
> Il 08/11/2021 14:38, John Foad ha scritto:
>> If a vertical dial is relocated and now faces a few degrees east or west of 
>> its designed declination, you might expect it to run a few minutes slow or 
>> fast.  Has anyone ever tabulated the greatest error, and at what times and 
>> dates it occurs?  And does it make sense to think about the average error?  
>> Clearly the errors depend on the latitude and the design declination, but 
>> for starters they could be tabulated just for a direct south dial at 52.5 
>> degrees N,  and for a location move of 1, 2 and 5 degrees either way.  As 
>> the gnomon is no longer polar-pointing I imagine the maths is a bit hairy. 
>> 
>> Best wishes,
>> 
>> John Foad
>> 
>>  
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ---------------------------------------------------
>> https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
>> 
> -- 
> Fabio Savian
> [email protected]
> www.nonvedolora.eu
> Paderno Dugnano, Milano, Italy
> 45° 34' 9'' N, 9° 9' 54'' E, UTC +1 (DST +2)
> ---------------------------------------------------
> https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
> 

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