#Astronomy

There's much to say about this ancient meridian #sundial in Nantes, France.
Mid-18th to early 19thc. Beautiful with its 3m length. But erroneous and inconsistent date lines, missing gnomon, tilted wall..

Most of the year the design is in the shadow of a balcony (probably made later, as the lower balcony covering the bottom). Even with a restored gnomon, this astronomical instrument would be impracticable...

A friend who studied it suggests that it could have been designed by 2 different persons, the 1st drawing the hour lines and the 8-shaped curve telling mean solar time, the 2nd adding the oblique date lines, a few years later, and with much less skills...

Other 18-19th buildings in this neighbourhood are tilted because of the soaked ground (the Loire river is very close). It must have been pretty hard to draw a perfectly vertical meridian on a sinking building...

Spent some time over Gunter's quadrant, an early 17c. #sundial, drawing a modern printable version, and working on a user's guide.
It's a portable altitude sundial. Beyond solar time, Gunter's dial gives an impressive list of data:

sunrise/sunset times, Sun's azimut, azimut at sunrise/sunset, solar time with some stars, altitude of the Sun *below the horizon*!, twilight time.

The Collins Street Sundial in the Townhead area of Glasgow. It may seen surprising, but Scotland had amongst the highest number of sundials in the 17th and 18th centuries. This includes obelisk sundials which were unique to Scotland. Like this newer one, many of these older sundials had multiple gnomons, the official name for the bit which casts the shadow onto the dial.

The Queen Mary #Sundial, #Holyrood Palace, #Edinburgh

A face-like Lectern style sundial in the garden of Greenbank House near Glasgow. This may be an original 16th century sundial, or it may be a later replica of an earlier design. Lectern sundials are one of the three types of ancient Scottish sundials. They can also be found in some parts of continental Europe, particularly the Netherlands, which was a major trading partner of Scotland at the time.

#sundial in an inner courtyard, Toulouse, France. Restored in 1943.
Suggested translation for the 2 latin mottos :
« Hours are slow for the afflicted, faster for the happy ones »
« hour is percieved not by blind eyes but by those which can see ».
(Please forgive my mistakes).
#Astronomy

Stained glass window with a sundial (modern facsimile), Old Parsonage, Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden, Didsbury, Manchester, England

“[Alderman Fletcher Moss] lived in the Old Parsonage by St James's Church, Stenner Lane, having taken over residence from the vicar, a Rev. W. J. Kidd, who left the property complaining it was haunted. In 1919 he gave the gardens to the people of Manchester” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_Moss_Botanical_Garden

Info about the sundial and links to pictures of its recreation https://www.didsburyparsonagetrust.org.uk/fletcher-moss-stained-glass-sundial

#astronomy

The equinoxial ring, a hand-held universal #sundial
The equator ring is graduated in hours (evenly spaced 15° apart).

Set the suspension point to your latitude.
Set the position of the pinhole to the date.

While holding the sundial by the thread, slightly change the direction of the outer ring until the pinhole casts a bright spot on the equator, pointing at the solar time.

The sundial in Glasgow's Botanic Gardens. Despite our prevailing climate, Scotland has a surprsingly long history of sundials going back to the 16th Century. This includes obelisk sundials, which are unique to Scotland.

Beautifully sculpted green men on the obelisk sundial in King's Park on the Southside of Glasgow. This is one of three Victorian replicas of the 1635 Mannerist sundial at Newbattle Abbey House in Midlothian.

«E aggiungi, aggiungi, a quest'ora, un'ora
che i quadranti non segnano»
(Attilio Bertolucci)

#oralegale #giorniraccontati
#Meridiana #Sundial ad #Alba (CN)
per il cambio d'ora

An Anglo-Saxon 10th century CE pocket-sized sundial found in 1938. The pin, known as a ‘gnomon’, was placed in the hole for the relevant month. When the sundial was suspended from the chain, it used the altitude of the sun to calculate 3 separate times of the day
#AngloSaxon #sundial #time

The magnificent sundial in King's Park in Glasgow. Dating from 1885, it's a replica of one originally made in 1635 and which is located in Newbattle Abbey House in Midlothian.

Cont./