Sundials in most areas will not be correct on Sunday...

[JHDK]

I learned how to do tell the time as a boy scout based on sun position.

"My scoutmaster told me he has a special rod that can cast a shadow around my circular sundial.

He wanted to give me extra special sundial lessons in his tent.

Golly gee! I can't wait to finally understand how sundials are really supposed to work."

20 mins later.....

"I'm going to ask Santa for a Timex this Christmas."

 

[scotchandcigar]

We all know what a sundial looks like, but if you were to randomly find one in your backyard, would any of you be able to figure out the correct time from it without doing any Google research?

I know you use the shadows cast on it to tell the time. But that's about it for my sundial knowledge.

I think 12:00 p.m. Is a big deal when the sun is in the middle of the sky but I'm not sure about that.

I'm guessing I could figure it out but it would take a while.

I believe that if the sundial is aimed correctly (which may require a compass), then noon is no shadow, AM is shadow on the left, and PM is shadow on the right.

 

[sadchild]

My scoutmaster told me he has a special rod

That happened a lot back in the 80s and 90s

 

[HecticArt]

I could do it back in the day.

In scouts as a kid we learned to tell the time using a compass and shadows.

In college we made these solar protractor things that you could use to tell what the sun and shadows would look like on a model of a building at any time of day, any day of the year. No clue what it was called, but it was old school. It's all computer models now. I still have it, but I don't remember how it works.

I also made a sundial that you could put in front of a window on your desk, and the sun would shine through it and the shadow would project the time of day on your desk. We sent them to clients one year. It was pretty cool. The damned thing actually worked too.

I've got pictures somewhere of both of those. If I can find them, I'll have to post em.

 

[Channel98]

This fits perfectly with the title of this thread.

 

[sadchild]

I also made a sundial that you could put in front of a window on your desk, and the sun would shine through it and the shadow would project the time of day on your desk. We sent them to clients one year. It was pretty cool. The damned thing actually worked too.

That sounds really cool!

 

[HecticArt]

I've been looking for photos, drawings and a time-lapse that I took when I made it, but they may have been lost when the hard drives that failed when I lost all of my MP3s. I'll have to try to grab a couple of new pics soon.

 

[HecticArt]

I still can't find the original pictures that were better, but you'll get the idea. I had to blur out a bunch of text on the front that had the company name and other stuff that doesn't need to be shared. It was for the office holiday card for the year 2000, so time was the theme of it.

So this was a card that we sent out to all of our clients and consultants and whatnot. There were a couple of pieces of black card-stock and a piece of silver card-stock that were laser cut. The silver one on the front had a rectangular slit in the middle that let the sun shine through. One of the black pieces had the hours of the day cut into it. When you inserted tab A into slot B and whatnot, it made this half barrel shaped thing. If you put it in front of your window the sun shines through and projects the time on your desk. It surprisingly works very well. I had to use my desk lamp for these pictures, so the shadows aren't very crisp, but you get the idea.

 

[HecticArt]

Then this is the other thing. We had to build these freshmen year to learn how to plan / design for what the sun and the shadows were going to do to your building.

With this thing, you could adjust it for latitude, longitude, and time of the day or year. You set your model up with this thing and you could pretty much predict what all of the daylight would look like any where in the world. In theory, you could turn your building into a sundial. I can't remember exactly (or even slightly) how to use it any more, but it was a fun, weird looking thing that I built and still keep on a shelf for shits and giggles. I can't even remember what the device is called.

 

[sadchild]

Those are both REALLY cool. Invented by people much smarter than I.

 

[HecticArt]

Thanks.

The wood thing came from some book that was probably 50 years old.

I made the sundial from a composite of a few different sundials I found on line.
I have to keep looking for the original files. Maybe I can post them so you guys can make your own.

 

[sadchild]

Maybe I can post them so you guys can make your own.

This is exactly the kinda stuff my son loves to make, figure it out and such. He loves origami, Rubiks cubes... He built a working enigma machine for a high school class. He built a guitar out of a CRT. He loves to see something intriguing and go 'how does that work?'

 

[scotchandcigar]

This is just a pathetic attempt to make architects seem cool, so they can be included in CDT. But it ain't gonna work.

 

[JHDK]

The wood thing came.....

from some book

That's a really weird way to describe getting off to a Playboy or Penthouse or whatever. Never heard them referred to as books before.

Maybe that's just a way to make them sound more legitimate? Like comic book nerds call some comics graphic novels instead of comic books.

This is just a pathetic attempt to make architects seem cool, so they can be included in CDT. But it ain't gonna work.

This is one of the better, most logical posts you have ever made on this forum.

 

[HecticArt]

That's a really weird way to describe getting off to a Playboy or Penthouse or whatever.

It was pre-internet. Things had to come from somewhere.

 

[JHDK]

You all know this painting?

New photo · Friday, May 2

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

It's called The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein. It's from the 1530s.

When I'm not being a super civil war nerd, apparently YouTube thinks I will like art history shit from the Renaissance and YouTube is correct because I watched it this awesome video all about it.



The reason I bring it up is because I mentioned that we all know what sundials look like. However, this painting has different type of sundial I didn't know existed. It's called a polyhedral sundial. It's on the top shelf next to the celestial globe. It looks to me like a driving weight from a grandfather clock.

Also that type of sundial depends on that string to be able to tell the time and in the painting the string is broken and nobody knows what Hans meant by that. people have theories but nobody knows. The same goes for tons of other details in the painting.

Anyway, every single little tiny thing in that painting has some sort of meaning. It's insane how detailed that painting is and how photo realistic it is. Zoom in on the carpet thing that's on the table and you'll see how it's crazy realistic

That smudge at the bottom...if you look at it from the correct angle it's a skull. Can you all turn the painting in a way where you see it? It's cool when you get it. Hans was making magic eye type shit 460 years before magic eye existed.

Pirates of the Caribbean has that same thing. I'm going to look up what that effect is called, but at the beginning of the ride there's this rock formation that just looks like a whole bunch of different rocks. But then once the boat goes by at a certain angle you can tell it's a skull. It's very cool.

It's called an anamorphic projection. The only two examples I've ever seen are both skulls so not sure if that means anything without any research but it's interesting.

Anyway, I don't know what this fucking Hans dude was up to but he was trying to say a lot with all his crazy detailed shit and it's pretty cool to speculate about it.

 

[sadchild]

It was pre-internet. Things had to come from somewhere.

 

[HecticArt]

That nerdy stuff can be pretty cool.

 

[Aaron]

Daylight Saving Time: Turn your clocks back earlier this year

DST takes place each year on the second Sunday of March until the first Sunday in November.

www.mlive.com

This article has shown up in my google page more than once. The headline annoys me. “Turn your clocks back earlier this year”.

Oh really did they change it to a different week or month than last year?
No. Last year fell on Nov. 3. This year falls on Nov. 2.
A day earlier because of the calendar. Misleading clickbait trash.

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

Here in Toronto, today is the last day until next year that the sunset will be after 8PM. Tomorrow it is 7:59.