What is an Analemma?
The analemma is a graphical design which
looks like a figure 8 that allows us to
correct the sundial time to account for
the Earth's tilt and orbital speed.
The Earth rotates at a
constant speed, taking 23 hours, 56
minutes, 4 seconds to turn once around
its axis (okay, it actually does
change speeds slightly due to some
internal changes, effects of the
planets, etc.....these are extremely
minute changes over human lifetimes).
But we are also moving around the sun
in our orbit so when we've turned once
around, the sun isn't where it was in
the sky when we started. It takes 4
more minutes to catch up. This 24-hour
steady noon-to-noon motion is called
the motion of the mean sun and
its steadiness is the origin of mean
solar time, the time of the
sundial.
But the real sun's speed across the
sky actually varies. The Earth's orbit
is elliptical. This non-circular path
causes Earth's orbital speed to
increase or decrease over the course
of a year. When we are nearer the sun
we move faster in our orbit, when
farther out than our average 92.9
million miles, we move slower. This in
turn causes our sun's apparent
position to be "fast" or "slow"
(i.e. it gets due south some minutes
sooner or later than usual). Thus the
apparent solar time can vary
from that steady digital watch or
sundial time by as much as about 16
minutes. One could add or subtract the
values (known as the values of the Equation
of Time) to the sundial time to
get the correct time or simply adjust
the position of the gnomon on the
sundial by shifting its place left or
right for the appropriate months. On
the Hermograph sundial shirt, we do
the latter.
However, the sun's position also
changes during the year in a vertical
way, because of the tilt of the
Earth's axis. It is higher in northern
summers, lower in northern winters.
The sun sets early in winter, say at
4:30PM, while it can be up past 8PM in
summer. The gnomon shadow should be
horizontal at sunrise or sunset but if
we didn't adjust the gnomon's position
on this dial it would record the same
sunrise and sunset times for all 12
months, and that clearly isn't the way
it is in nature. So the analemma not
only adjusts for the changing speeds
of the Earth in its orbit but also
adjusts the gnomon's position on the
dial to account for its changing
seasonal north-south altitudes (height
in the sky). A 4PM shadow reading
should be 4PM no matter what season it
is.
More About Gnomons
The thinner and longer the
gnomon, the narrower will be the
shadow it casts. It then will
go more easily between the lines and
numbers for more accurate
determination of the minutes than a
shadow that is as broad as the space
between the hours on the dial.
Your house clocks are counting the
hours in a time zone. But the sun's
actual position in the sky varies
within the time zone. From a
sundial's perspective, the sun's sky
position at 12 noon at the center of
the time zone isn't the same sky
position as a point 200 miles to the
west, even though your digital watch
in both places says 12 noon. Time
zones are artificial, made by
mankind to make railroad schedules
easier nearly one hundred years ago.
So if you do not live in the middle
of the time zone (In the US,
longitudes 75, 90, 105 or 120
degrees West), you have to make
corrections.
For every degree of longitude
west of the time zone's central
longitude meridian you are, you
must add 4 minutes to the
reading of the time on the
Sundial. For every degree of
longitude East, you must
subtract 4 minutes, the sun is
early!
Here are some sample time
corrections for US locations:
Atlanta + 37 minutes
Boston - 16 minutes
Chicago -10 minutes
Denver no correction
Kansas City +18 minutes
New Orleans no correction
New York - 4 minutes
If you don't know your longitude,
click
here.
Using the Sundial....as a Compass!
In these modern times we are much less
aware of our surroundings than our
ancestors. Streets are our guides, not
the sky. So many of us lose track of the
directions. But with a sundial you can carry or move, you can
regain that lost knowledge.
If you already know the correct time you
can then use the shirt to find your
directions:
Use a gnomon (stick, finger, etc.)
and hold it horizontally and forward
from the analemma. Rotate until you
make the gnomon's shadow cross the
dial at the correct time. You then are
facing South! Behind you will be
North, to your left will be East, and
West will be to your right.
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