Picture a Sundial

Horizontal Dials

This is the type found commonly on pedestals in gardens. The dial plate is horizontal. The gnomon (which casts the shadow) makes an angle equal to the latitude of the location for which it was designed.

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Equatorial Dials

have the dial plate fixed in the plane of the equator. The gnomon is perpendicular to the dial plate. The hour lines are spaced equally at 15 degree intervals. The armillary sphere is a development of this idea, and consists of a series of rings in the planes of the equator and the meridian, and a rod parallel to the earth's axis and passing through the center of the rings.

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Vertical & Polar Sundials


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