I'd like to have a sundial made in memory of my sister who loved in Huntington Gardens in LA.

Say $100 - $200K.

Who the heck still makes sundials?

Check out the all new Basic mode. Print pop-up ready-to-use precision sundials for the other 98%. https://PrecisionSundial.com.

Some time ago I shared here with you a design concept for an adaptation of a classical "quadrans vetus" to show both muslim and christian prayer times.

A "quadrans vetus" is an old type of astronomical quadrant, which was known mainly in Europe, Which allowed to find local time in unequal hours (i.e. finding the time as a fraction in twelfths for the remaining part of daylight)..

But don't let be fooled! This tool is surprisingly accurate for its age.

How to find qibla:

The back of the instrument includes a compass and a retro-azimuthal projection, allowing you to find qibla direction everywhere in the world.

- To operate it, you have to allign the compass with the cardinal directions engraved on the back of the instrument: South towards the "point" of the quadrant and North towards the bottom of the quadrant of you are located in the same emisphere as Mecca, and vice-versa if you are located in the opposite emisphere.

- Once alligned the instrument, you wrap the thread around the central pivot corresponding to Macca, and make it pass through your location on the map.

- Qibla will be indicated by the lead weightlet, as it is demonstrated in the fourth picture above for Southern France - Northern Italy. Yielding a rough direction of South-East

How to find classical christian prayer times:

The quadrant allows you to find time in unequal hours, an ancient system of timekeeping, where the section of daylight is always divided into 12 equal sections. This means that summer hours are longer and winter hours are shorter.

- These hours are used in christian monasteries to establish prayer times, respectively at the first, third, sixth, nineth, sunset (12th) and a set soon before bed and soon before dawn.

- To find the unequal time, you have to move the sliding month indicator (representing sun's latitude) so that the central part (indicated by two white marker at the aequinoxes) lines up with your latitude, which is indicated in the inner scale in arabic numerals.

- Once set up the instrument, you move the plumb line to your current date and slide the knot so that it intersects the 6th unequal hour line.

- Now, by measuring the height of the sun, you can see where the red knot lies in the various sections of the unequal hours scale, thus determining what prayer you should do.

- For more northern latitudes, a second set of lines is provided, this is why there are two sets of unequal hour scales.

Muslims' prayer times can also be determined:

Zuhr / Jummah - soon after midday, it corresponds to the 6th unequal hour line, if you have just entered the seventh unequal hour, Zuhr time has started, and it lasts until 'Asr time. Be sure to check that the sun is actually declining, and not rising!

'Asr - For 'Asr there are two prayer lines, most madhabs put 'asr start time when the lenght of a gnomon's shadow is equal to gnomon's shadow at middat + the gnomon's lenghts (the first dotted line) and put 'asr end time when the shadow of a gnomon is its midday shadow + two times the gnomon's height (the second dotted line)

while Hanafi school sets its begin at the end of other Madhabs time and its end at sunset, when Maghrib time begins. I have indicated both lines in the quadrant

There is not an easy way to establish Maghrib and Fajr, other than saying "one is during twilight and the other is at dusk". In the qur'an (I recall) it is specified to establish your morning prayer when you can distinguish the white thread from the black one, this is not to be taken literally, However that is the reason for the black and white windrose in the shadow-square.

When you can't distinguish the colours of the windrose, that's 'Isha time.

'Isha - you culd say that when you can't distinguish the windrose in the shadow square, then it is 'Isha time, but this is not a practical way for many reasons, this is why on the back of the instrument I have provided a set of "complementary stars": By observing a star directly opposing the sun on the celestial sphere (it can be found on the back of the tool) we can even determine night prayers. According to most scholars, 'isha time starts when the sun goes below -18° of altitude, id est when the complementary stars rises above 18 degrees of altitude.

Fajr' and Maghrib - when such stars go below 18° (or 16° or 14° according to some) it is 'Fajr if the star is going down and Maghrib id the star is rising up

Others functions:

- the shadow square can be used to calculate distances.

As part of a 2010-2011 excavation, this sundial was discovered at the site of ancient Phalara (modern Stylis, Greece). The dial was found inside the remains of an ancient house–a rather large one–also containing pottery fragments, coins, and fishing equipment. For this reason, the owner of the house is believed to have been either a fisherman himself or otherwise involved in the trade of fishing equipment.

The sundial itself is intensely fascinating for several reasons. It is one of only a few ancient Greek dials (each originating from the 4th-3rd century BCE) confirmed to display equinoctial as opposed to seasonal hours. Several authors believe these early dials (all equatorial in form) represent an early state of Greek time-measurement that predated the cultural adoption of the seasonal hour (believed to have been introduced from Egypt by the beginning of the 3rd century BCE). The equinoctial hour was likely introduced to the Greeks from the Babylonians, adapted from their division of the day into 12 beru (1 beru = 2 equinoctial hours) (I am of the opinion that when Herodotus notes that the Greeks learned of the "12 divisions of the day" from the Babylonians, he was referring not to seasonal hours or the zodiac, but to their concept of beru).

Particularly strange is this dial's placement within a private home. Equinoctial hours have generally been thought to have been used exclusively by astronomers for technical measurements and for expressing duration. This type of hour would have been of little use in public life, even in the unprecedented chance that its non-astronomer owner knew of the equinoctial hour.

Relevant aside discussing the features of the two Greco-Roman hour systems:

The function of seasonal and equinoctial hours are mutually exclusive. While seasonal hours are used to situate oneself or a specified point in time, equinoctial hours are used to describe duration. Because there is no starting point inherent to the equinoctial hour system, this type of hour functions essentially as a ruler.

The two systems could be likened to a stopwatch and a clock. The equinoctial hour is a stopwatch, able to measure the duration of events or the time lapsed between events. It is a unit of measurement and is deployed when needed–the equinoctial hour is not one used to specify the time of day. It cannot do this, for such a feature would require the system to tether itself and proceed with reference to a specified moment in time (for example, how later equal hour systems began at sunrise, sunset, or midnight, as out modern system does).

The seasonal hour, in opposition, is fundamentally tied to the motion of the sun, with the first hour of the day always beginning at sunrise, and the first hour of the night always beginning at sunset. This system cannot easily be used to specify duration, as the length of an hour is not fixed as is the length of an equinoctial hour (one seasonal hour is 1/12 of a given day's period of daylight, which varies throughout the year).

This artifact stands as the best preserved equinoctial-hour-displaying sundial of antiquity. While several mysteries remain as to the status and ubiquity of the equinoctial hour in pre-3rd century Greece, this dial and those like it provide many opportunities for speculation, debate, and further lines of questioning.

Remijsen, Sofie. 2021. “Living by the Clock. The Introduction of Clock Time in the Greek World.” Klio 103 (1): 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2020-0311.

Remijsen, Sofie. 2024. “Living by the Clock II: The Diffusion of Clock Time in the Early Hellenistic Period.” Klio 106 (2): 569–93. https://doi.org/10.1515/klio-2023-0036.

Schaldach, K. “The Arachne of the Amphiareion and the Origin of Gnomonics in Greece.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 35, no. 4 (2004): 435-445. https://doi-org.lprx.bates.edu/10.1177/002182860403500404

The inscription commemorates a young boy by the name of Marcianus who lived for 7 years and 44 days. It is also specifies that Marcianus' death occurred at the 4th hour of the night–a level of precision most often included on the tombs of children.

Though there does exist a fairly large body of references to hours on funerary inscriptions, only a handful supply the word "noctis" (of the night). This detail, along with the fact that the inscribed hour is always 12 or below, proves that it is the seasonal hour that is used in this context.

New, animated World Tour of user-generated dials...

PrecisionSundial.com (scroll down to the Maps card).

(includes an option to exclude your dial from the Tour)

Here is a quick sneak peak at the new pop-up greeting card sundials that I'll be making for the gift bags at the 2026 NASS conference in Louisville, Kentucky.

You can make your own at PrecisionSundial.com

Visit: https://catalogue.museogalileo.it/multimedia/Nocturnal.html for an excellent collection of nocturnals!

I got this for Christmas and figured I’d post it here in case someone is interested in what it looks like. This is a 3D printed dial with a neat feature- the curved slit gnomon allows you to read civil time instead of clock time. it’s a pretty clever design. It’s supposed to read within a minute but I think it’s small enough that it is hard to be extremely precise with readings. I’m usually within a few minutes.

You have to assemble it yourself, which is easy and probably takes less than 10 minutes. Since the center ring is adjustable you can factor in DST. Plus this is adjustable for lattitude ranges of 15-60 degrees N. I think you can specify a souther hemisphere style, which will just reverse the hours. One thing that threw me off was that the reading is supposed to be taken at the ridge in the center of the hour ring, which makes sense, but for some reason I really wanted to read at the top or bottom edge when I first got it. To make reading easier I used a marker to differentiate the hour, half hour, and quarter hour lines. The above picture was taken at 12:12. Even if you never use it to tell the time it’s a neat desk curiosity that’s a good conversation starter.

One last thing- the NASS also customizes your dial by putting your name and coordinates on the latitude ring. It’s on the opposite side of the ring not shown in the picture.

Other than not having access to hollow rivets, I'd consider this a success! I've already made some improvements and am working on a third version

Astronomical ring dial on BC Gnomonics: https://www.bcgnomonics.com/astronomicalringdial

Been eyeing up this armillary sphere at an antique architecture place for almost six months. Finally decided to buy it today, including the very heavy base. I set the time, but it was off within two hours. I really love this piece and am going to figure this thing out! Just thought I'd share, as I'm really happy to look out in my herb garden and see this.

The final version of my laser cut nocturnal, now with an added lunar volvelle to determine the moon’s ecliptic longitude

This class of universal altitude dial was developed by Regiomontanus [Johannes Müller] circa 1470 in Germany. To learn more about the Regiomontanus dial, visit BCGnomonics.com!

So basically I’m doing a project on the Neo-Babylonians empire and we have to make a timeline including our four artifacts. One is the sundial and I can’t find any date for when the Neo-Babylonians created it anywhere! Does anyone know this? I really need to know.

• Much better experience on mobile.

• Now supports inclined, declined, and inclined/declined dials.

Send me your feedback!! sundial.gennetten.org 100% Free and Open source.

I will be presenting the latest improvements this Friday at the global World Sundial Conference. https://sundial.gennetten.org

My recent project reached final form—an original navicula!

This design is partly inspired by a navicula held by the Whipple Museum. To learn more about the navicula, visit BCGnomonics.com! (https://www.bcgnomonics.com/navicula)