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Category: Activities

Published: 11 April 2020

We've created a new section on our website: Activities, Courses & Events / Activities.  Here you'll find the below article on making sundials and soon much more.

Sabanski World of Cut-Out Sundials

Carl Sabanski is a sundial enthusiast who has made paper cut-out sundial kits that can be tailored to your latitude in either the Northern or Southern hemisphere. He presents a wide variety of sundials, all of which will tell accurate local solar time. His dials come in many types: Equatorial, Equatorial Ring, and Gnomon-less Equatorial Sundials, Horizontal Sundials, Polar and Cycloid Polar Sundials, Cross and Star Sundials, Analemmatic Sundials, a fantastic sundial made from a CD disk and a Digital Equatorial Sundial based on the patent of Thew. There are Ring Dials, a Globe Dial based on the dial of Thomas Jefferson, and much, much moret source simulated the sun.

Each of these sundials is illustrated with a 3-dimensional drawings  to show assemblyh and use.  PDF files at his site present the detailed sundial design that can be cut or folded specifically for your latitude.

Pick up your sundial at: https://www.mysundial.ca/sdu/sdu_sundial_kits.html

Multi-Dial Cardboard Sundial from Tony Moss

Want to use an old cereal box cardboard to make an elegant 3-in one sundial?  If you like craftwork, Tony Moss has just the sundial for you to make.  Tony is a retired sundialist from England who created the Jamestown Memorial Sundial that sits at Observatory Park, Turner Farm Park in Great Falls Virginia.  It was a gift to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.  With the same eye for detail, Tony Moss has created a multi-dial of paper that is glued to thin cardboard, creating a Vertical and Horizontal sundial (technically a diptych sundial) and between them he sandwiches an equatorial dial.  This multi-dial is a precision instrument that you can easily make.  Download the attachment for your latitude.  Print out the sundial parts and have fun.  Here in Great Falls, using the 40-degree dial works very well.

 

Horizontal Dial Cut-Out for Any Latitude

Several years ago the North American Sundial Society and Analemma Society attended the US Science and Engineering Fair and more recently the American Association for Advancement in Science Family Day.  At these events we hand out paper sundials suitable for small children to cut out and glue the gnomon onto the Horizontal Dial face.  Download the attachment below, select the sundial for you latitude and print it out.  Cut the octagonal dial face and using a glue stick, fold and attach the gnomon.  Simple!