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A sundial commission unwrapped for an 80th birthday celebration

A sundial commission for an 80th birthday celebration

The design is a polar sundial, which tilts up at the latitude angle. The happy owner has unwrapped his 80th birthday present from the family.

“My father turns 80 this year and we are looking to commission a sundial in celebration. Is this possible? What’s the process? How long does it take?” When this email appeared in our inbox one day in March of course we wanted to follow it up. It sounded such a lovely suggestion from the family. Later when we learned a little more it looked like a perfect plan. Continue reading

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Accurate Solar Time Sundial Installed in a North London Garden

Accurate Solar Time sundial installed and set up at the exact time of local Noon

The sundial is in our client’s garden in North London. The sundial faces due south. We set it up at Noon on 28 November, using accurate corrections for the Equation of Time and local Longitude. The photo shows Solar Time at 12.30pm.

The world of solar time has fascinating ideas to explore. Our accurate sundial is almost a compendium of what a sundial can do. The client’s wish was something special for their newly created garden, and our design of a vertical sundial display appealed to them. Continue reading

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Rustic stone sundial in an Edinburgh garden

A stone sundial carved in rustic style for an Edinburgh garden

This sundial is delightful. It is the first piece of work by someone in Edinburgh who is learning to do stone carving. It is a very good sundial and they should be proud.

A sundial carved in stone is always special. This sundial is the first piece of work by a stone carver who has begun learning the craft of carving for their own pleasure. The result is very good. The rustic design suits the sunny spot on their slightly overgrown wall in the garden in Edinburgh so well.

Even a rustic design has to follow the sundial rules for the angles of lines on the dial and the angle of slope of the gnomon. Continue reading

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The impossible Dihelion sundial photo

The impossible Dihelion sundial photo

We shot this impossible photo blind because there is no room to stand between the sundial and the house wall.

Dihelion is our well-known dual sundial design, which reads solar time and solar declination. It is impossible to take this photo in the normal way because the sundial is too close to the house, and there is nowhere to stand. So the photo was taken by holding the camera against the house and shooting blind. At a first attempt, the picture has turned out well. Continue reading

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Summer solstice and a silver sundial

Dihelion dual sundial in silver

Silver Dihelion dual sundial sculpture able to read solstice and equinox, summer, winter, spring and autumn seasons, and the daytime hours.

Summer Solstice 2020 in Edinburgh was a day of beautiful sunshine. What could be a better time to show off our Dihelion dual sundial, which can read the solstice and the equinox seasons and the daytime hours. Shifting patterns of sunlight and shadow and petals of the sunflower show through so clearly. There is a lovely Continue reading

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Restoration of the obelisk sundial at Drummond Castle gardens

THE DRUMMOND CASTLE OBELISK SUNDIAL

The sundial consists of 61 multiple dials on raised panels and in sunken hollows. The date of the sundial is 1630. It has been made as an exhibition piece to show all of the sundial mathematics of its era.

The sundial obelisk at Drummond Castle in Perthshire has a long and distinguished history. It has its place in the architecture of the ancient castles and houses in Scotland. It is connected with the very earliest days of the British Sundial Society (BSS). And it is one of the most important free-standing sundials in the British Isles from the early 1600s still surviving.

In 2017 after almost four hundred years outdoors the sundial was showing serious signs of the stone deteriorating. The whole structure was feared to be unsound. Making it safe had become urgent. Continue reading

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