We welcome feedback from all users of Sundials on the Internet, whether to make comments
on what we have already, suggestions for developments you would like to see, or anything
else! Please give the name of the place and the country in your Email. If you
prefer, you can use our comments form to send us a fax.
A selection from our E-mail bag appears below
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12 May 2001 - This is a wonderful site! Very well set up - easy to read and full of great information and links! I am going to try the equatorial sundial project with my grade 6 students. They are studying the solar system in science and angles in math, so it is the perfect activity! Thanks very much! From Maura in Ottawa, Canada.
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16 Jan 2001 - Thank you so much for the instructions to make a sundial. I want to make
one for my little garden. This is so great to want information and find it
so easily on the internet! I'm very much a novice but I am going to try.
Thank you again for making the information available!
Some one worked very hard to get this together. I appreciate it! Eleanor
Mecagni
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15 October 2000- Dear Webmaster,
Just a quick mail to say how much I've enjoyed your site. My parent's recently
moved to the country, and were given
a sundial as a gift. We argued for two days on how to set it up most accurately
(I was arguing for celestial calibration, and
my father for compass compensated for magnetic variation). I browsed through
your site for tips, and found everything I needed
more. In fact, I became so enthused that I recently set a group of Officer
Cadets the task of making a sundial (correct for latitude,
accurate to within five or so minutes, etc) as an initiative exercise in the
bush- a task they relished.
Priceless information, and a slightly irreverent tone... what more could one
ask for?
Regards, James Mason, CAPT, Australian Army
18 September - By the way, this is a great site! Mike Davis
1 September 2000 -
Hola Buen día.
Los saludo desde la ciudad de Salta, en la República Argentina.
Soy un apasionado de los relojes de sol. y estoy feliz por haber tomado contacto por Uds. por medio de Internet.
Estoy hace un tiempo con un proyecto de construir mi reloj por estas latitudes. y lo que encontre en Uds. es algo magnífico para ´mí.
Un saludo desde este lado del mundo.
23 July - Hi! Thanks for a very informative website - Esther (Univ. of Kent at Canterbury)
3 July - The children in Mercury class have been designing sundials and we found your web page. We think that your pages are interesting and excellent. The only thing which is missing is a page for children our age to make sundials
- We explained that there is just such a page at www.sundials.co.uk/projects.htm
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24 May
By the way,
this is a GREAT website! - Liz Wright
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27 February 2000 -
Thanks for such an informative website and F&Q.
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17 December 1999 -
I really liked reading your web page. It is so complete. I Knew the overall picture but not the details Thanks, Ellen Hetland Fenwick
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10 December 1999 -
I really liked reading your web page. It is so complete. I Knew the overall picture but not the details
Thanks, Ellen Hetland Fenwick
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26 July
I love your site. I'm using it to prepare for making a sundial at
Oregon Star Party this year. However, every time I move from one
section of your site back to the main page I get the cookie flasher, not
just once but THREE times!! This is very annoying. Please fix this.
Margaret McCrea, Portland, Oregon.
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Thanks for your kind words. Sorry about the cookies - we are experimenting with ways of finding out how people come on to the site, but we hope to rationalise it soon
7 July -
The new "full-text search facitily" in the homepage of the BSS is very well.
I tried it. It works excelent.
- Thanks for the feedback. We are very impressed with it - thanks to Thunderstone at www.thunderstone.com who provided it.
4 July - I really like looking through the "Sundials on the Internet" web site. It's fantastic-what a wealth of information. If only I had known about this when I began the long process of building my sundial.
25 June - Firstly, thanks for setting up such a comprehensive page. its a relief to
find most of what you need in the one spot, rather than having to sift
through pages of dross for hours. now to the point. Noel Ta'bois' article,
"Latitude and the sundial" (url : http://www.sundials.co.uk/tblat.htm) is
missing the figures when i load the page. also, there is a 'tranfer
interupted' error midway down the page, which doesn't dissappear even after
reloading. just thought i'd bring it to your attention cheers kristian
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Thanks for your appreciation and also for your feedback - it is a big help in ironing out these glitches.
<
12 June - Like the new look and the remarkable wealth of links.
6 June -
Hello, My name is Bridgette. I had to do a school project on sundials so I came to
your website. It was very helpful, but I would suggest adding a section
including the origin of sundials. I know you have a section enclosing the
history of sundials but that doens't explain the orign of them. I hope you
take my suggestion into some consideration when adding to your website.
Sincerely, Bridgette Cluck
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Thanks for your kind words about our projects page. We will think about your suggestion, though it might be very difficult to do. Most of it is lost in the mists of time!
12 May -
This is to thank you for your wonderful webpage. Without the calculations, my husband and I would have never figured out how to set up our sundial to the proper time for our location.
The page http://www.sundials.co.uk/projects.htm was very helpful and informative. Thanks again.
11 May - I am planning a holiday in the U.K. and would like to visit interesting
sites pertaining to sundials and other astronomical subjects. Would you
have any suggestions? Am planning to see as much as possible.
9 May -
i discovered your website almost "by accident"
it is a very interesting and usefull place to hang around
i added the site immediately to my bookmarks
5 May -
Just today a friend asked me to make her a sundial out of a manhole
cover she found in her yard - not actually covering a manhole anymore.
So I turned to the web, typed in sundail, and here you are.
I have printed a couple of your wonderful articls on construction, etc.
What a resource.
19 April - I am a Teacher on Assignment with the San Bernardino County
Superintendent of Schools Office. I am a member of a research and
development project that is sponsored by NASA. We are investigating
various components that impact math and science education. I was very pleased to discover your site with all of the great
resources you have posted.
12 April
I thank you for all the information presented.I am a beginer in the
sundial design .
The level and quality of the dispposed information is very proper for
me.
Congratulations for your job!
Joao Moraes from Rio de Janeiro- Brasil
5 April 1999
Congratulations on very informative site.
2 April -
Thank you for the help Mr. Nicholson. I really needed your help. My librarian gave me some papers on how to build a sundial, also.
I made a sundial. I won second place at the science fair for second graders!
22 Feb -
Hi, wow, I just discovered your page and the links to Sundials. I have
collected books on Sundials (hard to find as you know) for years. I'm
retired now and want to pursue this interest. But first things first. I
have so much to say.
I'm travelling to London this Saturday, will be in Bath and London for a
week.
Could you please give me some quick ideas on what to see while I'm
there?
Are there some good dials in and around London, some in museum or are
there some shops with dials in town?
Thanks so much for your time, I wish I had found your site months ago, I
could have spent time researching, but I'm getting ready for my trip
now...:))
I will stay in touch in the future. I'm excited about this new resource
on dials!!
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Thank you ou for your kind words.
The best place to see a lot of sundials is the Horniman museum (see ...../~hornimn.htm)
The best dial in London, we think, is the dolphin sundial outside the tea room of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. It has adial plate which automatically corrects for the equation of time. Other big public ones are outside the hotel on St Katherine's Dock near Tower Bridge, outside Towner Hill tube station nearby, and on the tower of St Margarets Westminster, Parliament Square.
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10 Feb 99 - bonjour
bravo pour vos magnifiques photos
I don't speak english very well
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15 Jan 99 - I just wanted to tell you I like you web page. It really made me think.
Troy
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6 Jan -
Greetings: I have enjoyed your web page immensely.
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2 Jan 99 - Thanks for allowing me to have access to your web sight. I found it extremely interesting. So did my teacher! She gave me an A!
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We always get a lot of pleasure from news like this. It's not quite like getting an A for yourself, but it feels good anywya!
1 Jan 1999 -
I enjoyed your web pages..how do I join?
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You can join the British Sundial Society or the North American Sundial Society. They both have very good journals which come out
22 Dec -
Nice web site - I've always been interested but have never had the time to make a good sundial.
18 Dec 98 -
Thank you for your very interesting information about sundials on the
internet. Best of greetings.
10 Dec 98 -
Very good but also very accurate overview. Keep up the good work !!
3 Dec 98 -
Your reply to my query (Q20 on the FAQ pagehas been a great help and everything is now perfectly clear; many thanks. Thanks again for the marvelous site, and for your very clear and swift
response.
22 November - Your nice web page
I am a student studying at Bristol University for a Physics degree. I had
been set the task of making a sundial that would be accurate throughout the
year i.e would take account of the elliptical nature of the Earths orbit and
the 'obliquity of the Ecliptic' etc.
I had looked in various libraries for information on how to build such a
device but the books would not go into the depth I required. I didn't
really have a clue how to start it until a stumbled across your web page on
the internet. Your page made the theory behind sundials easy to understand
and also helped me a lot to start the project.
Anyway, I'm just writing to say thankyou for putting this information on
the net and making my life (and probably others!) a whole lot easier.
Thanks again!
Andy C
at8216@bristol.ac.uk
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Thank you for your very kind message.
Of all the thousands of people who visit Sundials on the Internet, very few send such nice messages of appreciation. And a message like yours is really nice to get.
So thanks again.
Do you know the Dolphin sundial outside the tearoom at the National Meritime Museum in Greenwich. I think its the best sundial in England, and it is compensated for the equation of time by having S-shaped hour lines. Worth a visit in your long Xmas holidays!
1 Nov - Congratulations, Your website has won the Wacky Web World Award. A site dedicated to
lampooning the web and sites just like yours. Take it constructively. I'll
be the first to admit I'm not perfect, but thanks for the fun.
You can pick up your award at:
http://members.tripod.com/~Stonehd364/winner.htm
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In the award citation, they expressed surprise that
16,000 people would be interested in sundials! So please
Email them to say you are one of them!
17 October -
Hi,
I was noticeing your page on sundials. Great page!
I really like sundials but I don't know why.
16 Oct - Thanks for some excellent Sundial pages. I've learnt a lot of
backgound information. I was especially interested in the page on how
to set up a horizontal sundial. Dave Eustace
9 October 1998 Dear sundials.co.uk
Thank you for posting such a timely and interesting website on sundials. In your discussion on "sun time and "clock time" you mention that there will be a leap year in the year 2000. I read somewhere that there are no leap years at milleniums, eg: 2000. Check it out. I would be interested to know what you find out. Please reply.
Keep up the great web site
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My understanding is that:
All years divisble by 400 are leap years
br>
All other years divisible by 100 are not leap years
All other years divisible by 4 are leap years.
It doesnt actually make much difference to sundials which are concerned with days, not years. The purpose of having a year is so that the seasons and things like the equinoxes are always on the same calendar dates each year. These things would still happen whatever the calendar said!
12 October - desearia recibir toda la informacion disponible sobre - LA ECUACION DEL
TIEMPO. en idioma Español. Los soludo Atte. Gustavo N. Risoli.
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Muchas gracias para su encuesta.
Lo siento que hablo muy poco Espanol , y entonces no es possible para mi a traducir las paginas de "Sundials on the Internet". Seriously though, there are many people out there who would appreciate translations of these pages in their own languages, and we would be glad to post them. So, if you are able to translate any of our pages into Spanish, Hindi, Japanese, or any language in between, please get in touch by Email
10 September -
hi from Sydney, Australia.
i have just begun to learn about sun dials, thanks to your excellent
site. for many years i thought that a structure in a redfern housing
estate was just a metal/art fabrication, however after a closer look i
realised it was a very accurate sundial complete with week/minute
adjustment figures. two years ago i was southern germany near lake
konstance and saw a beautiful dial brightly painted on the wall of a
local church. i think it was that sundial that started me on my quest
for more information. i know of many dials around the sydney area,
perhaps one day i will make written notes, there are two within a short
distance of the olympic site.
all the very best, thanks for all the good info,
bruce harrison.
- Good to hear from you. Why not do a Sundial Trail for Sydney to help visitors with an interest in sundials. Sundial Trails are walking or carborne tours, with directions for how to get from one sundial to another. There is a
complete list of the existing Sundial Trails; they are written in slightly different styles, so find one that suits you and then
send us an Email.. We will naturally give you full credit as the author.
7 September -
I agree with everyone else's comments on the site. It contains a great
deal of information. Unfortunately not the piece I want. We have a
scratch dial built into the wall to preserve it. Our church first built
by Canute in 1020 here in Essex England. It is made of light grey stone a
hole where the gnomon used to be and the lines suggest it was once
horizontal. It is known tobe a primitive sundial but how can I date it?
It must be hundreds of years old.
DavidBrewer1@xompuserve.com
- The
British Sundial Society has a Mass Dial Group which is well worth joining
6 September - I am a science teacher at Bridgeport High School, West Virginia, USA.
My students use your websites as resources during our study
May I have your permission to create direct, hot links to your site and its
components for activities and lesson plans that I might place on other
servers including our state's Reinvent Education site for educational purposes only?
(Fairmont, West Virgina)
- Yes, of course, we would welcome it. There are some suggestions for how to create links to Sundials on the Internet at
links.htm
23 August -
Most impressed by your web page. (Dublin, Ireland)
- 19 August 1998 - PS I was delighted to find this web site!!!!
Director of Interpretive Programs, Mount Auburn Cemetery, MA
20 July 1998 -
I have just discovered your excellent sundial web site. I should add that my license plate on my car here in California reads: ANALEMA (we are only allowed 7 characters on the plate!). - - Michael Maiman, Belmont, California USA
- I will look out for you on my next visit to California! Thanks for your appreciation
4 July 1998 - Thank you for publishing your sundial setup info. We have just received our first sundial, a small garden model, as a gift and wanted to make sure we installed it correctly. Now we know how! Thanks again.
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Thanks for your message. It always amazes me (and its really a bit sad) that people sell sundials without any setting=up instructions. They wouldnt do it with washing machines! Anyway I'm glad we could be of help, and thank you for your courtesy in letting us know.
1 July 1998 - Thanks to the information on your website, my family and I were able to make an attractive, working sundial for a two day street painting festival in San Rafael, California. The sundial was made of chalk and was washed away after the second day. I've attached a picture of its design.The spacing of numbers on the face of the dial was adjusted on the second day to correct for the slope and curve of the street. I hope you enjoy these pictures.
Terry Barker
- Thanks a lot for this. It seems a really fun thing to do.
17 March 1998 - I just want to say that this is a lovely site. I'm doing a project in school, and this gives you all the information you need. Thank you very much! - Soren Larsen, Denmark
- Thank you for your kind words - they are much appreciated.
15 March 1998 - Hi, myname is Agustin Copello. I am from Argentina, and I'm interested in maing a sundial, but I dont know how, please tell me where I can go in order to learn how to do it (preferably a site in spanish)
- You will find some practical projects on /projects.htm. We are working on getting more pages in foreign languages, but it relies on volunteers. Contact us if you are interested.
6 March 1998- Hi!
I wa really struggling to find the info I needed for a school project until I found your site. Thanks a mill!
Audrey Mash(and Minx) - Zambia
- Sundials make good school projects. There are some on our projects page,
and the British Sundial Sociaty has a book of them called "Make a Sundial
26 Feb 1998- For my Animal Behavior course at the University of Maryland, College
Park, we have an opportunity to earn extra credit on an optional "Sun
Dial Quiz". The quiz falls right before our section on the migration of
birds and our professor feels that it would be helpful for us to
understand how a sundial works in order to understand certain conepts
about migration. Could you please explain to me how a sundial works
(simply if possible) or direct me to a website where this is explained?
Please e-mail me at the address listed below. - Petra
- The pages listed on practical information should answer all your queries, I hope.
22 Feb 1998 - Ce site est fantastique et inespeéré. Découvrir ma grande passion sur Internet....Le cadran solaire é.
Je ne peux que vous en feliciter et vous encourager.
- Merci tres bien pour votres paroles gentils
22 Feb 1998 - To whomever you are: I thoroughly enjoy all the info. you see fit to
put on the web. I'm a man of advanced years who's taking his first
course in astronomy at Valley College in Van Nuys, Ca. We are going to
have our first test, and among other things, "sundials" will be one of
the items on which we will be queried. Your articles have been most
helpful. Thanks, and sincerely yours, Tom Geismann
- That's the good thing about sundials - they are of interest to all ages.
- 13 February 1998 - Your site is one of the most interesting and well constructed ones I have seen. 'Good show' as you Brits would say. I am looking for an inexpensive portable sundial that was resently availible in the US but that I can't find anywhere. It was a hand held wood affair made in Italy and was a recreaction of a German sundial made in the 1600's with a built in compass and string gnomen. If you know where I might find it I would be very greatful. (Manorville, NY)
- We don't know, but we'll post it on the feedback page - someone else might
- 13 February - My son has science project on how a sundial works. If you have any
suggestion on how a ten year old can build a simple sundial please send me
your email. Yeager58
- See above
- 5 Feb 1998 - Your web site is great. I got some super ideas for making a sun dial for my garden - Greg
- Vertical sundials on the house wall make a very distinctive feature.
- 3 Feb 1998 - Thanks for a great resource site (West Coast USA)
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- 31 Jan 1998 - Your website is an ambitions and impressive undertaking. I know how much effort it takes. Congratulations.
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- 24 Jan 1998 - I surfed on your excellent page form the Webcrawler search engine ...... I wish to tell you that I am amazed by the wealth of information you are presenting, and I highly appreciate the work you have put into the site. Let me thank you very much for that effort and wish you all the very best. Gunnar Postnieks, Riga, Latvia
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- 19 January 1998 -
I am publishing a local (and very small) magazine on art & culture, and
was researching sundials when I found your Intro to Sundials on your
website. I loved the light and personal, yet informative, style and I am
hoping to get permission to reprint it. I will give full credit to the
author, and will also mention the website.I think my readers would love it, and it would be good publicity for
you. Please me know soon as I have a deadline coming up. Thank you for your consideration.
- We are always happy to give permission in cases like this. We appreciate acknowledgement in the article, and we would also appreciate a copy of it sent to POBox 292, Epsom, KT17 4YP England. Thanks.
- 14 December 1997 - Hi, wonderful site! I haved learned most of what I
know about sundials from your site. I am fascinated by sundials, their design, and history.
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- 13 December 1997 - Dear Sirs,
I really enjoyed discovering your sundial web server.
It is excellent, and gives a good introduction.
I'll spread the adress around. I find yellow a rather aggressive background, though.
- Thanks for your comments. I know some people find the yellow unduly glaring, and I am sorry about this, but it is
very difficult to alter now. I need to have a yellow which will show up as soon as the page starts loading, just to give
a really clear "branding" to the site. If I could find a less aggressive non-dithering yellow, I would use it, but so far
I havent had enough time over to do the research. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
- 14 November 1997 - SIR:This is the first time I had to good fortune to visit your wonderful
sight. I must apolgize for the simple fact that in the future your
visitors count with be thrown off by many more visits by myself & family
Thank Your,Jack Keller (New Jersey, USA)
- Dont worry about it! We love having people back again too.
- 6 November 1997 - How delighted I was to find your site. I am trying to make a vertical sundial on a building project which is under construction
- You need to allow plenty of time for a sundial design. So often, the decision to have a sundial is made far too late,
and this often results in an unsatisfactory job
- 23 October 1997 - Dear Society, What I would like to know is how Sundials work throughout the seasons. I mean the noon shadow falls in one place in Summer and a totally other place in Winter. Could some one explain this very rudimentary fact to me? I have just purchased my first sundial and would like to set it up correctly.
Thank you so much for your help. Susan
- The "How to set up a horizontal sundial" page should explain this to you
- 28 October 1997 -
just came upon your site while searching artisan/artist sites for ideas on creating my own website. (i am a metal spinner from pennsylvania). yours is BY FAR the most creative and entertaining of the hundreds i have seen. nice work!- paul wiley
- Thanks for your Email. It's a great encouragement to further efforts!
- 9 September 1997 -
I think this page is really great. When I got the project of making a
sundial I didn't know where to start until I found your web site explaining
how to make a sundial. I found that it was really easy to make and I hope
now to get a good make for my project.Thank-you - Jennifer (one very happy person!)
- Thank you too, Jennifer. Your note makes us very happy people too!
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