John L. Carmichael Jr. Sundial Sculptures 925 E. Foothills Dr.

Tucson AZ 85718
Tel: 520-696-1709, Email: johncarmichael@mindspring.com, Website: Sundialsculptures.com

A Proposal for Kitt Peak: To Adapt the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope Into a Monumental Sundial

onumental giant sundials are the rarest and most spectacular of all sundials. There are only a few in The United States. They are a fantastic educational tool and a wonder to all who see them. I propose to create the face of a temporary full-scale demonstration sundial of this type using time markers placed on the ground beneath the telescope. The telescopes structure by its design already IS a sundial, it just doesnt have any time markings. This project would convert the telescopes paved service area into one of the worlds largest and most accurate sundials, achieving a very high degree of time precision. I will donate my time and materials and I promise the project will cause no harm or change to the Telescope or landscaping and will not interfere with your normal operations. John L. Carmichael Sundial Sculptures May 18, 2002

Demonstration Sundial Objectives:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. To show the size, position and shape of a possible permanent sundial. To test its degree of precision. To demonstrate how it works and its many features to the Kitt Peak staff and visitors. To determine the amount of interest there might be in a permanent more elegant sundial. To generate funds for a permanent sundial. To serve as a template for a permanent sundial.

Sideview of McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope from the west side

Sundial Features & Functions:

1. Type of Time: The sundial will show Zonal Time (Solar Time corrected for longitude). Mountain Standard Time (clock time) is easily obtained if the user uses the Equation of Time conversion. 2. Time Precision: It is difficult to say exactly without experiments, because the buildings angled structure may have some irregularities. If a shadow sharpener is used (a pinhole in a hand-held piece of cardboard), then 15 second precision might be possible! It is said that the largest sundial in the world in Jaipur India has 3 second accuracy. 3. Time Markers: Instead of the usual hour lines, the demonstration sundial will have removable short flat-head nails driven into the asphalt around the perimeter of the service area. I will place them at 5 minute intervals from sunrise to sunset. (Although, it is possible to put them at 1 minute intervals, but that is five times the amount of work!) Ill place small flat water-proof metal numerals underneath the nail heads of the hours and 1/2 hours. (Like the kind used on mailboxes). Although most of them are out of the way, vehicle and foot traffic will easily pass over the others. 4. Moonlight Readings: One can tell time by moonshadows by using a correction table. 5. Seasonal Sunrise and Sunset Marks: Ill put the same kinds of markers around the perimeter which will indicate the Time & Direction of sunrise and sunset on the Equinoxes and Solstices. So there will be six markers. They will be lined up with a sighting point. (Point T on the drawings, or the north corner of the heliostat tower). On a permanent sundial, some sort of vertical sighting post would be much better than nail heads. 6. High Noon Mark: This marker will indicate the moment of Local Noon (Apparent Noon or High Noon), when the sun is due south on the North-South Meridian. 7. Shape & Size: In general, The larger a sundial face is, the greater is its precision because the spacing between the time markers is greater and more time markers can be used. I have maximized the size of the sundial face to do this, but have limited its size to the perimeter of chipsealed paved area beneath the telescope. (Although it would be possible to place time and/or date markers further out in the grassy area beyond). This conveniently places almost all of the markers away from foot and vehicle traffic. A line connecting all the time points would be an incredible 118 m. (388ft.). 8. Shadow Velocity: This sundial is so big that you can see the shadow move along the ground! It speeds up and slows down during the day, but is traveling fastest when the time points are far apart. During the day it travels at an average speed of 24 ft/hr! 9. Wrap-around Multiple Styles: The gnomon of the telescope-sundial is unique since it has four useable styles (shadow-casting edges). No other sundial that I know of has this feature! Each style has its own set of time lines but they all work together. It takes the shadow from at least three of the four styles to cover the time period from sunrise to sunset. It's quite interesting to see

how the light hitting the telescope sundial shifts from style to style as the sun moves. I've never seen a sundial work like this before. The styles shift from west to east as the sun goes from east to west. One takes over where the other one leaves off. At sunrise, the time scale starts with shadows cast by the bottom style; this will shift into the east side style at 9:26 am which works until 3:27 pm. when it shifts to the top style that functions until sunset. And it does this so smoothly that the observer doesn't even know that its happening, unless he's closely observing the penumbra's width which changes size at the style shift. (See pink style shift lines on schematic drawings.)

View from the south. From left to right: the west style, the top style and the east style

East style (close-up) View from the north. From left to right: the east style, the bottom style and the west style

View from the southwest. From left to right: the west style and the top style

Note: Ive chosen Option B instead of Option A for the design because the Vacuum Telescope tower shades the morning hours of the

Top style.

Method for Positioning Markers:

I will use a precise technique called the Time Method to position the time markers to within 1cm. precision. This means that a precision level of about 15 sec is possible. Instead of marking the time points the usual way using complicated and tedious surveying techniques, I will use the shadow itself, a pinhole shadow sharpener and a radio-controled clock. The shadow and the light from the pinhole will show exactly where the marks should go, if I take into consideration the Equation of Time. This technique also compensates for irregularities in the slope of the paved area. Ill use a hand-held Shadow Sharpener which projects an image of the sun as a tiny spot. This provides a great degree of precision. Robert Hough, a member of NASS, has graciously offered to help me lay out the time points. I'm thinking that we should go to the mountain the day before the summer solstice to lay out the three straight edges of the dial face perimeter with 3 taut strings (That's a total distance of 118m (388ft)!!!). On June 20th we will attempt some practice marks and try to mark as many time points on that day as possible. This dry run will help us gain experience for the Big Day, the Summer Solstice. On the summer's solstice we'll be able to mark the longest daylight range of time possible from sunrise to sunset and will locate the sunrise and sunset marks as well.

About The Drawings:

These schematic drawings are based on my measurements of the telescope above-ground structure and the paved area. I also used measurements taken from a very poor quality schematics drawing on the internet. Consequently, some measurements may be slightly off, but that will not affect the functioning or precision of the sundial because of the marking technique Ill be using.

Sundial Prototype Model:

Ive made a real functioning scale cardboard model of the telescope sundial and it works great! Ill show it to you when I come to the mountain.

Materials, Cost and Labor:

This project is a personal labor of love so I will gladly donate my time and the materials for the demonstration sundial. The demonstration sundial will cost Kitt Peak nothing. A fellow dialist, Robert Hough will probably be assisting me. Ill also donate my time to help out designing and laying out a nicer permanent sundial, but well have to find help to pay for materials, especially if it is fancy.

I Need from Kitt Peak:

1. A signed letter from Kitt Peak giving me permission to proceed with the demonstration sundial. 2. Two vehicle passes granting me and my assistant access to the telescope during daylight hours from June 19th to June 21, 2002. Note: I need these before June 19th, 2002!

Ideas For A Permanent Sundial Later On:

After the results are in from the demonstration sundial we can discuss the possibility of making a permanent dial. We can make nice face markings out of a wide variety of materials. Some are expensive and some are not. Time markings can be lines or line segments which radiate from a common center, like the spokes of a bicycle; or they can be just points. Or, a combination of both. Sometimes, vertical posts or rocks are used giving them a sculptural presence. Markings can be painted, or inlayed. If inlayed, the markers can be of stone, metal or ceramic tiles. It should be fairly easy to come up with materials that can fit any budget. (For this sundial, if I could choose, I would probably go with either the inlayed stone or ceramic markers. And Id use posts or rock piles for the seasonal sunrise and sunset markers). If the demonstration dial is not removed, we can use it as a template for the permanent sundial, then I wont have to do the layout work twice. With a pinhole shadow sharpener I'm sure we can get time precision to within one minute on Kitt Peak because I've already tested it. In fact, a little display of a shadow sharpener could be set up on what I call a "Noon Table" for visitors. This would be a waist-high table about a meter wide located on the meridian underneath the east gnomon. It would incline south like a polar sundial and would have minute time markings a little before High Noon until a little after. A metal pinhole shadow sharpener could be permanently attached on the meridian above the High Noon line. A little before High Noon, the pinhole will produce a circle of light on the tables time scale. At the instant the sun crosses the meridian, the shadow of the gnomon will cover the pinhole and the circle of light will disappear! This allows the user to precisely determine the instant of High Noon. It might even serve as a date marker with a little analemma on the time scale (you can try this technique yourself using the shadow from a tall building). I haven't tried using a shadow sharpener at the moment of the style shift though. I can't wait to try it!

Final Comments:
Unless you are familiar with sundials, I have probably used terms and concepts with which you are unfamiliar, but their relationship to the telescope and the movements of the sun are only too obvious. Im sure you have questions, so Id be most happy to meet with you in person to answer them and to show you my working model. But please, I need a decision soon before the solstice. A great deal of interest in the international dialing community has already been generated by this proposal. Im sure it would garnish a lot of good international publicity as well for the mountain. Your visitors will love it, especially the kids!

REFERENCES
Please feel free to contact any of these people.
Mr. Fredrick W. Sawyer III (President of the North American Sundial Society) 8 Sachem Drive Glastonbury CT 06033-2726 Tel: 603-719-1727 Email: fwsawyer@yale.edu Mr. Christopher Daniel (Chairman, British Sundial Society) 8 The Maltings, Abbey St. FAVERSHAM Kent, ME13 7DU England Ms. Joan Donnaly (Executive Director, Tohono Chul Park) 7366 N. Paseo del Norte Tucson AZ, 85704 Tel: 520-742-6455 Ms. Alexis Faust (Director, Flandrau Planetarium and Science Center) PO Box 210091 Tucson AZ 85721 Tel: 520-621-8135 Cristina McVie (sundial Customer) 4420 W. Cortaro Farms Rd. Tucson AZ 85742 Tel: 520-7440931 Jack Pierson (sundial customer) 2801 W. 63rd. St. Shawnee Mission KS 66208 Tel: 913-362-4364