Analemmatic Sundial At Durham University

Whilst wandering around Durham University it is worth seeking out some of the outside art.

An analemmatic sundial uses your own shadow to create the time. The number 12 points north.

Notice how the numbers do not go the same as a clock? Clockwise from 12, it goes from 1 up to 8 (using Roman numerals like all good sundials) from 12 going anticlockwise it goes down to 4. So numbers are repeated. This is due to the sun casting a shadow at 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 depending on whether it is A.M or P.M.

The months are listed in order anticlockwise with January starting furthest away from 12 and June being closest. There are long shadows in winter and shorter shadows in summer. September and March are in the middle as this is the time of the Spring and Autumn equinox where the shadows will be about the same. Calculations are used to determine how far out your time numerals should be from the centre is based on the height chosen, which could have been the average student studying science.

The reference around the circumference The reckoning of time is Latin work written by the Venerable Bede which in Latin is De temporum ratione.

Wikipedia explains:

In mid-7th-century Anglo-Saxon England, there was a desire to see the Easter season less closely tied to the Jewish Passover calendar as well as a desire to have Easter observed on a Sunday.

Continuing a tradition of Christian scholarship exploring the correct date of Easter, a generation later, Bede sought to explain the ecclesiastical reasoning behind the Synod of Whitby's decision in 664 to favor Roman custom over Irish custom.[2] Bede's resulting treatise provides justification for a precise calculation for Easter. It also explains why time, and the various units of time, are sacred

Professor Rosemary Cramp and Professor Martin Ward gave their help in this sundial which was designed by B. C. Kataky and installed by North Eastern Granite who also project managed installed the Willmore surface

Be sure to give it a go and be an old timer. Oh and don't let time run out