Talk:Sundial
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(moved to Talk:Diptych)
"plekhnaton"
Anyone can confirm the word "plekhnaton"; it doesn't pass the Google test (1 entry; the wikipedia one). -- looxix 00:31 Apr 18, 2003 (UTC)
- - - The suggested method of adjusting to local time by tilting the sundial East West is incorrect, since the gnomon always has to be pointing at the pole star. See www.sundials.co.uk/setup.htm
ANd sure nuff, "plekhnaton" was a mistake. It is not Greek, modern nor ancient (for which see Liddell and Scott's (ancient) Greek Dictionary, online at Perseus. "Plekhnaton" puzzled a lot of us on the Sundial-List, but finally someone came up with the source of the error: a misread or mis-scan of a passage in Winthrop Dolan's 1963 book, "A Choice of Sundials", that discussed the "Greek pelekinon sundial". It is probably safer not to refer to this type by that name at all; "pelekinon" is the adjective formed on "pelekus", the common Greek word for an axe.
I don't understand what you mean by "that name". Are you recommending the name "Greek pelekinon sundial"? Or is there some other name you would prefer? --DavidCary 08:04, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)
accuracy
This should be rewritten somehow
- Traditional sundials are only accurate to about a quarter of an hour because
- the Earth's orbit is a slight ellipse. Simple, quality sundials often mount a
- small graph or table to give corrections from apparent solar time to the
- nearest clock-time minute based on the current date.
Traditional sundials are perfectly accurate to minutes. They only show different time, true local solar time. In case of old sundials, that was the "right time" for their designers. Fact that we now use better, steady-flowing time standard kept by atomic clock, does not make old sundial less accurate.
Wikimol 20:18, 19 May 2004 (UTC)
moondial
Is there such a thing as a moondial to track the motion of Luna? --DavidCary 08:04, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)