This is one of our cats, Buttons, checking up to see if it is tea time. The dial is an equatorial made by Silas Higgon of Connoisseur Sundials. It can be adjusted for latitude, longitude and British Summer time. It has two specially profiled interchangeable gnomons, one for spring and the other for autumn, so the dial reads clock time.
This is the same dial, seen in winter with the other gnomon in place.
I just thought it was a nice picture.
Chris Lusby Taylor came up with the design for this dial. It is a cylinder, inclined to the latitude angle, with 24 facets. As the sun moves, so a different facet becomes illuminated each hour. But the clever part is that the upper and lower ends of each facet are offset by one hour - the cylinder is twisted. As the sun moves round, the edge of the shadow moves down each one, so indicating the time.
On the picture, the time shown is around 12:30.
Neat idea isn’t it?
On the left is a one fingered clock, which gives one complete rotation in 24 hours, rather than the usual 12.
On the right is an equatorial sundial, which, of course, does the same.
So, the finger of the clock, and the shadow of the gnomon rotate together - in the picture they both show 4pm. Due to Equation of Time and Daylight Saving effects, the sundial’s shadow will not always be synchronised - so the two can be used to show the difference between clock and local apparent time. The gnomon is a push fit, so its length can be altered so that the shadow is the same length as the clock finger
