Garden Sundial Uses and Varieties |

Garden Sundial Uses and Varieties

| By Roy Rasmussen | Category: Outdoor

A garden sundial is a great way to decorate your garden, tell time while you’re outdoors, and have fun doing it. Learn more about how a garden sundial tells time, ways you can use one in your garden, and the varieties of garden sundials.

How a Garden Sundial Tells Time

A garden sundial lets you tell time without a watch by using the Sun. As it travels across the sky during the course of the day, the shadows it casts behind objects grow shorter towards noon and longer again towards sunset. The direction of objects’ shadows also changes. The Sun is coming from the east in the morning, from overhead at noon, and from the west in the evening, and it casts shadows in the opposite direction. Because of this, if you observe the length and angle of a shadow the Sun casts on an object, you can tell what time of day it is.

The length and direction of the Sun’s shadow are also affected by the fact that the height of the Sun in the sky also changes over the course of the year. In summer, the Sun is more directly overhead than in winter, striking objects from a higher angle than in other seasons. This means that the Sun’s shadow can tell you the time of year and the date as well as the time of day, serving as both a calendar and a clock.

The easiest way to apply this to use the Sun to tell time is to use a sundial stick. Make your own sundial stick: erect a stick in the ground and use stones to mark where the stick’s shadow falls at different times of the day and different days of the year. The stones serve like the markings on a clock, and the shadow of the stick is like the clock’s hand.

A sundial is basically a sophisticated sundial stick. Instead of a stick it uses a flat metal piece set in the center of a dial called a gnomon, which may have an edge called a style and a pointed tip called a nodus, for an overall effect much like a clock hand. The gnomon sits on a flat circle called a plane or dial face. The dial face is divided into hours, usually painted in Roman numerals from 5 am to 8 pm, sometimes with additional half hour and quarter hour divisions. These divisions replace the stones of the sundial stick.

There are different types of sundials. One difference is whether the gnomon is fixed or movable. Some have a gnomon which remains fixed in place relative to the dial face. Others have a movable style which is adjusted by month. Illustrating the latter category are the elliptical dials called analemmatic sundials. These are sometimes seen in museums, planetariums, and public parks, in displays where a person can stand in a square marked by month and serve as the gnomon, with their shadow pointing to the time.

Sundials also differ with the way the plane is aligned in relation to the gnomon. A garden sundial is classified as a horizontal sundial, which means that the plane is aligned horizontally. This differs from sundials where the plane is placed vertically and the gnomon is aligned with the Earth’s axis of rotation (vertical sundials), sundials where the plane is placed perpendicular to the gnomon (called an equatorial dial), sundials where the plane is parallel to the gnomon (called a polar sundial, and other types of sundials.

Another popular type of sundial is a spherical style called an armillary sundial.

Ways to Use Garden Sundials

There are several ways you can use a garden sundial in your yard:

As a decoration.
As a way to tell time outdoors without a watch.
As a fun conversation piece.
As a way to teach your children about telling time, science, and astronomy.
As a monument embodying wisdom or commemorating a person or event. Many sundials are inscribed with a quote called a motto, often citing a famous saying.

Types of Garden Sundials

Garden sundials are usually bronze, aluminum, cast iron, or cast resin.

Brass sundials generally require minimal maintenance. They are rust-proofed and gradually acquire a natural patina. However, if you want to keep their original shine, you should periodically use brass polish.

Aluminum sundials are another non-rusting, affordable option.

Cast iron sundials, also affordable, are painted to protect against oxidation, but will still rust over time. Some people like the rusted look.

Cast resin sundials are made of a material similar to casting concrete. They are poured into a mold, cured solid, and applied with a painted finish. They are generally the least expensive type of sundial.

Companies that sell garden sundials also often sell spherical armillary sundials.