Morning or Afternoon in Lyme Regis?
I recently took this photo in Lyme Regis, Dorset, on the south coast of England. But what time of day was the picture taken, morning…
Tag: midday
Why does the Gnomon on a Sundial Point South?
The pointy bit of a sundial is called a ‘gnomon’. It is the part that casts the shadow and in the northern hemisphere it points…
The Shapes of Trees and a Sense of Place
Tree shapes are dictated by the needs of the tree and reflect the places we find them. There are dozens of methods for using trees…
How to Build the World’s Simplest Sundial
My thanks to Vincent Alaniz for sending me this photo and a question, which I will answer here. Whenever we consider the position of the…
Prickly Lettuce, A Compass Plant
Prickly lettuce is known to some of its navigating friends as the ‘compass plant’ and to its Roman friends as ‘lactuca serriola’. In truth it…
Analemmas and the Equation of Time
If you stood on the same spot and took a photo of the sun every day during a year’s worth of good weather, at exactly…
Tropical Midday Shadow
On holiday I did try very hard not to think too much about navigation, but wherever I am I cannot resist checking that the sun…