If you have one of my Sundial Pins, then you’ve likely been at the Next Level Maker Conference – welcome, fellow attendee!
To use your Sundial, you need to point it North (with the little N arrow) and hold it level. Then the Sun should be casting a shadow on the time scale.
The time shown on the Sundial will NOT be the same as on your watch! You have time zones, Daylight Savings and the Equation of Time to thank for this. You can be over 100 minutes different from clock time if all of these factors are at play. Also, I hope you managed to get a pin that is close to your home latitude; if not then it’s going to be a few minutes off.
- The Equation of Time. This is where the Sun moves back and forth from “standard time” by +/- 15 minutes during the year.
- Where you are in your time zone makes a difference; 4 minutes for every degree of longitude.
- Daylight Savings will add an hour if it’s that time of year.
If you’d like a little more information and/or to see the big brother of this tiny sundial, please look at this page about my Portable Sundials, here: https://wavytail.com/portable-sundial/
Also see this page: https://wavytail.com/useful-apps-links/ for useful Solar Time checkers and other good things.
Happy Making!
Jo