ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS
focusing on education and interesting practical aspects of sundial design
FREE Excel SPREADSHEETS
Not for Open Office ~ for Open Office,
use these
*** Try cubicShadows.xls spreadsheet very small, easy, and does most dialling stuff  ***
FREE ~ DAY SPECIFIC SPREADSHEETS FOR DIALING ~ using PC Excel ~ (try the Palm Pilot Docs To Go versions also, here)

Two major spreadsheets for Illustrating Shadows are all in Excel format, the main sheet and the EOT sheet.

This    
general dial spreadsheet      (illustrating-shadows.xls) which uses   this complete EOT spreadsheet     (illustrating-shadows-eot.xls)  which has been redesigned
(and replaces reference-spreadsheets.xls) and enhanced based on demand. It has many many features. It begins with an index page followed by an almanac page, then
a set of detailed pages.  Please download both spreadsheets. Note: reference-spreadsheets.xls was renamed illustrating-shadows.xls, however the detailed
functionality is unchanged.  New stuff includes the astrocompass degree method correction (as opposed to the time method).   The wall declination section (
and these
notes) were totally rewritten and simplified. Also, the front page is much simplified, and more useful, again major cleanup work. Astrolabe degree method enhanced
and pictorials added.   These sheets work on Vista win64 systems.   Other spreadsheets exits for special one off calculator usage.























TABLE  OF  CONTENTS
Your latitude:                         eg      32.75
Your longitude:                     eg      108.20
Legal meridian longitude:  eg      105
Julian day (1-366)                eg      253
Astro compass degree method (versus time method) adjustment   
Almanac page with lots of data, and noon transit table for each day, you add (west) or subtract (east) long diff from legal time meridian.
H dial [plus altitude and azimuth],
V dial, ...non decliner
Ceiling dials        
V decliner (the standard formula, and also a new derived formula)(with charts)
  
V meridian
Polar dial
Analemmatic
Sunrise-set - EOT mm.ss        
Sunrise-set EOT decimal
Pie charts for hr line angles
Reverse engineering an h-dial
Legal standard time (not summer time) to sun's hour angle, optionally corrected for longitude and EOT, useful for astro compasses    
Wall declination (a major simplification and rewrite April 4)     
Middleton scales
Astronomical EOTs (static), which hyperlinks to the
general EOT spreadsheet with many formulae including the astronomical version.
EOT combined with a longitude shift, useful for generic dials moved from the legal meridian
Declining recliners
Lunar phases
Declination line design aid  ~ ~ See
Declining Shadows which is a summary, or Illustrating More Shadows which has an in depth discussion, for descriptions of this
feature.
Analemma curve ~ ~ any latitude and longitude, for any time whatsoever for h-dials (horizontal) at latitude 0 this is a polar dial, and reversing signs and hours, this
works for a vertical dial, and by messing with the time while using SD and SH and D.LONG this works for decliners also. There are very few times and latitudes
where this doesn't work well, and the spreadsheet makes it easy for you to "tweak" it. Actual formal design latitudes are +0 to +60, times are 08.00 to 16.00
Planispheric astrolabe (matches the DeltaCAD
macro, or, see this page here for geometry of the astrolabe)   

also the
ANALEMMA page has spreadsheets for all hour line analemmas.
Sundial Sun Dial Sundials Sun Dials Design Book Books articlesspreadsheets Gnomics Gnomonics Horology Dialling Dialing Clocks EOT Equation of time Middleton Sciathics Lunar Moon construction hobby gnomon cutout popup building
astro compass astrocompass shepherd ogee azimuth altitude hour angle
My PayPal page has the different options and prices
Email comments or questions to the author at:  illustratingshadows at yahoo dot com
Book purchase
options are
here...
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*** NOTE ***
these spreadsheets deliberately use several different EOT
formulae, and they do not all agree. This is so people can play
with different formulae. Just be aware that they differ sometimes
by up to a minute.
A collection of all spreadsheets ready for
Documents To Go on a PDA
over and above the ones for the PC
Check the PocketC page also. This has the v-dial, v-dec, and h-dial programs, as well as an almanac and the astro-compass aid.  as either complete .prc hot synch
files, or as C files for PocketC, your choice. Graphical depictions.
      
The illustrating-shadows.xls spreadsheets have been reworked for PDAs, specifically the PalmPilot. The vertical decliner
spreadsheet is shown to the left on a Palm T3. A new vertical decliner sheet and ceiling dials added.    
Nov 29, 2008

Display output has been reworked, hyperlinks removed and the sheets adapted for their removal, changes in formulae not
supported by Documents To Go, size changes, and so on.

The h, v, and v-dec dials are supported, three EOT sheets provided, analemmatic, armillary and equatorial dial calendar
and hour data supported, calendar curves, and so on.
HINT:  Just because you don't have a PDA, don't let that stop you from using these PDA spreadsheets. They are simpler than the main PC
spreadsheets, and in some cases actually have more options, such as the calendar curves spreadsheet!  
NOTE: There are more PDA based spreadsheets that work on Excel than these PC based
Excel sheets. So, download the PDA sheets as well.
a2.2 suns LHA.xls
a2.3 long-to-time.xls
a2.4 julian days.xls
a2.6 time-zones.xls
a2.9 mag to true.xls
a3.1 v-h dials.xls
a3.1 v-h dials with graphs.xls NEW Jan 29, 2008
a3.2 ceiling data.xls              New Nov 29, 2008
a4.1 suns altitude.xls
a4.2 suns azimuth.xls
a4.3 analemmatic dial.xls
a4.4 calendar curves.xls
a5.1 vertical decliner.xls
a5.1 vdec sws formula.xls   
   NEW Nov 22, 2008
a6.3 sunrise set EOT~Lat.xls
a6.4 sunset and italian lines.xls
a9.9 graph hour lines.xls
a0.0 almanac.xls  NEW Feb 2008    Revised Nov 30, 2008
a0.0 analemma figure of eight.xls    Revised notes Feb 24, 2008
a0.0 astro compass.xls
a0.0 inclined decliner.xls
a0.0 planispheric astrolabe.xls
a0.0 unknown dial.xls
a0.0 wall-declination.xls
a1.1 trig.xls
a2.1 EOT astro mini.xls
a2.1 EOT astro.xls
a2.1 EOT other.xls
a2.10 meridian polar hour-calendar.xls
a2.11 daily declination.xls
a2.12 equatorial calendar radius.xls
a2.13 armillary calendar line distances.xls
Excel    
A
collection of spreadsheets for Microsoft Office on the PDA, do not
use these if you use
Open Office, use these instead.  

NOTE:  When you start the spreadsheet, no menu of all the other
sheets appears UNTIL you enter a Julian day in cell E7. This is to
allow you to enter any Julian day, and only when you have selected a
Julian day will the rest of the menu appear. If you want change cell
from...
0
to....
=e6
Tested on Documents To Go 7.006 and
on 10.0020 and the graphics on the
Palm are supported, for example in the
EOT astro sheet and the figure of 8
analemma sheet. Click the graph button
below the spreadsheet cell data entry
area.   
PDA XLS zip file is here.
FREE ~ TABULAR SPREADSHEETS FOR DIALING ~ PC Excel ~ (These produce annual tables rather than details for one day)

Whereas the two spreadsheets for Illustrating Shadows are all in Excel format (the main sheet and the astronomically accurate EOT sheet) produce full screen detailed
information, usually for a specific day or limited range of days, these spreadsheets for tables produce the tables used in the appendices for the Illustrating Shadows
series of books.

The names are similar to the names and functions of the PDA specific spreadsheets. The
ZIP file is here.    
If you use Open Office, use my
open
office spreadsheets, and
not Excel. There are many subtle
differences so Excel sheets with
special features do not work in
Open Office and vice versa.

Please read these notes here that
discuss Microsoft Office, Open
Office and Documents to Go.
PDA    A collection of spreadsheets ready for Documents To Go on a PDA   
However, if you do that, and then enter a specific
Julian day other than today, and then save t, you may
forget you did that and thus misread results.
Added July 11, 2009:         reference-X-and-Y-for-an-angle.xls        does an X distance given a Y
distance and an angle (as a table) and  a Y distance given an X distance and an angle (as a
table)    

Added
Aug 2, 2009:            analemma.xls        and Open Office here     does an X radius (based
on EOT) for a Y distance (based on solar declination) for an EOT bobbin for an armillary dial  of
a given radius.
Notes are here, see also DeltaCAD.

Added Aug 9, 2009:            DL values have been added back for vertical decliners, helpful for
those who want analemmas on vertical decliners. See the
analemma notes here, analemma
page here.

Added
Nov 23, 2009           EOT and long.diff combined worksheet
Jan 7, 2010                          de cluttered main screen, much simplified
Jan 15, 2010                        New simple spreadsheets added
                                      microShadows.ods   simpleShadows.ods, and
                                      quickShadows.ods and they match the free books
                                      Micro Shadows, Simple Shadows, and Cubic Shadows.
May 8, 2010                      Added what the analemma looks like in the sky
NOTE: based on user feedback, cells that should
not be changed are now protected. Do ALT-T, P,
and choose the "P" unprotect option if you want to
change other cell data.
The most complex system is Illustrating
Shadows.xls which is pictured to the right.
THE FOUR Excel SPREADSHEETS INCREASE IN COMPLEXITY

microShadows     h-dial only               (extremely simple)
simpleShadows    h-dial, simple alt, azi   (very simple)    
quickShadows     h,v,v-dec,q,a,p alt, azi  (simple)
illustrating…    all functions             (full strength)
There are four main spreadsheets, microShadows (and its free book),
simpleShadows
(and its free book), cubicShadows (and the Cubic Shadows
free book), and the main spreadsheet:  
illustrating-shadows.xls, available in
Excel (.xls), Open Office (.ods), and MS Works form (.wks). Each is more
complex than the last. Also,
illustrating-shadows-eot.xls is very helpful for
astronomically accurate EOTs.
In fact, cubicShadows is so good it also now
in the main spreadsheet as well.
Illustrating Time's Shadow
ISBN 0-9765286-8-1  plus  0-9765286-9-X
Lib Cong 2005900674  plus  2006930654

Merges Illustrating Shadows and Illustrating More Shadows, deletes duplicated material, and techniques that are
complex and replaced by easier methods, adds new material.

Hands on, empirical, geometric, trigonometric, CAD,  and spreadsheet dial design for small dials plus garden dials using common masonry supplies, clay, and glass,
with emphasis on many calendar line techniques, and inclined decliners, while providing details on the use of DeltaCAD programming including the animation of many
sheets as parameters vary.  Case studies abound with associated problems solved, and cover the infamous inclined decliner, as well as all the other kinds of outdoor
dials.  The printed book comes with a CD of booklets, spreadsheets, VRML/WRL files, templates, etc with the printed book. The CD has all books and booklets and
programs along with source code.  
You can get the printed book and CD, just the CD, or an online download here.