| ILLUSTRATING SHADOWS focusing on education and interesting practical aspects of sundial design FREE SPREADSHEETS |
| FREE ~ SPREADSHEETS FOR DIALING ~ using Excel on the PC (try the Palm Pilot Docs To Go versions also, here) Spreadsheets for Illustrating Shadows are all in Excel format, and except for the graphics they work with the low cost Software602 program. This general dial spreadsheet (illustrating-shadows.xls [rev May 3, 2008]) which uses this complete EOT spreadsheet (illustrating-shadows-eot.xls) 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. TABLE OF CONTENTS Your latitude:, , 32.75 Your longitude:, , 108.20 Legal meridian longitude:, 105 Julian day (1-366), , 253 Astro cpmpass degree method (versus time method) adjustment Almanac page with lots of data, then detailed pages for... h dial [plus altitude and azimuth], v dial, ...non decliner v decliner 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. 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) |
| Illustrating Shadows ~ ISBN 0-9765286-8-1 ~ Lib Cong 2005900674 about 300 pages of hands on, empirical, geometric, trigonometric, CAD, and spreadsheet dial design with 100 pages of charts, tables, formulae, and lists of useful information . |
| 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 |
| Email comments or questions to the author at: illustratingshadows at yahoo dot com |
| Book purchase options are here... |
| The next book is ILLUSTRATING MORE SHADOWS. Whereas Illustrating Shadows focuses on theory and small dials and detailed dial construction, this follow on book focuses on larger outdoor garden sundials using commonly available building materials from any building supply store. While the book reviews all the normal dials for completeness, that review is an overview rather than the in depth treatment of the first book. The exception being the inclined decliner and the declining dials. There are chapters dedicated to both cube decliners for the garden (16 by 16 inches) and to inclined decliners, and to calendar lin techniques, with all the design methods, and construction notes from start to finish. Inclined decliners will be a piece of cake with this book, and fun to do, and the spreadsheet for the book was completely rewritten to facilitate the process. There is more on TurboCAD, and significant coverage of DeltaCAD programming as well as animation of DeltaCAD drawings as parameters vary. The book is available now. A few sample pages are here, the table of contents is here. 300+ pages. |
| *** NOTE *** this spreadsheet collection deliberately uses 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. |
| 2008 |
| A collection of all spreadsheets ready for Documents To Go on a PDA Feb 23, 2008 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. Feb 2008 |
| 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. 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! January 28, 2008 |
| 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 1/29 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 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 Better notes Feb 23 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 |
| A collection of spreadsheets ready for Documents To Go on a PDA Jan 28, 2008 |
| 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. Jan 29, 2008 |