Midlands 2016-#13NS

Today’s midlands trip was a day trip to Campbell Town, and the morning winter light and the fact that I had a few minutes up my sleeve meant that it was worth stopping at St Peter’s Pass to take a photo of the row of skeletal trees that march across a paddock by one of the roadside pull-over areas.

After I had finished running the professional learning session I stopped in the nearby park to visit one of my all-time favourite contraptions. It is a a sundial made from bits of farming equipment, and is one of the most accurate sundials I have ever encountered. The sunlight shines through the hole in the little cog-wheel, and onto the dish which is engraved with two partial lemniscates (curved shapes) that are marked with the days of the year (these are faintly visible in the second photo). You can rotate a wheel to move the dish so that the sun’s rays land on the current day, and then read the time off the dial. Every time that I have tested it, the time has been correct to within 5 minutes (in fact, it’s creator claims it’s good to within a minute; I haven’t actually checked that carefully … especially given that my own watch is usually 5 minutes fast!).

I think it’s awesome. (Designed and built by Dr Tony Sprent, to commemorate the transit of Venus in 2004.)