The silent tick of the cycling solar clock.

Aren't sundials amazingly elegant and simple in their design. 

They hold a consistent simplicity that echoes the clockwork of the stars and planets that reside above. 

We humans love our patterns and cycles, the cyclical ebb and flow of the seas, the cycles of lunar phases, the changing of the seasons, the change of night to day and back again. 

What could better display our ancestors fascination with cycles, than that of the humble sundial.

Apparently the earliest known sundials date back to at least 1500 BC !  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial

Fascinating to think that humans were busy figuring ways to connect to the cycles of the Cosmos from at least 3500 years ago, and probably way before that.

The above sundial was spotted today at a nearby church, I wonder how many other churches have sundials hidden away in their grounds?   

I will have to make a trip soon to a church I know in our local town, which has a sundial fixed vertically to the church wall. 

I will endeavour to take a picture and put up a blog post about it.

The above picture shows that the time was 1.30pm GMT, not bad considering my phone's timekeeper was at 2.47pm BST. 

It seems this sundial was 17 minutes slow... 

Considering the sundial is circa 1500BC technology, I think I can live with the 17 minute variance!

Today's Sol ~ 31/03/22

Today's Sol ~ 31/03/22

 

If you can't explain it simply, 

you don't understand it well enough.

Albert Einstein

Sol ~ March 25th 2022

Blue skies all day. 

Here comes the Summer.

Blue Sky Sol ~ Hazy Seeing.

Hazy skies this morning, though still a lovely blue, solar seeing wasn't up to much.

After a major fight with the Samsung S6, I was able to capture one clear shot. 

Prominence detail was poor, the insertion of a black photoshop disc did help a bit in the final picture.

This morning's Sol images.

Blue skies this morning, that was until about midday!

Then in came the clouds, and as I write this (15h37mUT) the wind is picking up and it looks like a storm is looming.

I managed these images earlier on, so today wasn't a total solar loss.

Today's Sol in Ha light.

March 7th 2022 ~ 12h26mUT

Lots of Ha activity today. Plus as a bonus a beautiful prominence  around the 240 degree area!

Sky blue a plenty this afternoon. 

SFI hovering around 120 - SN about 77 

With the K Index currently hovering around  five  it's a good time  to keep a look out for possible aurorae! 

The Sun has definitely woken up!

Sol image - March 5th 2022.

Scudding clouds this morning, cleared up around midday, a beautiful afternoon for solar observing.

PST working well today, it revealed several good prominences and two big sunspot groups, and a few filaments. 

Still processing the filament pictures, will post them and a white light image tomorrow.