Equatorial or Universal Sundial

As the name suggests equatorial or universal dials is flexible to use any place in the world. It is built such a way that you can adjust the dial according to the latitude reading of your place of living. This kind of dial is also adjustable in southern hemisphere of the world.

Almost all the sundials are made to use for northern hemisphere. But, if you are living in Brazil, Australia or New Zealand than you are living in southern part of the world. In that, case using a equatorial sundial would not be problem at all.


You may probably heard about equator which is a imaginary line extend from east to west and splitting the world apart in two parts, namely northern and southern hemisphere. This equator line was drawn by imagining that the whole world is plane surface, just like the computer screen you are sitting in front now.

But,the world is not a plane surface, it is like a big ball. And if you draw a line from a center of the north pole to the centre of the south pole, it become the axis of the earth on which it spins every day. The earth slightly tilted on its axis. Celestial equator is the same imaginary line like equator but as it is drawn on the spherical original tilted world, so it get inclined by 23.4 degree with the equator.

When using a equatorial sundial, the one problem an user can face is that it will not world when the sun is on that celestial equator. Because at that time the sunlight falls on the edge of dial and the gnomon cannot cast any shadow to measure time on the dial.

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