Scaphe Sundial
The Earliest Seismoscope
The Earliest Book on Horse Science in China - Xiang Ma Jing
Suzhou Star Chart |
The scaphe sundial is an instrument for measuring the spherical coordinates of celestial bodies, which is actually a kind of sundials. Its principal part features a bowl-shaped semi-hollow spheroid with equatorial coordinate grid on its inner face. A perforated sheet copper device is equipped on the center of hemisphere, and through the small holes the sun can form an image on the coordinate grid, thus we can directly read the position coordinates of the sun and measure the real solar time. Moreover, we can clearly observe the ecliptic process at the time of solar eclipse and determine the time and orientation of each phase of eclipse and the magnitude of the eclipse. One of its advantages is that it avoids direct observation on the intense sunlight through naked eyes. |
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