Sun Clock(sunclock.net) |
One weird thing: the author of this clock/calendar portrays the year rotating clockwise (click on the calendar icon in top left to see the "annual" calendar): January in 12 to 1 o'clock, February in 1 to 2 o'clock, etc. and December in 11 to 12 o'clock.
In a poll of some close friends recently, we found out that most of us (>80% including myself) had always mentalized the year rotating counter-clockwise (starting from January at 12 to 11 o'clock, Februay at 10 to 11 o'clock etc. and finally December in 1 to 12 o'clock.)
Bizarely none of us could explain why we had such weird anti-clockwise mental image of the annual cycle, but all who viusalized the year running counter-clockwise said they had done so for as long as they could remember.
But weirdly, I dont have a mind's clock to represent the day. Precisely because it feels to me that the clock shape is unfit to show time. Because 03:00am feels wildly different from 03:00pm. My mental representation is a 3d spiral slightly offset and looping back on itself. So imagine two clockfaces when looking from up top, seethrough. The bottom one is a bit to the left so you can see both well. Each consecutive number goes a bit higher. After 12 midnight the numbers quickly decend down back to 06:00am. I have this image for as long as.I remember.
The planets do go around the Sun anticlockwise when viewed looking down from above the North pole [0], and most diagrams show it that way, so maybe that's where the idea comes from?
Although, converse arguments can be made for both - even if we assume an observer located in the north. If we do indeed picture the Earth rotating in space from the outside - it actually rotates counterclockwise around its axis with the north up. So should day clocks actually run "backwards"? And the "fixed" background of distant stars seem to rotate around a northern observer in the clockwise direction throughout the year - so the image of the year rotating clockwise is just as correct.
Everything seems relative to the prespective chosen.
Oddly the year is the only thing where I think I have a good 3D mental model without really thinking about it. Not sure if this makes sense to others but right now we are about 11/12ths of the way to the autumnal equinox and you can imagine the Earth’s tilted axis almost perpendicular to the arriving sunlight. I think of this as if I were observing from the sun so the axis is pointing up (north) to the left.
Here my one from a few years ago. With whole year overview slider https://daylight.franzai.com/
Always the crippled operating system limiting the potential of their amazing hardware
edit: i think i have the dover book your readme mentions :)
In high-northern and low-southern latitudes, the sun can stay close to the horizon for long stretches of the day depending on the season. For example, in Iceland in parts of the spring and fall, the golden hour lasts for most of the day - amazing for photography and just enjoying the scenery.
For the first one, I skipped the map and went with search + saved cities instead. All your saved places sit on the same 24-hour dial, so you can see the difference from your local time at a glance without doing the timezone math. The upside is that it works completely offline and fits nicely on Apple Watch too.
Your second suggestion is the part I only got halfway right. You can move the dial in 15-minute increments and the daylight/twilight colouring changes with it. There’s also a calendar where you can jump to any date and time and see what the solar state is in every saved city, but right now that’s shown in rows rather than by recolouring the clock itself.
I like your version better though, hovering/scrubbing a time and having the whole clock recolour for that moment would make a lot more sense. I’m going to add that to the list.
I’m the developer, btw: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6797192832
Plus there are all the equinoxes and solstices.
https://jasonincanada.github.io/24-hour-base-12-clock.html#w...
Check it out and give me feedback. It has a long ways to go.
(I'm sure there are extensions and/or developer options that do this, but it's the default I want)
I'm certainly not giving my exact GNSS coordinates to any random scrote who askes for them. Frankly I'm amazed some people do this.
The absence of a simple, single-handed watch face like Day or Sun Clock is my biggest objection to Apple Watch refusing to allow publicly-created third-party face designs.
I have this hard-coded to south dakota, but it looks like this and I made it a while ago. Same idea, except I turn it such that "solar noon" is at the top.
Think 12 noon is really "high noon" or solar noon? Nope, not unless you are in the center of a timezone!
… and you do not live with daylight saving time.
There are places in the western U.S. where entire towns operate on their own time, and the only place you'll find a "correct" clock is in the Post Office. Not even in City Hall.
In practice it doesn't matter: you get a thin sliver of twilight between solar midnight and sunrise or sunset, and a 'Sunset: Does not occur' message in the text info. In such cases the sunrise/sunset arc (sector?) is pretty broad anyway.
> or if it should be tomorrow once you’ve already passed that time
Yes. I chose to recalculate the times midnight.
> Either way, at a certain point you’ll see the UI shift
Yes, but it's usually not dramatic. A few minutes time and fractions of a degree each day. The biggest shift occurs when Daylight Saving time changes — you get a big 15° rotation in the display. Most people are asleep when that happens, but it's cool to watch it jump.
Its really weather over the next 12 hours on the primary ring, and day/night transition on the inner.
I'm currently in Iceland and I've been using my clock as my main clock since the Icelandic clock is set to be almost one and half hour to early. I've never really shared it so that is why it's just hardcoded to my location haha.
Closest one I was able to find so far: https://apps.garmin.com/apps/dfb89b31-1535-4b41-b02b-17e3d38...