How To Tell Time By The Sun

It's very easy to tell time by the sun, once you get the knack of it. This is something I learning on my own, when I was 14 years old. My 8th grade science class had a project involving figuring out how time was measured in the past when there were no watches or clocks. I was completely on my own to figure this out. With the help of my mother we found an old woman in her 80s, in another town who was selling books in her home. This was decades before computers were available, so in order to find information, you either went to the library or went on a wild goose

chase to find out what you wanted to know, if you couldn't find it in the library. The old woman happened to have a book that described different ancient methods for telling time, so my mother bought the book for me.

When I got it home, I proceeded to make some of the items that were used in the past to tell time.

I think one of them was Chinese, and it involved using a rope and tying knots at certain intervals in the rope, so that each knot would take an hour to burn.

Another one I chose to make was an hour glass out of two glass jars. I poured beach sand in one of the jars and I made a hole in the middle of each lid. Before I glued the lids together, I tested the flow of sand from one jar to another so that I would have enough sand for it to last exactly one hour.

And the third method for telling time that I chose was to make a sundial. I got a square piece of wood and drew a circle on it. I painted the wood outside of the circle blue. I painted the circle yellow. Then I glued onto the board, a sharpened pencil pointing straight up with the bottom of the pencil glued to the center of the circle.

From sunrise to sunset, for each hour, I drew a line from the circumference of the circle to the middle point of the circle where the pencil was located by where the shadow of the sun was cast on the circle by the pencil. When the sun set, half of the circle was not filled in, but you just continue each line from the ones marked during the daylight and you get a completely filled in circle for each hour of the day and night.

Now, you don't have to do these things at all. But what I learned from it, is what you need to know.

From this one little science project, decades ago, I learned how to tell time, just by looking at the location of the sun in the sky. Since I made the sundial so accurately, for every hour, I noticed where the sun was in the sky and what time it was.

All you need to do, is notice where the sun sets and where the sun rises. This would represent 180 degrees of a circle. Nightfall to the next sunrise is the other half of the circle. Divide the sky into 4 quarters of a circle. From the point where the sun rises look one quarter of the way into the sky to the right, which would be 90 degrees of a circle. At this first quarter of a 90 degree angle, when the sun reaches this spot, it would be 12 pm. When the sun reaches the second quarter, to the right, it would be 6 pm. The next quarter would be 12 am at night, where there is obviously, no sun, and the last quarter would be 6 am. So this is a 24 hour circle. From this observation, you can learn to divide each quarter up further, so that you can tell just what time is it within each quarter, at least during the daylight hours. I know in writing, this sounds a little complicated, but try it out with the sun, and you will learn how to do it. I have gotten so good at it, that I am no more than a half hour off when I look up in the sky to tell the time. Most of the time, if the time happens to be on the half hour or the hour, I can estimate the time very accurately,

I have never tried it out at night, in regards to the movement of the moon. If there is someone who is familiar with using this method with the moon, leave a comment.

This is indispensable when camping, if you are lost in the wilds, etc, not only with telling time, but also knowing in what direction you are traveling. As long as you know where the sun rises and where the sun sets, you can use the sun as a compass. Because you would know when the sun sets, that point of location is the West, and when the sun rises, that point of location is the East, you could surmise other compass directions with this knowledge. Note that when the sun is at 12pm in the sky, the sun is South. So if you are walking towards the sun at 12pm, you are walking south. If you are walking with the sun behind you, at 12pm, you are walking toward the North. I wouldn't travel without a compass, but in case of an emergency, like if you lost your compass, this might help you find your bearings.

(Please note that these North South East West directions are for the Northern Hemisphere only.

The opposite is true for the Southern Hemisphere).