Inventors:
Li Chiu Tien - Midland MI
International Classification:
G04B 1922
Abstract:
The invention described herein is a mechanical device that appearing uncrowded with lines, numbers, and other markings, depicts the sun's daily path and gives sunlight information, for any interested latitude, date, and time. A major dial is rotated on a base according to the latitude; a sun-path slider is slid on the major dial according to the date. Then the device depicts a two-dimensional, elevation view of the sun's daily path, as a straight line, through all or some of these five zones in the sky: direct sunlight; civil, nautical, and astronomical twilights; and night. The depicted sun's daily path gives the following sunlight information: the directions and times of sunrise and sunset; the times of the beginnings and endings of the twilights. On the depicted sun's daily path, the sun's position, indicated by a sun-position slider according to the time, gives solar energy quantities and the sun's angular height on the base and the sun's direction on a minor dial.