NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Pyroheliometer
From: Andrew Corl
Date: 2009 Jun 24, 11:43 -0700
From: "Smith_Peter@emc.com" <Smith_Peter@emc.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 2:18:05 PM
Subject: [NavList 8782] Pyroheliometer
New England is suffering through a particularly sunless, damp June.
Looking for some data and stories, the local media descended upon (well,
climbed up to, actually) the Blue Hill Observatory outside Boston. The
story in the Boston Globe
(http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2009/06/23/so_far_june_sunl
ight_in_boston_is_lowest_in_past_century/) included a sidebar about the
observatory's pyroheliometer
(http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2009/06/23/sunshine_pop/),
a beautifully simple device that has been measuring daily sunlight since
1885. WCVB-TV also did a story that showed a burnt card's record of a
day's sun, but they haven't put that video up on their website.
Unlike more modern electronic instruments, the mellifluously named
pyroheliometer at Blue Hill uses nothing fancier than a paper card with
graduation marks. The spherical shell of the instrument focuses the sun
as it crosses the sky sufficiently to scorch or burn the card when the
sun is visible.
Can anyone provide more details of this type of device or other
non-electronic sunlight recorders?
-- Peter (who is going to mildew unless we get some sun Real Soon Now)
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Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc
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From: Andrew Corl
Date: 2009 Jun 24, 11:43 -0700
I ahve seen a sundial like this before which burns holes in paper when the sun passes through a series of lenses. This has to be a similar concepts but the exact technical information I do not know.
Andrew
From: "Smith_Peter@emc.com" <Smith_Peter@emc.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 2:18:05 PM
Subject: [NavList 8782] Pyroheliometer
New England is suffering through a particularly sunless, damp June.
Looking for some data and stories, the local media descended upon (well,
climbed up to, actually) the Blue Hill Observatory outside Boston. The
story in the Boston Globe
(http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2009/06/23/so_far_june_sunl
ight_in_boston_is_lowest_in_past_century/) included a sidebar about the
observatory's pyroheliometer
(http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2009/06/23/sunshine_pop/),
a beautifully simple device that has been measuring daily sunlight since
1885. WCVB-TV also did a story that showed a burnt card's record of a
day's sun, but they haven't put that video up on their website.
Unlike more modern electronic instruments, the mellifluously named
pyroheliometer at Blue Hill uses nothing fancier than a paper card with
graduation marks. The spherical shell of the instrument focuses the sun
as it crosses the sky sufficiently to scorch or burn the card when the
sun is visible.
Can anyone provide more details of this type of device or other
non-electronic sunlight recorders?
-- Peter (who is going to mildew unless we get some sun Real Soon Now)
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc
To post, email NavList@fer3.com
To , email NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---