BSS

Update #2: BSS Zoom Event โ€“ 17 April 2021

: Webmaster

We successfully held our first Virtual Conference via Zoom on the 17th April and were joined by about 150 participants from around the globe. Feedback about the event has been extremely positive and all the speakers – Roger Bailey, Woody Sullivan and Fred Sawyer, with the event introduced by Frank King – were very highly rated for their fascinating talks.

The full video of the session, lasting a little over 90 minutes, is available here:

Although the vast majority of participants were able to enjoy the session, unfortunately a small number of people did not receive the joining instructions. We hope that the video above makes up for that and we have taken those issues, as well as the large number of comments and suggestions, fully on board. We will provide information about how we plan to proceed in due course but there is clearly an appetite for more events like this!

2014 Accounts

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The accounts for the Society up until August 2014 are now available in the Accounts section of the Members Area. Members will need to log in to see this information: please contact the Webmaster in case of difficulty.

Dial-making workshops at Cheney School

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On the 20th. January over 120 pupils at Cheney School in Oxford learnt about the principles of solar time-keeping and ancient Greek and Roman dials, saw a demonstration of how they work and built their own hemicyclium dial – all within the space of an hour. The event, organised by the IRIS project as part of an ancient astronomy day, saw Chris Williams deliver a wide-ranging lecture on how the ancients told the time and the differences in their requirements for timekeeping and those we have today. An extract of the presentation, including various pictures of classical dials, can beย seen here.

David Brown then took over, first demonstrating how shadows vary depending on the time of yearย and why a hemicyclium is more practical than a hemispherical bowl,

before each pupil was presented with a kit to make their own.

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New BSS Brochure and Flyer

: Webmaster

For members who are invited to give talks about sundials or the BSS, or for anyone who wishes to promote the Society’s activities, updated versions of the BSS brochure and flyer are now available for downloading and printing.

Name A4
Brochure – two-sided PDF
Flyer – one-up PDF
Flyer – two-up PDF

The brochure is two-sided and should be folded in three: if your printer does not handle duplex printing then print one side first, reinsert the paper (typically for inkjet printers the printed side should be uppermost but please do a test print first) and then print side two.

The flyer is available in two sizes: 1-up is A4, 2-up is for bulk use and produces two copies side-by-side on a single sheet with crop marks to help split in half after printing.