The Robert Adzema Hyatt Regency Jersey City Sundial (shown left) is a combination equatorial sundial, noon mark solar calendar, and horizontal sundial. The stainless steel equatorial sundial features a wide "time band" showing hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. At the noon hour is a noon mark solar calendar--an analemma illuminated by a ray of sunlight passing through an aperture mounted along the gnomon (rod), used to determine both the Equation of Time and the approximate day of the year. The pedestal supporting the time band and gnomon (rod & aperture) is designed to do double-duty as the gnomon (style) for a larger horizontal sundial that surrounds the equatorial sundial at ground level. The hour lines on the dial face of the horizontal sundial are made of stainless steel bars embedded in concrete pavement. The time of day is told by looking at either the shadow of the equatorial sundial gnomon (rod) on the time band, or the shadow of the horizontal sundial gnomon (style) on the dial face.

The Hyatt Regency Jersey City Sundial is a variety of the classic equatorial sundial, often referred to as a "bowstring" equatorial sundial because this type of sundial looks somewhat similar to a "bow and arrow." A "bowstring" equatorial sundial is actually a reduced model of the Earth: visualize a bare-bones globe for which all that remains is one-half of the Equator, one meridian (line of longitude), and the Earth's axis of rotation. The time band, also known as the "equatorial band," represents one-half of the Equator. The vertically-oriented "bow" (as in "bow & arrow") represents a single line of longitude, and is referred to as the "meridian band." The gnomon (or style) is a thin rod (the "bowstring") representing the Earth's axis of rotation. The bowstring is connected to the bow at the equivalent of the Earth's North and South Poles.

No. 1 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info Facing north-northeast.	No. 2 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info Close-up, noon mark solar calendar.
No. 3 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info Plaque explains how to tell time and date.	No. 4 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info View from the north, facing due south.
No. 5 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info View from the west, facing due east (toward the New York City skyline, across the Hudson River).	No. 6 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info Closer view, facing due east.
No. 7 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info Facing south-southwest.	No. 8 1/4-size | 1/2-size | full-size | info Hour numbers shown along upper edge of time band.

Related Resources

• Sundials by Robert Adzema, featuring more photos of the Hyatt Regency Jersey City Sundial sculpture: under construction; multiple views of the finished sundial, including a view from above (see Photo 2 of 5).
• More photos by North American Sundial Society members, Janet Jenkins and Mac Oglesby...
  
• Sundial frames skyline, inset photo used with permission from Michael Lee, amateur photographer.
• "Sister sundial" located at the Suffern Free Library, Suffern, NY. See also Photo 4 (of 5), Robert Adzema's website.
• The Henry Moore Sundial Sculpture, Sundial Plaza, Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois - art and science converge to create an elegantly beautiful "bowstring" equatorial sundial
• Other varieties of the equatorial sundial (a subcategory of Frans Maes' excellent Sundial site)
• The Analemma Web site
• SCSA Calculate and Chart the Analemma
• SCSA Educator's Guide to Equatorial Sundials