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A Fairfax County Public Schools Planetarium
During a two-year period from 1986-1987, Dr. Griffith carefully traced the shape of the analemma projected through an exterior window onto a vertical wall inside Building 207, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. The analemma stands today as a lasting memorial of the late Dr. Griffith's spirit of scientific inquiry. The following descriptor appears alongside the analemma tracing (see below, photos 0356 to 0358): [Begin transcript.] The figure "8" on the wall to the left is the result of marking the shadow of the corner of the opposite window at exactly 4:10 p.m. EST over a period in excess of two years. The angle which the center line of the figure makes with a vertical line (~) is the latitude of Washington [D.C.], and the difference in the size of the two lobes is a result of the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit. (Exactly what this has to do with chemistry per se is not perfectly clear, but Viva Principia Scientifica!)
P.S. - This experiment was a "breakthrough" in the pre-5,000 B.C.
era.
Photographs courtesy NRL Chemistry Division staff members Cindy Habron (photographer) & Jackie Brooks (technical support). Thumbnail images prepared using photoweb v2.7 by Phil Wherry & Eric Johnston. Calculate and Chart the Analemma | Me and My Shadow | SCSA Home |
