Bowditch has an entire chapter named “Time” which I’m familiar with and I’ve been reading some historical stuff, for example a book about Copernicus but I couldn’t wrap my head around how the ancient astronomers could have figured out the things they did.
So I built a big sundial from wood stickers which we have everywhere around here (for drying lumber).
The gnomon is about 2 meters tall.
I realize how sad this looks, both aesthetically and technically but here’s a photo:
I took most of the hourly sticks out so I could mow the lawn but the stick on the left was placed on winter solstice at LAN and one for summer solstice is to the right.
I learned a couple things, people are impressed when the shadow falls as predicted, what path the shadow follows and why monoliths are build from stones and not sticks.