all around the distant horizon, which is out of the Lu-
nar shadow. Around the darkened Sun, the Solar co-
rona blazes out into the sky in an aura of unearthly
ultraviolet flames. It looks exactly like the iris of a great
Cosmic Eye, with a black pupil at its center. The im-
pression you get is that you are looking directly into
the Eye of God. This image has been represented from
time immemorial, and is depicted on the back of the US
$1 bill. If you would like to see some incredible eclipse
photos, go to http://www.mreclipse.com/MrEclipse.html
The next total eclipse of the Sun to be seen in
North America will be on August 21, 2017. It will cross
the entire continental US along a diagonal line from
Portland, OR, through St. Louis, MO, Nashville, TN,
and Charleston, NC. Don’t miss it! The next ones for
North America will be April 8, 2024; Aug. 23, 2044; and
Aug. 12, 2046. Be sure to wear special mylar “eclipse
glasses” so you will be able to look directly at the
Sun; DO NOT attempt to look at the Sun without
such glasses!Lesson 5. Telling Time
by the Sun & StarsFrom years to seasons to months to days to hours,
minutes and seconds, all our notions of time are based
on the apparent movements of the heavens. Of course,
most of those motions are of the Earth itself rotating
on its axis and revolving around the Sun. But the Moon
revolves around the Earth on a regular monthly cycle,
and the visible planets also move across the stars.
Sundials tell the time using a shadow cast by a stick or
line (the gnomen) as the Sun traverses the sky. As the
shadow reaches various marks on the dial, the hours
are indicated.
You can tell how long the Sun will
take to set by holding your hand out in
front of you with your fingers
at a right angle, like this:
Each finger marks about
7½ minutes, and allfour mark ½ hour. Line up your hand so the bottom
edge is at the horizon, and you can estimate pretty
accurately how many minutes ‘til sunset by how many
fingers the Sun is high. I use this trick all the time.
But the whole night sky can be used as a great
clock face, if you know how. The North Star is the
center point, and the “hour hand” is the Little Dipper.
The whole sky turns in 24 hours, so you have to imag-
ine twice as many numbers, as if a regular clock was
marked with a number every ½ hour. The Star-Clock
turns counter-clockwise. To read it, make a little draw-
ing of a clock face marked with 24 hours, like this:Then draw the position of the Little Dipper as
soon as you can see it, and note what time it is (it will
advance about 1° each night, so you have to make a
new diagram each time you want to do this). From
then on, all you have to do through the night is look at
the stars, and compare their positions with your clock
face drawing. When the Little Dipper has gone ¼ turn,
you will know that six hours have passed!
Many marvelous instruments have been devel-
oped by astronomers to model the motions of the stars
for timekeeping: sundials, astrolabes, planispheres,
orrereys and armillaries. No Wizard’s study would
be complete without one or more of these! Here are some
of the nifty celestial contraptions I have in my study:Sundials—there are many more
possible designs for sundials
than this popular garden vari-
ety. I have several pocket sundi-
als, and have made larger ones to set
up outside. I have a wonderful book full of cutout pat-
terns and designs for many different sundials, including
a simple paper Armillary. It’s called The Great Sundial
Cutout Book, by Robert Adzema and Mablen Jones.Celestial Armillary—this is a clever model of the
position of the Earth at various seasons in relation to
the constellations of the Zodiac. You see these in many
old pictures of Wizards. The Earth
is represented as a little ball in
the center of a spherical cage
with rings representing the
equator, tropics of Cancer/
Capricorn, and the Arctic/Ant-
arctic circles. An arrow running
through the middle points to the
North Star. A band marked with the signs
of the Zodiac encircles the cage in20 03Course Six: Spectrum, Part 2 263
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