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Projects: EarthDials

EarthDial Newsletter No. 7

5 March 2004

Note that it's a full moon this weekend - to be exact, 2314 GMT on Sat. 6 March. I'd love it if you could capture images of the *Moon's* shadow through the night - can your Webcam make it out? You'll need to make sure the ED is well shielded from any competing lights. To a good approximation, on Sat. night the time indicated by the shadow will be correct (changing AM to PM and vice-versa); the next night the moon will read about 50 minutes earlier, etc. Send any reports to ED Central.

The official launch happened with our press release on 2 March, but we had stiff competition with the NASA announcement on the same day of strong evidence for liquid water on Mars in the past! Nevertheless the word is getting out and I'm confident that the number of EarthDials will steadily grow (see below). But no matter how much it grows, the first eleven will always be the EarthDial Pioneers.....My big push now is to get more non-USA EDs - we need to fill in those empty latitudes and longitudes around the globe! Anything you can do to help this will be much appreciated.

News about EarthDials. There are now *11* EarthDials online 24 hours per day and they are:

ED-1 Seattle, Washington, USA (122 W, 48 N)
ED-2 Columbia, Maryland, USA (76 W, 39 N)
ED-3 Ross, Ohio, USA 85 W, 39 N
ED-4 Irvine, California, USA (117 W, 33 N)
ED-5 Tegucigalpa, Honduras ( 87 W, 14 N)
ED-6 Costa Mesa, California, USA (117 W, 33 N)
ED-7 Fairfax County, Virginia, USA (77 W, 39 N)
ED-8 Valencia, Spain (0.4 deg W, 39 N)
ED-9 Atco, New Jersey, USA (75 W, 40 N)
ED-10 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia (100 E, 5 N)
ED-11 South Pole (90 S, indeterminate longitude!)

ED-11 at the South Pole is of course just fantastic! Spend time watching the shadow twirl around while you can, for its sunlit days are numbered - what will be the last day we can see a shadow - a week before the vernal equinox?

ED-10 is done by a 16-yr-old high school student in Malaysia (with help from ED-2 in Maryland and ED Central). ED-5, 7, and 8 have particularly nice Websites - check them out. For some inspiration and a good story read Bill Nye's "statement" at his site. You may also want to read my own personal statement about the project at the top of the "List of all Dials" webpage. Also check out Bill Nye's new downloadable 1:1 cardboard model of the MarsDials. There are a variety of great time-lapse movies of the moving shadow that ED-7 has made - marvellous! ED-10 and 5 and 7 and 8 give the Web reader a particularly nice overview of their homes. ED-8 has made a nice movie, too, and is made of 9 ceramic tiles and is actually situated in a pool of water! ED-7 has posted a classroom exercise for school children based on observing EarthDials.

We're shortly expecting England, and have good later prospects for India, France, Australia, and Norway (Spitsbergen at 78 deg N!), with inquiries from Suriname and Ecuador. In addition there are more US ones expected in Florida, Mississippi, Ohio, Utah, Massachusetts, Washington state, and California.

We're changing Two Worlds!

Cheers, Woody