NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Pyroheliometer
From: UNK
Date: 2009 Jun 24, 14:18 -0400
From: UNK
Date: 2009 Jun 24, 14:18 -0400
New England is suffering through a particularly sunless, damp June. Looking for some data and stories, the local media descended upon (well, climbed up to, actually) the Blue Hill Observatory outside Boston. The story in the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2009/06/23/so_far_june_sunl ight_in_boston_is_lowest_in_past_century/) included a sidebar about the observatory's pyroheliometer (http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2009/06/23/sunshine_pop/), a beautifully simple device that has been measuring daily sunlight since 1885. WCVB-TV also did a story that showed a burnt card's record of a day's sun, but they haven't put that video up on their website. Unlike more modern electronic instruments, the mellifluously named pyroheliometer at Blue Hill uses nothing fancier than a paper card with graduation marks. The spherical shell of the instrument focuses the sun as it crosses the sky sufficiently to scorch or burn the card when the sun is visible. Can anyone provide more details of this type of device or other non-electronic sunlight recorders? -- Peter (who is going to mildew unless we get some sun Real Soon Now) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
