NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Greg Rudzinski
Date: 2010 Mar 5, 08:48 -0800
John,
Looks like you had fun with this project. When looking at the leading edge of the Sun's shadow through the magnifier it should appear as a faint shadow transitioning to a darker shadow as the Sun's limbs illuminate over the top of the lego blocks. This preumbra will cause 32 minutes of arc slop in measurements (one Sun diameter). I see that the lego tower is constructed with different colored blocks which will expand and contract at different rates when exposed to the Sun. I recommend that the blocks be glued together securely and painted white. Also double check the plastic ruler using a metal caliper or micrometer.
For more fun try measuring your shadows using a pixel count from a digital image. The camera clock can also be set to GMT/UT for convenient time recording.
GRudzinski
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