Planetary society project – Mars dial

Live Mars-Earth dials web cast!

· Please enter here for information on our remote telescope on line control – from any point across the globe!

The Bareket Observatory is proud to be a part of the EarthDial, "Two world one sun" project hosted by the Planetary Society. Bareket observatory is located in Macabim, Israel. Our EarthDial named ED-25 and was constructed by the observatory team from an engraved marble for a life time usage.

The gnomon is of a CNC 7075 aluminum bar for extra accuracy. The whole structure is standing on a decorative stone square pole, 3 feet above the ground.
The EarthDial image is broadcasting by the internet for all the interested, all around the globe.
These photographs can be compared with all the EarthDials around earth and with NASA's Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

We believe that this is a truly wonderful and educative project. Click here for our other astronomical web casts !

As a part of our Observatory school activities we decided to include some of our young students to the project and to build the
EarthDial at their own schools, as a part of the planetary teaching program. The EarthDial is currently at a building process at 3 major schools, made out of stone.

Pic: Earth dial at the Bareket observatory.

View the live Earth dial web cast here.

· Our main teaching interests at the EarthDial project are:
- To be a part of a large scale information gathering of EarthDials at different latitudes around the world.
- Demonstration the differences between the north and South Pole.
- Measuring time on Earth and on Mars.
- Seasonal changes.
- Teaching astronomy with an emphasis on planetary science.

We highly recommends to all the astronomy educative institutions to join the project.

From the planetary society web site:

"The Earth Dial Project is a network of sundials around the world to show the passage of time in this ancient manner. Volunteers have created this network at the same time that sundials are roving on Mars.

Images of each EarthDial are posted on the planetary society website every 5-10 minutes. As your eye sweeps across these images on the world map, the Sun's shadow sweeps across the faces of the dials. You can gain a palpable sense of how the Sun illuminates the round globe that is our Earth -- and how the Sun's passage across the sky controls time around the world.

At any moment, EarthDials from half of the world are in darkness. The path that the Sun traces -- and consequently the lines and curves on the faces of the EarthDials -- are very different from Spain to Malaysia to the South Pole. And while the EarthDials are all made to a common pattern, each is decorated in the language and cultural motifs of its host."

"The EarthDials are designed to look somewhat like the MarsDials aboard NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which arrived on Mars in January 2004.

· Earth dial animations:

1. summer solstice.

2. Equinox.