Equinox by Canon DSLR Challenge

Canon DSLR Challenge | all galleries >> CSLR 117 - Grounded (hosted by Penny Street) >> Exhibition > Equinox


	Victor Engel

Equinox

30.3575 degrees north view map

This is a picture of one of the towers that is completed on the spring
equinox. Seven trolls each work on a towers of Hanoi puzzle, making
one move a day. Each equinox, a different troll solves his puzzle.
On the day he solves his puzzle, the sun lines up with the tower.

other sizes: small medium original auto

previous | next

Please do not delete, update, or otherwise edit others' entries
* Submitter retains all copyrights *

Canon DSLR Challenge		12-Apr-2008 06:19
Traveller, I realize now I may have misread something you wrote. When you said "Is this how they are really constructed," what is being referred to by "they"? I thought you meant the subject of my photo, hence my explanation. Now I'm wondering if you meant the Mayan pyramids, etc. If it is the latter, I think the answer is no in the case of the Mayan pyramids, although they are specific about certain alignments, of course. Stonehenge is interesting because it is so old, was rebuilt, and nobody REALLY knows the original purpose. Last month they did some excavation there to determine certain things carefully. Search news about Stonehenge, and you'll find some articles. I also have an idea for an observationally based lunisolar calendar that probably works similarly to some aspects of Stonehenge. The basic idea is to track the northernmost and southernmost risings of the sun and the moon (ignoring phase). The main device used in my idea is a sort of pyramid shape that looks like the corners were cut off, thus leaving a pyramid with an oddly shaped octagonal base. The four eastern corners point to the northern and southern extremes of the rising sun and moon. The four western corners point to the northern and southern extremes of the setting sun and moon. Time is marked by watching the sun and moon travel from one corner to the other, back and forth. When these paths cross each other, there is a chance for an eclipse. -- Victor

Canon DSLR Challenge		12-Apr-2008 00:53
Traveller, I'll explain as well as I can while being brief (going back to edit, I realize this is not as brief as I'd hoped). Additionally, you may wish to addhttp://www.pbase.com/victorengel/trolls to your bookmarks, since I will be periodically adding information there. One of my hobbies is calendars, be they extant ones in current use, old ones in disuse, or fantastical ones. An example of a calendar I created is available online athttp://the-light.com/cal/ve28293.htm and includes links to details about the various calculations involved. Interestingly, we have just started a period that will include a stretch of rectangular months. Some months ago, another member of an email list I belong to, relating to calendars, mentioned the possibility of creating a calendar based upon the Towers of Hanoi. He came up with a starting position that takes 365 moves to resolve into a single tower using the normal rules of the game. Not quite satisfied with the awkwardness of having to set up the particular starting position, I set on investigating how many moves it took to solve towers of various sizes. It turned out a stack of 9 disks was ideal since it required 511 moves. That's not a multiple of 365, but it is a multiple of 1/5 of that. In other words, it's 7/5 of a year without leap days. Thus was planted the seed of my yard art. Most people not into calendrics don't know that there are various year lengths. The time between winter solstices is different from the time between vernal equinoxes, for example. This is because Earth orbits in an elipse, and the location of these events moves with respect to the ends of the elipse from year to year. These average year lengths vary over time. The most stable year length currently is the length of the vernal equinox. That is a major reason why I chose it as the target length for the calculator. Leap days are calculated by dealing stones (not shown). I'll stop discussing yearlength here for now. If you're really curious, go to nabble.com and find the calendar list and search for Hanoi. There is where my discussions about these ideas ripened into my current project. As long as a tower was going to be completed on the date of the equinox, why not build that fact right into the structure itself. My original idea was to have disks, like in a Towers of Hanoi puzzle you see online when you google the term. I considered also using bowls, turning the device into a bird fountain. As smaller bowls are moved, their contents are emptied into the bowl underneath, then filled up with fresh water when placed on the new tower. I really like that idea, but it involved constructing precisely shaped bowls, something I'm not yet ready to do. Then the idea of using squares hit me. There are several advantages to squares. First, and important to a project like this, is that they are easy to build. Next, since they have straight lines, their shadows can line up. And what better way to illustrate that the structure predicts the equinox than to demonstrate this fact quite obviously by lining up the shadows using the structure itself. In order for the shadows to align like this, all that's necessary is for the structure to be aligned north/south and the angle of the north face relative to vertical to match the latitude. Since the structure was to be placed in my yard, the latitude was 30.3575 degrees. It's then simple trigonometry to determine the sizes of the squares given their thickness. I did this, bought some travertine and a tile saw, and cut the tiles according to the results of my trig. calculations. This picture and others I took that day are really my practical test of the accuracy of my trigonometry and craftsmanship. Needless to say, I was very pleased with the results. Despite the fact that this alignment was designed to work this way, it was nevertheless surprising to me how strong seeing the actual alignment actually affected me emotionally. There's something profound about it that I can't really describe. My brother said that he is affected the same way. You mentioned Mayan sites, Stonehenge, etc. It may surprise you to know that despite my having grown up in Guatemala (I went to a boarding school where we regularly went to an ancient Mayan plaza, Zaculeu, to play, even playing ball in the Mayan ball court) and being generally familiar with Stonehenge and other such structures, they didn't really influence me in this. As a matter of fact, until I started assembling the disks, I didn't really think there would be much resemblance. Anyway, thank you very much for you comment, Traveller. I think I'll stop my discourse now. -- Victor

Canon DSLR Challenge		11-Apr-2008 18:23
Having spent some time on Mayan sites, not to mention Stonehedge and Newgrange, this is an important image to me....personally, intellectually and emotionally...I haven't commented before because I've been thinking about this image. Is this how they are really constructed....to give a shadow like this? I know I should know....but, this picture rather blows me away. It was only at Newgrange that I was there for the Spring equinox at the bottom of an earthen burial mound...so that was very different, yet profound. Thanks in advance for any direction you can give me on this. Best Wishes, Traveller

Canon DSLR Challenge		10-Apr-2008 15:58
Probably the clouds were in the way. -- Victor

Canon DSLR Challenge		10-Apr-2008 13:49
Nice one Victor, like the story as well. Took a trip via GooE and flew right over your place, I waved but don't think you saw me? ~ Regards Melbob

Canon DSLR Challenge		04-Apr-2008 17:04
Wonderful! and thanks for the explanation - quite fascinating. Penny Street

Canon DSLR Challenge		04-Apr-2008 14:24
What a wonderful perspective, Victor! And athe crop for the shadow... perfect! ~Lydia