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South Cottages Thorpeness

And for the quiz of the week....
Assuming my watch tells the correct time, what did it show as I took this photo?

Happy Fence Friday!!

PS, Do not be fooled by the EXIF data!!

The answer goes like this:-

This is a sundial. The dark brown line is the gnomon, the grey line is its shadow. The shadow indicates a time between 3 and 4, almost 4 o’clock (approx. 3:50). The length of the grey shadow is well off the scale, suggesting it is around the middle of summer.
Now the big catch.. Sundials show Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), but in summer UK adds one hour to this as British Summer Time, (BST), so the real time on my watch was approx. 16:50.
Now the little subtle points..
As Dimas says, this is east of Greenwich, so the sun will reach its peak 6.4 minutes before the zero meridian. We do not know if the sundial was specifically made and calibrated for this location or not. I could not find this design amongst the generic suppliers, so maybe it was.
The EXIF shows an exposure of 1/1000 sec at f5.6, with an ISO of 100, so it must have been pretty sunny, so obviously summer time, hence BST in operation.
Ipernity shows this as being taken on 1 January 1900, so obviously incorrect, and can be ignored.
The time and date in the EXIF is correct, and shows 2025:07:06 15:54:43.99, My camera is nominally set to GMT, but is 2 minutes fast of GMT. This puts the exact time as 16:52hrs.


You could look at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial
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36 comments

polytropos said:

The watch is on 03:52 PM. ;-)
HFF!
4 weeks ago

Peter_Private_Box replied to polytropos:

Hi Polytropos ,
Your visit is most welcome. Thank you.
Glad you like it.
The correct answer is above! 16:52hrs
Best Wishes, (rather late) HFF, a good weekend, and keep safe,
Peter
4 weeks ago

Christa1004 said:

About four o'clock in the afternoon? HFF Peter.
4 weeks ago

Peter_Private_Box replied to Christa1004:

Hi Christa ,
Your visit is much appreciated. Thank you!
I am pleased you found it interesting.
The correct answer is above! 16:52hrs
Best Wishes, (rather late) HFF, a good weekend, and keep safe,
Peter
4 weeks ago

Percy Schramm said:

Hi Peter,
ich denke, es ist wenige Minuten vor 4 Uhr. Das Foto gefällt mir sehr gut. Mich irritiert allerdings das Aufnahmedatum: 1.1. 1900 ?
HFF, wünsche Dir ein schönes Wochenende !
Greetings / Percy
4 weeks ago ( translate )

Kayleigh said:

HFF 14:30 ? :-)))))
4 weeks ago

Stephan Fey said:

HFF, Peter. Happy weekend!
4 weeks ago ( translate )

Gudrun said:

I'll go for ca. 2.40 pm...
4 weeks ago

Roger (Grisly) said:

A nice find and an interesting capture Peter,
I'm with Gudrun here 2.41 for me,
HFF and a great weekend!
4 weeks ago

tiabunna said:

I'd agree with Gudrun (having trouble viewing large), about 2.40. HFF and have a good weekend.
4 weeks ago

Jocelyne Villoing said:

HFF Peter en sécurité.
4 weeks ago ( translate )

Annemarie said:

Have a peaceful FRIDAY!!!!!!!
4 weeks ago ( translate )

William Sutherland said:

Outstanding shot! HFF!
4 weeks ago

trester88 said:

15:50 Uhr.
HFF und ein schönes Wochenende, Peter!
4 weeks ago ( translate )

Dimas Sequeira said:

Charming 2007 sundial! Amazing how you caught it in January 1st 1900! I had to magnify to guess the hour: about 2.33 pm - solar time. In your watch, with the solar time of Greenwich half-meridian, it should be about 4 minutes earlier - longitude matters that much. HFF, Peter!
4 weeks ago