Orwell Astronomical Society (Ipswich)

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Solargraph, 22 June - 22 December 2019

I first came across the term Solargraphy on the Stargazers Lounge forum. It refers to the use of a pinhole camera to record the path of the Sun throughout the year. See Tarja Trygg's website for more information.

I used a basic pinhole camera to record, every clear day, the track of the Sun across the southern sky. The image commenced on 22 June 2019, the day after the summer solstice when the Sun at noon was at its highest altitude in the sky and finished on 22 December 2019, the winter solstice, when the noon Sun is at its lowest point. Each day during the image, the path of the Sun through the sky became slightly lower.

Equipment used:

Given the potential for disaster during the six month exposure time, I constructed two pinhole cameras, one of which provided the image below. My precaution turned out to be very prescient, as the other camera was washed out due to ingress of rain water. I mounted both cameras on a drainpipe facing south towards a neighbour's house (the silhouette of which is visible in the image).

20191222_solargraph_JWH.jpg


John Hughes