Kirk,
My son is home on break from college and we worked together to try to answer your sundial questions. It was a fun way for us to share your adventure and to have some quality father - son time. Thanks! We were also both very jealous of your chance to “thrive” at Happy Camper School. We would have slept in the quinzee too!
However since he is geology major and I am an Earth Science teacher we both need to be brave enough to risk being wrong, in public, on your world wide journal, so here goes....
Time of Day?
Since the sundial has a shadow at “13” we assume that that means it was
1pm local time.
Direction of Photo Alignment?
Since the sun crosses the southern sky from east to west on our half of the Earth but crosses the Northern sky from east to west on your half we guessed that the midday sun would be in the northern sky. Actually, if it was 1pm the sun would be a little to the west of north. And, since a sundial needs to have the midnight hour facing toward the noon sun but the stick in the center of your sundial is pointing between the 1st and 2nd hour on the sundial, AND each hour the sun appears to move 15 degrees, we are estimating (OK guessing!) that the photo is aligned about 17 degrees west of north.
Now if we have just embarrassed ourselves, it was fun anyway!
(but please don’t tell my principal or Matt’s dean!)
Have fun and make memories!
Jeff Peneston
Liverpool High School, Liverpool NY
Matt Peneston
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY