This was a great day, not a cloud in the sky and the hottest day of the year so far. First contact was captured but in my excitement to get more video I over wrote the file duh... Second contact I had a neighbours tree in the way and the web cam was having difficulty with the exposure, by 4th contact my PC was running slow, I have since discovered that the Sun shining on my laptop all day has damaged the hard-disc probably why the PC was running slow on 4th contact.

Some of these images are taken between 2nd and 3rd contact when Andy and I decided to pop over to the CMHAS site and see how everyone else was doing. All in all a great day I will always remember.

Jantar Mantar

Whilst visiting India for work I had the opertunity to go to Jaipur, the pink city, and see the ancient observatory, Jantar Mantar.

Commissioned by Emperor Muhammad Shah to correct the existing astronomical tables the observatory was built by Sawai Jai Singh II in 1728, and consists of many instruments.

* Jaiprakash Yantra is in the form of two hemispherical bowls representing the celestial spheres, a disc suspended in the centre of each sphere, producing a shadow on the instrument from which you can read the position of the Sun. This instrument was the last to be built, is the most accurate and was used to test the other instruments.
* The Laghu Sanrat Yantra ‘Small sun dial’. On each side of gnomon, there are two quadrants. The left for time in the morning and right for the afternoon. The quadrants are graduated into hours and minutes, the minutes are graduated into 3rds
* The Nariyalya Yantra, There are two faces to this sundial, parallel to each other, one face is used when the sun is in the northern hemisphere (21st March and 22nd September)
* The Rashivalaya (Star Sign) Yantra, is agroup of 12 instruments, with graduated quadrants on each side. The quadrants represent the ecliptic. When a zodiac reaches the local meridian the time on the associated sun dial will be correct.
* Yantra Raj is made of 7 alloys to prevent expansion and contraction, the hole in the centre is the position of Polaris. Using the instrument it is possible to calculate the dates of solar and lunar eclipses, Sun rise & set, moon rise and set etc
* The Samrat Yantra ‘the King of all instruments' is the largest Yantra, the gnomon is 89ft high and 148ft wide, the arches in the wall are to prevent storm damage. Accurate to 2 seconds local time, the Samrat is still in use today for astronomy