Jerusalem, Teddy Park, Sundial Sculpture

Photographer: Ran Erde

The Jerusalem Teddy Park Sundial
Article by: Astronomer Ilan Manulis

The beam of light emitted from the Sun takes 8 minutes and 19 seconds to reach the sundial. This is due to the fact that the Earth is at an average distance of about 150 million km from the Sun and given the speed of light.   for more information...

Sun Sculpture 2000 N.Y Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, NY. 11368, U.S.A

The body of the sculpture consists of planes tilted at various angles, inscribed with different regular lines and concentric circles. Those marks resemble the regular array of marks on watch or clock face, and are reminders of the simpler order we prefer and are reassured by, in our technological culture. As true Sun Sculpture demonstares, however, the actual motion of the earth is more complex and challenging to understand than the simple, regular motion of the hands of a clock.

From the notes of Naomi R. Azar

Early on a Saturday morning, two excited people are speeding in a small, light blue car, on the road to Jerusalem. They are Maty Grunberg, the artist, and Ilan Manulis, the astronomer, director of the Weitzman Institute Observatory. Ilan, being a nocturnal star gazer, grumbles and complains about the early hour, one his journal does not even have an entry for. Maty, being Maty, is sharp and awake at the break of dawn. Both greet the rising sun; it – the sun – it the reason for this trip: to take the final measurements of Maty Grunberg’s sundial sculpture. The sundial is at Teddy Park, which is now nearing its completion, in Jerusalem – the navel of the world. It stands across from the Tower of David and the Old City walls, above Hutzot Hayotzer Lane, below Mishkenot Sha'ananim, across from Mamilla Mall, as it is called these days.   Read More...