moondial
Moondials are time pieces similar to sundials, using the moon to cast shadows on a marked dial. The most basic moondial is accurate only on the night of the full moon. Every night after that, it loses on average 48 minutes, while every night preceding the full moon it gains 48 minutes.
moondial
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Thus, one week to either side of the full moon, the moondial will read 5 hours and 36 minutes before or after the correct time. • Illustration — Moondial at Queens' College, Cambridge, showing the table of corrections for the phase of the moon More advanced moondials include charts showing the exact calculations to find the correct time, as well as dials designed with latitude and longitude. Moondials are very closely associated with lunar gardening (night-blooming plants), and some comprehensive gardening books mention them.
Timepiece based on the light of the moon
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Moondial, revision 1348468702 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Scientific instruments
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