Trip to the Astro Park

I've heard about the existence of the Astro Park for quite a while but I've never been there. So I took advantage of the departure of Doksuri go there this morning.

This is what is called a gnomon (biao) (表), the simplest and oldest form of sundial used in China. There is a pinhole atop the leaf on the biao through which the sunlight can pass to cast a shadow on the horizontal ruler at right angles to it, called the gui (圭) aligned in a north-south direction. From the length of the shadow cast by the sun on the gui, the time and date of the year can be calculated. This is a replica of a sundial used in Ming Dynasty.

This is another sundial 日晷, the equatorial sundial, a replica of the one
placed outside of the Hall of Supreme Harmony (太和殿) in Beijing. It has
time markings for reading the time of the day, read from the shadow
cast by the sun from the tip of stylus perpendicular to a template
built parallel to the equator and inclined at 90 degrees less the
latitude.

This is the Armillary Sphere (渾儀) for observing the position of various stars in the sky through the 6 cardinal points. It consists of three spheres. The outermost ring is the Ring of the 6 cardinal points (六合儀) consisting of the Meridian Circle (天元子午圈), Horizon Circle (地平圈) and The Fixed Equatorial Circle (天常赤道圈),  The middle Ring is the Sphere of 3 stellar objects (三辰儀) with 4 components namely Solstiiciial Colure, (二至圈) , Equinocial Colure (二分圈), Mobile Equatorial Colure( 旋遊赤道圈) and Ecliptic Circle (黃道圈).  There is an observation tube in the innermost sphere for observing various stars in relation to the various cardinal points etc. . This one is built in the Ming Dynastic as an imitation of the one built in the Yuan Dynasty. The original is placed at the Purple Gold Observatory (紫金山天文台) in Nanjing.

The time can be read by the observing the shadow of the sun on the inclined plane at the centre of this sundial. 

This is the Direction Determining Table (正方案). This plate should be placed horizontally. When the sun rises, the shadow of the sun from the pole in the middle should form a shadow which cuts the 19 concentric circle on and the same is done in the evening and by joining the points of intersection on the various concentric circles, the longitutde and latitudes can be determined.

This is a bowl-shaped sundial. At the centre, is a small rotatable plate with a small hole to correspond to the centre of the sundial. Around the rim at the top are marked the 24 cardinal points and inside the lower half of the bowl are marked the equatorial co-ordinates. To use it, the bowl must be moved so that the sunlight will be perpendicular to hole on the plate. When the sunlight passes the hole in the middle,it will land on the bottom of the bowl and then the time of the day can be read directly.

This is a replica of the moon dial (月晷) placed outside of the Palace of Benevolent Peace (慈寧宮) of Imperial Palace (故宮). There are two concentric circles: the outer one corresponds to the time of day and the inner one to the phases of the moon. The top of the metal rod should be aligned to the moon in accordance with its phases and then the time can be read directly on the outer dial marked with 12 double hours.(時辰). 

Although the park is formally called "Astro Park",  thus giving one the impression that it is a huge park, to me, it is "astronomically small".  However, what is huge is the knowledge that went into the construction of these ingenious sundials and moon dials for telling the time of the day or night as the case may be dating from the Yuan and Ming dynasties i.e. from 13th to 14th centuries..



As the park was so small, I took the opportunity to look around. This is a boat I found on the lawn at the Chong Hing Water Activities Centre adjacent to the park.

a net across two benches at the Centre

Some tiny flowers battered by the tropical cyclone.

Some of them now look like a floor mop.




The fruit of some unknown plants on the ground.

Some lantana camara I found by the road side

A view of the Chong Hing Water Activities Centre.

Storm clouds gathering over the dam at Plover Cove.

A panorama of Saikung taken on the dam over Plover Cove. In the foreground is the Chong Hing Water Activities Centre.

Another view of the water sports Centre.

The dam after the rain

Water drops under the branches.

Rainwater rushing by the side of the road.

Some fresh leaves taking advantage of the rain to develop

Some tendrils from the same tree.



More leaves.