Cranmer Park is a city park in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, United States located in the Hilltop neighborhood off Colorado Boulevard between East 1st and East 3rd Avenue. It is notable for its large

sundial A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...

. An inscription at the base describes the

axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

of the

gnomon A gnomon (; ) is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields. History A painted stick dating from 2300 BC that was excavated at the astronomical site of Taosi is the ol ...

as elevated 39°43' in the direction of polar north. The stone is

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It can ...

to the gnomon at 50°17', which makes it parallel to the

equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

. The south side of the stone is similarly marked for wintertime observation. A polar chart at the base of the sundial describes the

zodiac The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north or south (as measured in celestial latitude) of the ecliptic, the Sun path, apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. ...

and degrees of the sun's position, and how to set a clock based on the gnomon's shadow. For winter viewing, the chart continues on the south side of the stone.

History of the sundial

The current sundial is the second one to exist at this location in the park. The first was donated in 1941 by longtime Manager of Denver Parks George E. Cranmer, for whom the park is named. It was destroyed by vandals who exploded dynamite under it in September 1965. The replacement sundial was installed in March, 1966 after a successful citywide fundraising effort led by the Denver Junior Chamber of Commerce. It was restored again in 2018 to repair cracking stones. The park is on the National Register of Historic Places.

References

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External links

Save Our Sundial
Sundials Astronomical instruments Parks in Denver National Register of Historic Places in Denver Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado