Software SONNE.EXE

by Helmut Sonderegger
Current  Version 8.3  Nov. 2024

Software SONNE runs on all Windows systems up to Windows 11   (64-bit-systems too). The program and its help files in chm-format are offered in German and English. The language is selected in the help-menu. Right mouse-click displays popup-menues for many cases. The photo gallery in the start window shows some of the sundial types which are calculated by SONNE. 

The calculations are done for any reference year between 1300 and 2500 and for all latitudes and longitudes. The transition to the Gregorian Calendar in Oct. 1582 is considered.

Output

All constructions are displayed on screen and can be printed on any printer installed in Windows or saved as dxf-file (*.dxf for AutoCad, DeltaCAD,...) or HPGL-file (*.plt).  

The program computes

• the time of sunset and sunrise, moonset and moonrise and twilight (civil, nautical or astronomical)
• with time as input the position of the sun (azimuth and altitude)
• with azimuth as input the time of this sunposition
• the Equation of Time (EoT).
• tables of the declination of the sun or of EoT for any reference year (between 1300 - 2500).
• It is possible to printout all results and to save the tables as text files.

The program constructs for the given geographical position (longitude and latitude)

• horizontal sundials
• vertical, inclining and reclining sundials (for any declination)
• cylinder sundials (shepherd's dials, azimuthal cylinder dials, cylinder dials with polar style )
• quadrant sundials (different types, also Gunter's Quadrant) and 2  altitude sundials by Habermel with a new "Decliner version"-
• azimuthal sundials (azimuthal spider dial, stereographic dial, horizontoscope)
• "umbrella dials" (specific type of bifilar dials)
• horizontal altitude sundials ("Basho Hidokei")
• (simple) ring sundials (farmers rings), now for low latitudes and tropics(!) too
• compressed sundials by F. Sawyer (... more)
  
• "Sawyer Decliner, Type 1 and 2", a new idea for portable vertical sundials indicating local mean time.
  
• mean time sundial by H. Hollander (... more).
• graph of equation of time for years from 1300 to 2500
•  sun path diagrams for years from 1300 to 2500. Display in Caretesian (x/y) coordinates or in polar coordinates.
      Additiionally horizon profiles can be calculated and included. (Time indication with longitude correction debugged.) (... more)
  
• Furtheron time of sunshine is calculated and displaed for any inclining and/or declining plane within the Cartesian sun path diagram.
• overlay of coast lines is calculated for any horizontal, vertical, inclined or compressed sundials (in 'Expert Mode' only)

Type of lines computed:  

• hour lines for local time (mean and apparent)
• time of zone meridian
• temporal hours

In all types the time of start and end and the time interval can be selected.

In horizontal / vertical / inclining sundials, in "umbrella dials"  and some types of cylinder dials it is possible to show additionally

• Babylonian hours
• Italian hours
• Lines for the sun's altitude
• a table with the angles of the hour-lines for true solar time

Also the start time, end time and interval of these lines can be fixed.

Additionally, printout of coordinates for horizontal / vertical / inclining sundials and for umbrella sundials is possible. Instead of printing the coordinates all data can be saved as ASCII-text-file.