Your cart is empty.
Your cart is empty.Product Description
Mr. Sci Kala Pocket Sundial
Made in Austria, Kala sundial display hand crafted beauty.
The three dimensions work together like clock-work, bringing ancient calculations into a modern function.
churro
2025-08-22 18:11:33
Nice piece! I bought 1 for me and 1 for my son, to teach him about the solar system and such. The packaging is a nice combination of minimalism and quality.I’ve been designing and making sundials for many years, so I can verify that the geometry of this one is pretty accurate. This design works as both a sundial and a compass. Because it reads true north, rather than magnetic north, it can be used to calculate local declination.It’s smaller than I expected (guess I didn’t read the. description) but it’s big enough to be useful and small enough to keep handy. I need reading glasses to read it, but then I need those to read a book, too.The instructions are adequate, if sparse. If you are not familiar with how the sun and earth move in relation to each other, you will need to seek supplemental information, but this is an excellent instrument to help convey an understanding of these things.The black paint on the markings started to disappear almost immediately, but the etching is still readable.I like them enough to spend the time making a fine leather case for these.
Karen S D Robinson
2025-08-17 18:43:55
I've been collecting and making portable sundials for 25 years, but in the back of my mind I always wanted one like this. (I have a home-made one that my husband made, and it's actually more accurate and easier to read, but it's not historical. It has a rubber washer for the gnomon and paper scales glue to the brass and I love it. But I've always kind of wanted a replica of a historical one.)This one is a replica of one I saw in a book on the history of sundials all those years ago. I remember reading that George Washington carried one like this, maybe when he was a surveyor. I love how it's about the size and shape of a pocket watch.I have a little trouble getting the two rings to click into place at right angles, but with some pressure I can do it. It's also hard to read, with the spot of light on the inside of the ring and the markings in Roman numerals on the side in fairly small print. But the engraved brass is beautiful. It's also kind of magical seeing that spot of light appear on the ring.My only tiny complaint is about the instruction booklet. I think it needs a little extra information. While it's true that this type of dial also works as a compass, showing you where north is (or south if you're in the southern hemisphere,) that only works if you know whether it's morning or afternoon. If it's 9 AM, the sun is at the same altitude as at 3 PM. You can get the spot of light to shine on the dial at 9 AM and the bar will be pointing north, but you can also orient it differently and get it to shine at the place where it says 3 PM. At that second orientation it will not be pointing north.Also, if you really want to use this to tell time, do some reading about the Equation of Time and how time zones affect local time. Because the earth's orbit is an ellipse, any sundial will disagree with clock time by up to 16 minutes at certain times of the year. And if you don't live near the center of your time zone, you could be off by as much as half an hour or even more and have to adjust for longitude. And then there's Daylight Savings. None of that is a fault of the sundial. You could say that it tells the real time and it's the clocks that are off.
Cindy, ND
2025-05-27 18:05:48
Was an excellent gift. Unique, sturdy and fun.
Daniel P. Smith
2025-05-03 16:23:11
It's works, but it's quite tricky to use. The instructions (and YouTube video) are inadequate. This would not be a good gift for a kid younger than eighteen or so.It helps to get the axis aligned at least approximately north-south before starting. You have to turn around and futz and fiddle to find a vantage point from which you are a) not casting a shadow on it, AND b) you can see the dot of light c) and the scale d) at the time time. That posture will vary with time of day. As you are turning around it you may need to keep adjusting the axis gadget so that it is roughly square with the readout scale. When it all adjusted, you see a dot of light--the shadow of the hole in the axis slider--which is what points out the time. However, but it is on the inside of the ring, while the scale is on the side of the ring. The dot of light is not actually falling on the scale. The dot is not super bright and at first it is easy to confuse it with sunlight glinting brightly off the brass.Another problem is that too often the device it can't be read, because in the correct position, the shadow of one of the outer rings falls on the axis slider and blocks the light. The dot disappears in the shade.A strange omission is the lack of any table or booklet or other materials to calculate or adjust the device for the "equation of time" and the local longitude. Without such adjustments, the time can be as much as 45 minutes off clock time. I am surprised that their website doesn't have a calculator page, on which you could enter your longitude and have it display a printable correction table showing how much to add or subtract to convert sundial time to your local clock time.The construction and appearance are quite satisfying, it has the look of an old-fashioned instrument. It feels well-made. It depends on friction fit to hold several settings. The friction is just right, but we will see if that holds with time.I like the fact that this sundial actually can be used to _find_ true north.
Susan
2025-04-22 14:38:37
Perfect addition to my sunroom! Very intricate writing and very well made. Thanks for the quick delivery and I am very pleased with the purchase.
Ap Woods
2025-03-25 18:45:53
I am a tour guide at Housesteads Fort on Hadrians Wall and wanted something to use, if the opportunity arose, to illustrate the kind of technology the Roman Army on the wall might have had at it's disposal. I could not find anything precisely right, with this device being the nearest I can get to what I was after.I am most impressed with the quality of the device, it is well made, the engraving is (to my old eyes) excellent. It all depends of course on what you want to buy this for (me being an amatuer in the scientific instrument world)#), but for me it is well worth the expense. As a consequence I have also bought one of the "nocturnals" from the same company and will be using it for much the same reason.As a by the by, though it is small, the packaging it comes in (a cork pad providing backing), is also very good in my opinion. Delivery was well executed too. All in all a good purchase for me.And having learned how to use it…. It does work. Neat.
Marlen
2025-01-04 17:11:08
Esta super padre y bonito.
Isaak
2024-12-12 12:21:32
Una pieza de colección!
Saul Martinez
2024-11-30 17:33:27
Excelente construcción, al principio es un poco complicado de leer la hora, pero es óptima para usar en cualquier latitud del mundo. Recomendable.
Recommended Products
$49.99
$ 21 .99 $21.99
$99.99
$ 40 .99 $40.99