RETIRED teacher and researcher Greg Cook invented a device that shows the movement of the sun on the earth and why in some states in Australia day light savings might be of an advantage.
Greg said his idea to develop the instrument started after he decided to take his interest about the movement of the sun around the earth further than just information on paper.
He began work on the instrument a decade ago.
“I first started with a diagram on paper, purchased a globe and then I built the materials around it,” he said.
“Once it was complete, I shared it with numerous teachers and also some astronomers at the Brisbane Planetarium who showed much interest in it and shared their knowledge of the world around us with me.”
The device demonstrates the sunrise and the sunset as it travels across the earth. It shows the position of Civil, Nautical, and Astronomical twilight zones before sunrise and after sunset.
“After the sun sets, the earth goes into Civil Twilight, followed by Nautical Twilight and then Astronomical Twilight,” Greg said.
“Then the stars start to appear brighter and brighter, before the earth is at its darkest and the stars appear to shine at their brightest.”
The invention also demonstrates the impact of daylight savings and the reason why in some areas it may be an advantage to prolong the hours of business and to hold certain events at later times.
“This does not prove that daylight savings is a good or bad thing rather it is an educational tool to demonstrate the sunrise and sunset and to show what shadow lines actually do around the globe,” he said.
“The sunrise line only travels parallel with the lines of longitude in March and September which is the Autumn and Spring Equinox; at all other times the shadow line of sunrise travels across the globe at an angle.”
