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Shadows (software)

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Shadows is a software package for the calculation and drawing of sundials and astrolabes, available as a freeware in its base level.

It has been developed by François Blateyron, software developer and amateur astronomer, who made it available on Internet since 1997 and continues to improve it. It is used world wide by thousands of sundial enthousiasts.[1][2][3][4]

Shadows is compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP and older platforms. Since version 2.0, Shadows is available in three levels: Shadows is a freeware; Shadows Expert and Shadows Pro are sharewares and provide advanced or professional functions. Since version 3.0, it allows the creation of astrolabes.

In 2005, the French astronomical society, Société Astronomique de France (SAF) awarded Shadows author with the Julien Saget prize for the Shadows software.

Presentation

Shadows calculates various types of sundials:

as well as astrolabes:

Shadows does not aim at providing all types of sundials but it is made easy to use for a wide public from amateurs to specialists.

Shadows draws the sundial on screen and prints it to scale 1 for its fabrication. Sundials drawn with Shadows give solar time and can include longitude correction and equation of time. Besides solar hour, it can draw ancient hours such as Italian and Babylonian or unequal hours, or even draw azimuth and altitude curves. The shadow of the style can be drawn and animated during the day. Drawings can be copied as an image or a vector graphics (metafile or DXF) for use in CAD programs or machine tools.

Astrolabes are interactive and can be used on screen by rotating the Rete and the Alidade using the mouse.

Several curves and graphs are available: equation of time, solar graph with horizon mask, duration of the day, direction rose.

Shadows was translated by users; it is now available in French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Hungarian, Slovenian, Greek, Polish and Russian.

History of versions

  • version 4.0 (June 2014)
  • version 3.5 (August 2012)
  • version 3.4 (November 2011)
  • version 3.3 (December 2010)
  • version 3.2 (January 2010)
  • version 3.1 (July 2009)
  • version 3.0 (May 2008)
  • version 2.2 (January 2006)
  • version 2.1 (January 2005)
  • version 2.0 (March 2004)
  • version 1.6 (January 2001)
  • version 1.5 (February 1999)
  • version 1.0 (September 1997)

Features of the three levels of Shadows

Vertical sundial drawn by Shadows.

Shadows: Freeware version

  • Plane sundials with polar style (horizontal, vertical declining, equatorial, polar, meridian dial)
  • Drawing of the sundial to scale 1; Any dimension, orientation or reclination
  • Suitable for any location on Earth, on northern or southern hemisphere (2800 locations pre-installed)
  • Drawing of the style to scale 1, ready to be cut out
  • Tables of coordinates of hour lines and declination lines
  • Drawing of declination arcs and hour lines (solar or mean time), with or without longitude correction
  • Moveable, resizeable text frames, with list of pre-installed mottoes
  • Drawing of the curve of equation of time, in various shapes
  • Drawing of compass and azimuth circle
  • Full on-line help, user interface translated into 13 languages.

Shadows Expert: Intermediate version, shareware

Analemmatic sundial drawn by Shadows Expert.

(in addition to standard Shadows features)

  • declining-reclining plane sundials
  • Analemmatic sundials
  • Cylindrical sundials (shepherd's dial, armillary sphere, ...)
  • Tables of solar and astronomical ephemeris
  • Drawing of Italian and Babylonian hours
  • Insertion of images for decoration
  • Export of data and images
  • Drawing of the construction layout (epure)
  • Simulation of the shadow cast by a roof
  • Animation in orientation and reclination of the sundial
  • Tool for the calculation of the wall orientation
  • Direction rose
Planispheric astrolabe drawn by Shadows Pro.

Shadows Pro: Full version, shareware

(in addition to Shadows Expert features)

  • planispheric and universal astrolabes
  • vertical declining analemmatic sundial
  • Bifilar sundials
  • Drawings in azimuth and altitude
  • Sidereal hours, unequal hours
  • Solar graph with horizon mask
  • Export of drawings in WMF and DXF (AutoCAD)
  • Export of animations in AVI
  • Tool for the calculation of sundial parameters from a photograph
  • Efficiency graph of a solar panel

Footnotes

  1. ^ North American Sundial Society, software page
  2. ^ Sky & Telescope, Astro software page
  3. ^ British Sundial Society, software links
  4. ^ Handbook of practical astronomy, Günter Dietmar Roth, Springer verlag

See also

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