Saturday, October 10, 2009

Tower BridgeUnderground station Solar Clock, London

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a sharp, straight edge. As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-edge aligns with different hour-lines. All sundials must be aligned with the axis of the Earth's rotation to tell the correct time. In most designs, the style must point towards true celestial north (not the north magnetic pole or south magnetic pole). That is, the style's horizontal angle must equal the sundial's geographical latitude.
In the horizontal sundial (also called a garden sundial), the plane that receives the shadow is aligned horizontally, rather than being perpendicular to the style as in the equatorial dial. Hence, the line of shadow does not rotate uniformly on the dial face; rather, the hour lines are spaced according to the rule.
\tan \theta = \sin \lambda  \tan(15^{\circ} \times t)
where
λ is the sundial's geographical latitude (and the angle the style makes with horizontal),
θ is the angle between a given hour-line and the noon hour-line (which always points towards true North) on the plane, and
t is the number of hours before or after noon.
For example,
the angle θ of the 3pm hour-line would equal the arctangent of sin(λ), since tan(45°) = 1. When λ equals 90° (at the North Pole), the horizontal sundial becomes an equatorial sundial; the style points straight up (vertically), and the horizontal plane is aligned with the equatorial place; the hour-line formula becomes θ = 15° × t, as for an equatorial dial. However, a horizontal sundial is impractical on the Earth's equator, where λ equals 0°, the style would lie flat in the plane and cast no shadow.
The chief advantages of the horizontal sundial are that it is easy to read, and the sun lights the face throughout the year. All the hour-lines intersect at the point where the gnomon's style crosses the horizontal plane. Since the style is aligned with the Earth's rotational axis, the style points true North and its angle with the horizontal equals the sundial's geographical latitude λ. A sundial designed for one latitude can be used in another latitude, provided that the sundial is tilted upwards or downwards by an angle equal to the difference in latitude. For example, a sundial designed for a latitude of 40° can be used at a latitude of 45°, if the sundial plane is tilted upwards by 5°, thus aligning the style with the Earth's rotational axis.
Tower Hill tube station has a large horizontal sundial in a small courtyard outside the Tube station in London, England. 

Sundial, Tower hill station, London



(Taken from wikipedia and other articles)

Monday, September 14, 2009

Kew Garden

The Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew usually called lies on the South bank of the river Thames between Richmond and Kew in 121 hectares in London, England. It is on the Heathrow Airport flight path, so every few minute noisy planes go overhead.
Kew garden's Victoria entrance
 Kew was created in 1759 and the garden celebrated its 250 years 2009 (I was lucky to visit there at that time)


 
It’s the world’s most important botanical gardens. It has a large collection of about 50,000 different plant species as well as many impressive buildings such as the Palm House and the 10 story Pagoda in the 132 ha (326 acres) of garden area.
In 1759 Princess Augusta, mother of King George III, started developing a 3.6 ha large garden. After it was inherited by King George III and he placed Joseph Banks in charge  of enlarging and planting the combined garden. After returning from a journey around the world with Captain Cook Joseph collected various plants from all over the world. In 1841 the Kew Gardens were donated to the state after which green houses were added which includes the famous Palm house and Temperate house. In 2003 Kew Gardens was put on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
GREEN HOUSES
Palm House (1844-1848)
Back view of Palm house
Spiral Stair Inside the Palm house
Designed by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner is a graceful iron structure with magnificent glass. One can find plants from Tropical Rainforest. Walk up the spiral staircase to the footbridge inside the Palm house where the temperature and humidity is high and the view looks good from the top of the tree.


Waterlilly House (1852)
Water lilly house











 It is situated right side of the Palm house. It contains all types of water lilies from to smaller ones. Though it’s not much visited you can find various kinds of plant inside this house.

Temperate House (1859-1899)


Temperate House from Tree Top walkway

Designed by Richard Burton is the largest greenhouse in Kew Gardens. It took 40 years to complete it and was opened in 1899. At that time it was the world’s largest greenhouse.
Prince of Wales Conservatory (1987)
This building has 10 different climatic zones, ranging from desrt on one end to tropical at the other end.
Way to the top
Treetop Walkway
Apart from the Green houses there are other interesting buildings like Pagoda, Queen Charlotte’s cottage, Treetop walkway. Treetop walkway (Xstrata Treetop Walkway) has a wonderful view of some of the greenhouses at the far end while having a feeling of walking midst of the canopy of world of trees. This is a popular attraction at the Kew Gardens which has a platform 18m (59ft) above the ground having a walkway of about 200m (656 ft). This was designed by Marks Barfield Architects.
There are more places to visit like Museum in front of Palm house etc. Underground the Palm house is a marine display though it not much interesting its good to have a look.   
Plant+People museum and the pond with Hercules fountain
Its better if you spend a whole day at Kew. Pack your lunch and enjoy your visit.
For Price, time in and out and other informations click here

London eye

Originally Ferris wheel was designed by George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr., as a landmark for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The wheel was intended as a rival to the Eiffel tower (Ht 80 mts). The term Ferris wheel came to be used for all such rides.

London eye (The Merline Entertainments London Eye) is the largest ferris wheel (Ht 135 mts) in Europe. It was erected in December 31 1999. Untill a until it was surpassed by the Star of Nanchang (160 m) in May 2006, and then the Singapore Flyer (165 m) on 11 February 2008.

Corpus Clock

The Corpus Clock is a large sculptural clock. Its a £1m clock called as "time eater" which was unveiled by Professor Stephen Hawking at Cambridge University.

As the News has reported, the mechanical clock has been designed and paid for by Dr John Taylor, an honorary fellow at the college, and it has pride of place on the college's new library, which is also funded by him. The timepiece was a tribute to English clockmaker John Harrison who solved the problem of longitude in the 18th century.


The clock is powered by a pendulum, driven by a mechanism in the shape of a giant grasshopper.

The grasshopper or "chronophage", meaning "time eater", advances around the 4ft-wide face, each step marking a second. Its movement triggers blue flashing lights which travel across the face eventually stopping at the correct hour and minute. But the clock is only accurate once every five minutes - the rest of the time the lights are simply for decoration.

Dr Taylor told the News: "It is my way of giving something back to my old college and to Cambridge - and I expect the clock will last for 200 years."


Friday, June 12, 2009

Marine drive, Cochin



Location
Marine Drive, Cochin, extends from the High Court Junction and goes on to the Rajendra Maidan. The beautiful view of the backwaters with the harbor in the backdrop is one of the charm.

Marine Drive in Cochin has a 140 meter Walkway, starts from behind the Children's Park to the end of the Shanmugham Road and is laid down with black - dotted, red carpet ultra tiles. It has weather-proof seating, Cast-ironed and wooden benches in lines facing the calm backwaters. Several boat jetties are present which takes the tourists to have a spectacular view of the harbor, along with two beautiful bridges namely - Rainbow Bridge and the Chinese Fishing Net Bridge. Some of the bigest and tall buildings which represent the modern architecture were seen like Taj Residency, Asoka Apartments etc. The area is surrounded by shopping malls and showrooms. After a long walk along the walkway there are many restaurants, fast food places, coffee bar, Barista etc. to get replnished.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Darmashala

Darmashala (1250 m to 1650 m) is the principal town of Kangra valley. Dharamshala offers the magnificent view of snow covered dhauladhar peaks. This hill station is wooded with oak and conifer trees and snow capped mountains enfold three sides of the town while the valley stretches in front. Since 1960, when it became a temporary headquarter of His Holiness The Dalai Lama, Dharamshala has risen to international fame as "The Little Lhasa in India".
Area : 5739 sq.m
Population : 13.39 lakhs
Temperature : Max 38 C (June)
Min 0 C (Jan)

Dal Lake :- Lying 11 Km from Lower Dharmashala amidst hills and deodar tress. It is a starting point for excursion and trekking and is located next to Tibetan children's village.

St. John's Church :- ( 8 km. from Dharamshala town ) The church lies in the forest between Mcleod Ganj and Forsyth Ganj. It has a monument dedicated to Lord Elgin, one of the viceroys of India, who died at Chauntra ( Mandi district ) and was buried here in 1863 A.D. The Church has lovely spotted glass windows and there is a Christian cemetery around it. It is ideally situated in the majestic 'Deodar' forest.
How to reach
By Air: Gaggal (Kangra) airport (15 Km)
By Rail: Nearest broad gauge is Pathankot (95 Km). Narrow gauge line between Pathankot and Jogindernagar passes through Kangra (17 Km)
By Road: HRTC runs and there are lots of busses from and to Chandigarh (239 km.), Delhi (514 km.), Nangal (145 km.), Jalandhar (166 km.), Hoshiarpur (128 km.), Mandi (147 km.), Jwalamukhi (55 km.), Kullu (214 km.), Manali (252 km.), Chamba (192 km.) and Shimla (322 km.)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Palampur
Palampur (1249 m) is located in and around Kangra valley. Its also known as the tea capital of north west India. It got from "Pulum" which means lots of water. One can enjoy the scenic beauty of the Dhauladhar range and the slopes of the Kangra valley from Palampur.

KVR (Kangra Valley Railway) is built between 1926 - 1929 for transporting raw material to the Shannan power house at Jogindernagar in Mandi district. This runs from Pathankot- Joginder Nagar in Kangra Valley which is a narrow gauge.

KVR is the third railway line in the India after Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway to be accorded the heritage status. KVR has more than 950 bridges and two tunnels.The journey offers a sweeping view of the scenic mountains while stopping at 30 small stations.

Places to visit
Andretta (13 Km) - Famous for pottery
Goplapur (13 Km) - Mini zoo
Sujanpur Tira (42 Km) - famous for fort and temples
Chamundi Temple (10 Km) - Located on Baner river bank
Tashijong (12 Km) - Tibetian monestry

Best time to visit: March - June and September - November