A Percussionist's Notebook

The Zenith Sun  A common characteristic in Mesoamerica is the observance of the sun's zenith passage. This happens when the sun passes directly overhead at noon. It appears twice a year around late April and mid-August. Many ancient sites from Mexico east to the Yucatan seem to have systems built into their architecture to show this phenomenon. In the Mayan city of Kabah there is a cylindrical stone marker placed vertically in a plaza that seems to act as a gnomon that will produce a shadow every day except during the time of the sun's zenith position when the shadow disappears. In Monte Alban, Oaxaca and Xochicalco, Mexico the devices are more sophisticated. These have Zenith tubes in buildings that direct the rays of the sun down their passages to produce a circle of light onto the floor of a darkened chamber.  Looking up through the zenith tube Sun light on the floor of Xochicalco zenith tube. The Mixtec A-O glyph The Mixtec A-O glyph was their symbol for 'year'. The...

 One of our very special places is Bandelier National Monument. We backpacked here for the first time in 1974 and returned nearly every year into the late 80's. As I mentioned before, we celebrated our 50th anniversary with a trip to the area in 2019. We also celebrated our 24th one there during one of our backpacking trips. We were joined by another couple during this 7 day trip. I had packed a small bottle of champagne, a checkered table cloth, and a candle (which was not lit because of fire danger).  The guest list included our friends and one passerby. One of the places we visited in the back country was called 'Shrine of the Stone Lions'. Two large boulders in the shape of mountain lions lying together front paws outstretched. A 20 foot circle of upright boulders surrounding them. We had visited this shrine many times on our trips and each time there were always many religious offerings: antlers, feathers, personal items. After so many hundreds of years it was nice to ...

I've been waiting for 2 months to see if my armillary will register the Spring Equinox. March 21, 2020 It worked! Considering the lack of precision on my assembly it worked quite well. The inner 'globe' aligned vertically to the gnomon. Someday I'll try to construct another to get more accuracy, but now I'm happy with the result. I took this at 12:15PM

Two interests dating back to my elementary school days are Astronomy and Archaeology. Combining these two had me build an Armillary. It's easier to show a picture rather than describe it. This ancient astronomical device was developed in ancient Greece and China. This one I made from embroidery hoops and when oriented properly tells the time of day. The smaller hoop is designed to track the sun on it's journey from the Tropic of Cancer to the Tropic of Capricorn. It was only after I had glued everything together that I realized that I put the 'ecliptic' at 23 ° from the North/South Poles rather than from the Equator. I have an idea how to build another one (correctly this time) that should be a little more user friendly. After making this, I realized that these hoops could be used for some of my 'percussion repair'. If it works,I'll post it in the future. In the meantime, I have some private students who would probably like to make their own armillary...