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Some useful references:
1. Stars Over Hawaii by E. H. Bryan, Jr., was first
published in 1955 by a company called BOOKS ABOUT HAWAII, but is
long since out of print. A somewhat revised version was reprinted
by The Petroglyph Press of Hilo, Hawaii, in 1977.
Recently (September 2002) The Petroglyph Press (160 Kamehameha
Avenue, Hilo, Hawaii 96720) has published a new version of Stars
Over Hawaii, updated by Dr. Richard Crowe, Professor of Astronomy
at UH-Hilo. This article, Night and Day, appears as an appendix
in this new book.
Mr. Bryan, as a Curator of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in
Honolulu was a fount of knowledge on many subjects related to
Hawaii and the Pacific area. Although not a professional
astronomer, he was one of the early active amateur astronomers in
Hawaii and a frequent observer (back in the 1920's) of variable
stars at the University of Hawaii's observatory in Kaimuki. In
1955 there was no source of basic information about the sky as
seen from Hawaii and so Mr. Bryan filled a much felt need by
writing this 48-page booklet about the Sun, stars, and planets as
seen from Hawaii. Two sections of this booklet relate to the
topics discussed in this paper. One has to do with how the Sun
appears to move. Here he makes use of the polar plot to show the
apparent path of the Sun in altitude and azimuth. In our Figures
7a to 10a we have borrowed this idea from him. In another section
he discusses the situation when the Sun casts no shadow. Here is
an interesting diagram showing the daily northward progression of the Sun
over the islands during May and June. Anyone interested in
Hawaiian astronomy will find this a useful addition to one's
library.
2. Astronomical Phenomena for the Year 2002, or for succeeding years, is prepared
annually by the Nautical Almanac Office, United States Naval Observatory, and jointly by
Her Majesty's Nautical Almanac Office, Royal Greenwich Observatory. It is available
from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Washington,
D.C. 20402-9329. This approximately 80-page booklet contains much useful information
for observational astronomy, including tables of sunrise, sunset, twilight, and day-by-day
tabulations of the equation of time and the declination of the Sun. For exact work, the
graph of the equation of time (Fig.6) in this paper is not sufficiently accurate and the
tabulation in this booklet will be useful. This booklet is abstracted from a much more
comprehensive compendium of astronomical data called The Astronomical Almanac,
published annually by the Superintendent of Documents.
3. Time in Astronomy, Edmund Scientific Company, Barrington, N.J. 08007. Popular
Optics Library No. 9054. Published in 1966 and reprinted in 1980; now possibly out of
print. Written for the amateur astronomer, this booklet describes the various kinds of
solar time and sidereal time, how to make time conversions, and how to locate
astronomical objects in the sky. Many useful diagrams.
4. The Exploratorium web site
http://www.exo.net/~pauld/activities/astronomy/stonehenge.htm
has an excellent discussion of the rising and setting points of the Sun and Moon as a function of the
season and latitude of the observer.
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