Shadows (software)

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.[1] It is used worldwide by thousands of sundial enthusiasts. It is compatible with Windows 10, 8.x and 7. Shadows is available in three levels: Shadows is a freeware; Shadows Expert and Shadows Pro are low cost shareware and provide advanced or professional functions. Since version 3.0, it supports the creation of astrolabes.

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

Description

Shadows calculates various types of sundials:

as well as astrolabes:

Shadows is software restricted to the Windows operating system. It is simple to use but does not aim to be universal. It draws the sundial on screen and prints it to various scales to act as a template during fabrication. The sundials show solar time and can include longitude correction and equation of time. It also can draw ancient or unequal hours such as Italian and Babylonian and even draw azimuth and altitude curves. It has an animation feature so the shadow of the style can be simulated on the screen. The results can be copied as an image or a vector graphics (metafile or DXF) for use in CAD programs or machine tools.

The Astrolabes are interactive and can be manipulated 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. It is now available in French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Hungarian, Slovenian, Greek, Polish and Russian- the translation were provided by the users.

Features of the three levels of Shadows

Shadows is supplied in three versions.

Vertical sundial drawn by Shadows.

Shadows: Freeware version

Shadows Expert: Intermediate version, shareware

Analemmatic sundial drawn by Shadows Expert.

(in addition to standard Shadows features)

Planispheric astrolabe drawn by Shadows Pro.

Shadows Pro: Full version, shareware

(in addition to Shadows Expert features)

History of versions

See also

References

  1. ↑ Handbook of practical astronomy, Günter Dietmar Roth, Springer verlag

See also

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