Gordon’s Sun Clock – Development and Appreciation

Introduction

The Sun does not change its clock.

Gordon’s Sun Clock is not an ordinary clock app that merely places a different dial over the same digital time. The project attempts something more fundamental: it brings legal time, the actual path of the Sun, and the visible sky back into a single image.

The clock still shows the official time of the selected time zone. It therefore does not run “differently” from a phone, computer, or conventional wall clock. What is different is the geometry of the dial. It is recalculated for every day and every location. The hour marks are placed where the Sun is actually located at the corresponding legal times. Sunrise, sunset, solar altitude, direction, season, and location therefore have a direct effect on the display.

This reveals a contradiction that ordinary clocks conceal: twelve o’clock may legally be twelve o’clock, but it is only rarely the actual solar culmination at one’s own location. Time zones, geographical position, and daylight saving time shift the official clock away from local solar time. Gordon’s Sun Clock does not remove this discrepancy; it makes it readable. The clock connects both systems instead of setting one against the other.

The core of the project can therefore indeed be summed up very briefly:

When clocks make sense again.

Put more fully: time should not appear merely as a continuously advancing number, but should once again be experienced as a relationship between place, light, sky, and the course of the day.

1. The starting point: dissatisfaction with the conventional clock

The development did not begin with a technical platform, but with an observation: ordinary clock time is a socially necessary coordinate system, yet it has become far removed from the directly experienced course of the day.

A fixed twelve at the top of a dial suggests that twelve o’clock is everywhere and on every day the centre of the day. In reality, solar culmination depends on longitude, time zone, season, and the legal time currently in force. The yearly clock change shifts the hour marks by an entire hour, even though nothing in the movement of the Sun changes abruptly.

Gordon’s Sun Clock begins with the question of what a clock would have to look like if it did not conceal this reality. The answer is a movable dial that is recalculated every day. The Sun is not forced into a rigid clock scheme; instead, the hours are placed along the actual solar path.

This creates two simultaneously readable layers:

1. Legal time: The numerals on the dial and the optional digital display correspond to official time.
2. Natural geometry: The position of the numerals, the path of the Sun, and its relation to the horizon show how this time falls within the actual daily cycle at the specific location.

This connection is the decisive conceptual difference from a conventional sundial. A classical sundial shows local solar time by means of a shadow. Gordon’s Sun Clock shows legal time, but arranges it within real solar geometry. In the same way, it is more than an astronomical sky chart, because the display also serves as a clock.

2. Mechanical prehistory: 2011 to 2019

The documented development line reaches back at least to 2011. The first predecessors were purely mechanical 24-hour clocks with a single hand. They therefore existed before any software version.

These mechanical models already contained the essential motif of the later project: the day was to be shown as one complete revolution, rather than as two repetitions of a twelve-hour circle. A single hand was sufficient because the focus was not on second-by-second timing, but on one’s position within the day.

A month-dependent dial was also added, on which sunrise and sunset could be read approximately. The mechanical clock could only represent seasonal change to a limited extent, however. It worked with prepared scales and had to rely on general approximations. Location-specific calculations, actual solar altitude, the Moon, and the stars could not be integrated in a meaningful way in this form.

Nevertheless, this phase was more than a preliminary stage. It established the visual grammar:

• a complete 24-hour day,
• a single hand,
• the Sun as the point of reference,
• a seasonally changing dial,
• the clock as a calm wall object rather than a hectic measuring instrument.

The later software did not replace this basic idea. It made it more precise and freed it from mechanical limitations.

3. The e-paper clocks: 2019 to 2025

From 2019 onwards, the concept was implemented digitally for the first time. The first digital version ran on a Raspberry Pi Zero W with a small e-paper display. It was followed later by a larger wall clock using a Raspberry Pi 3A+ and a ten-inch e-paper display with sixteen shades of grey, mounted in a picture frame.

The move to e-paper was a natural choice for the project. Such a display resembles printed paper more than a glowing computer screen. It remains visually calm, requires very little energy while the image is unchanged, and is well suited to a wall clock that hangs permanently in a room.

Digital calculation now made possible what could hardly be achieved mechanically:

• Sunrise and sunset could be calculated for specific coordinates.
• Solar culmination could be shown for a particular location and date.
• The daily path of the Sun could serve directly as the dial.
• The Moon, planets, and stars could be included in the same projection.
• The image could be rebuilt completely each day or whenever required.

This phase was the real feasibility study for the present system. It was here that the connection between astronomical calculation and a calm, pictorial wall clock took shape. The original greyscale design of the later Android application also derives from this e-paper origin.

The clock thereby became an instrument between several categories. It was neither mere decoration nor conventional astronomy software. It showed real celestial conditions while remaining readable as an everyday clock.

4. The move to Android

4.1 Building the mobile version

Implementation as an Android application began in May 2025. Within a short time, the application framework, the dial page, the settings pages, a digital display, and the first astronomical objects were created.

The closed test version of 1 June 2025 already contained the essential elements:

• the Sun and Moon,
• several planets,
• bright stars,
• solar and lunar paths,
• horizon and altitude lines,
• hour marks,
• the original greyscale design.

The first public Android version appeared on 24 June 2025. A private wall clock had thus become a generally usable programme. The first release supported German, English, and Spanish. It was still considerably simpler than the present application, but the fundamental model was already fully recognisable.

4.2 Telescope design, languages, and the visible sky

Only a few days later, the Telescope design was added. Whereas the greyscale design preserved the origin of the e-paper clock, the Telescope design presented the Sun, Moon, and planets using pictorial, coloured representations.

French and Chinese followed, and Russian was added later. Multilingual support was not merely an additional interface layer. The project had to account for date formats, abbreviations, line breaks, special characters, differing text widths, and language-dependent explanations. The language files developed into a separately versioned component of the system.

At the same time, the astronomical display was expanded. Mercury was added, planet sizes and brightnesses were adjusted, the Moon received more realistic shading, and the viewing direction could be selected automatically or manually.

4.3 Location, time zone, and atmospheric refraction

A location-based clock depends fundamentally on correct coordinates. Location handling was therefore expanded step by step:

• automatic location detection,
• one-off location capture,
• manual coordinate entry,
• place-name search,
• manual time-zone selection,
• consideration of altitude above sea level,
• temperature input for atmospheric refraction.

Atmospheric refraction was activated in July 2025. Close to the horizon, the Sun appears higher than its geometric position because of the Earth’s atmosphere. This effect changes the visible times of sunrise and sunset. The clock now took account not only of ideal celestial mechanics, but also of the optical effect of the atmosphere.

Later, the temperature used was estimated from location, altitude, and time of year, and eventually, when the weather feature was active, derived from the forecast temperature around sunrise. A previously fixed approximation was thus turned into a location- and day-dependent model.

4.4 Agnihotra, zoom, and local data

Also in July 2025, the display of Agnihotra times was integrated. The application could now show the exact zero crossings of the Sun at the horizon, place markers on the dial, and display a countdown.

At the same time, the dial became zoomable. The application could therefore serve both as a complete overview and for closer inspection of individual regions of the sky. An additional data page summarised local solar, lunar, and planetary information.

This development reflects a recurring principle of the project: new functions are integrated into the same visual and astronomical system wherever possible. Agnihotra is not merely a text value in a list, but appears at the corresponding point in the solar path. The data view complements the dial rather than replacing it.

5. Consolidation and expansion in the second half of 2025

5.1 Stability across different Android devices

Between August and October 2025, a large part of the work concerned device compatibility and bug fixes. These included problems involving:

• different Android versions,
• system bars under Android 15,
• GrapheneOS,
• alternative app stores,
• screen edges and display cut-outs,
• font sizes and line spacing,
• full-screen mode and automatic centring,
• location services on individual devices,
• time and time-zone changes.

This work is less visible than a new astronomical feature, but it is essential for a permanently running wall clock. A programme hanging on the wall as a living clock must remain stable over weeks and months, continue correctly after waking, and respond properly to changes in time zone or display geometry.

During this period, an update notification was also introduced for devices running continuously. The clock was increasingly treated as a long-term operating system rather than merely as an app opened occasionally.

5.2 Temporal hours and night watches

Unequal, or temporal, hours were added in autumn 2025. In this system, day and night are not divided into equal units. The daylight period is divided into twelve day hours, and the length of each hour changes with the season. Night hours or night watches can be shown accordingly.

This function adds a historical time system to the project. It does not replace legal time, but appears as an additional interpretation. The user can recognise at the same time:

• the official clock time,
• the position of the Sun in the sky,
• the current temporal hour of day or night.

The counting method was revised once more after historical review. This shows that the project takes account not only of technical accuracy, but also of conceptual and historical consistency.

5.3 Light seasons and the lunar-night calendar

In December 2025, the clock received eight light seasons. They divide the year into four principal and four intermediate phases according to the increase and decrease of daylight. Solstices, equinoxes, and a separate lunar-night calendar were added as well.

The lunar-night calendar treats the night in a way comparable to a date. It orders the nights within lunar months and within the light year. The Moon is therefore not shown merely as an illuminated disc, but placed within a continuous calendar context.

These functions extended the clock from a representation of the day into an instrument for the year. The user can see not only where they are within the present day, but also within the light year and the lunar cycle.

In February 2026, the calculation of the light seasons was refined further. Instead of simple temporal midpoints between astronomical fixed points, the apparent ecliptic longitude of the Sun was used. This made the progression of the phases physically more even and more closely tied to the actual movement of the Sun.

6. Technical maturation in 2026

6.1 Moving to JPL DE440s

In January 2026, the Android application moved from the older DE421 ephemeris to DE440s. The newer data basis contains more recent observations, improved mass models, and refined calculations of Solar System dynamics.

This was not merely a version update. The ephemerides form the astronomical foundation of the application. The positions of the Sun, Moon, and planets are not generated from simple tables or rough approximation formulae, but calculated from high-quality celestial mechanics data.

This clearly distinguishes the Android version from many decorative solar or astronomical displays. Its precision is at the level of astronomical almanacs and, depending on time source and location data, can reach well below one second.

6.2 Weather as calm supplementary information

An optional weather overview was introduced in February 2026. It consists of several layers:

• a compact display on the dial,
• a detailed timeline in three-hour blocks,
• a three-day forecast,
• an accessible rain radar,
• automatic selection of suitable weather models.

The weather display was deliberately designed to remain restrained. It is not intended to dramatise every small probability, but to summarise the character of the day: sunny, rainy, dry, windy, stormy, or unremarkable.

At the same time, the weather data are used functionally. The temperature around sunrise feeds into the calculation of atmospheric refraction. The weather is therefore not entirely separate from the astronomical core, but slightly improves its representation.

The technical implementation required extensive work on background retrieval, data buffers, error handling, offline behaviour, different weather providers, and the temporal allocation of hourly values. Several subsequent versions were devoted mainly to integrating the weather feature without slowing down the creation of the dial.

6.3 Vectorisation and performance improvements

Version 2.69.1 introduced a major internal optimisation. Solar and lunar positions were no longer calculated through many separate Skyfield calls, but in grouped, vectorised batches. This accelerated the calculation of the dial by a factor of three to five in important areas.

Further measures included:

• image caching,
• compression of weather and time data,
• later execution of non-urgent calculations,
• separation of the visible initial build from background work,
• keeping the already rendered background in memory,
• avoiding unnecessary recalculation after small location changes,
• selective use of a simplified draft mode on slower devices.

This work marks a transition from a feature-rich programme to a maintainable, layered computing system. The application has to display numerous astronomical curves and objects, yet should also start smoothly on older wall-mounted tablets.

7. Time control and meteor showers

Version 2.70 of March 2026 introduced time control. The user can move the dial into the past or future. Step sizes range from minutes to years. Tapping the side of the screen moves the clock by one hour, while swiping covers longer periods.

The running clock thereby also became an instrument for exploring the sky. One can, for example:

• view the solar path on another day,
• call up the sky at one’s birth,
• compare seasonal differences,
• follow lunar and planetary positions,
• examine historical or future configurations.

Additional data can be downloaded for periods outside the ephemeris supplied by default.

The major meteor showers were added at the same time. The dial shows their radiants and approximate search areas during their yearly periods of activity. The number was later expanded to eight important showers:

• Lyrids,
• Eta Aquariids,
• Southern Delta Aquariids,
• Perseids,
• Orionids,
• Leonids,
• Geminids,
• Quadrantids.

The search areas take account of visibility, position relative to the horizon, viewing direction, and darkness. An abstract meteor-shower date is therefore translated into a concrete observing aid for the user’s own location.

With version 2.70, all the core functions of the original Raspberry Pi clock were, according to the project’s own definition, present in the Android version for the first time.

8. The division into main and legacy lines

In spring 2026, Play Store requirements made it necessary to move to a technical basis supporting 16 kB memory pages. The new main line therefore required Android 7 or later and, initially, ARM64.

Instead of abandoning older devices completely, a separate legacy line was created for Android 5 and 6, as well as for devices using armeabi-v7a. This edition uses the same code base and versioning, but is released less frequently and distributed through a separate GitHub repository.

Shortly afterwards, armeabi-v7a support was restored in the main line as well. The separate legacy line nevertheless remained necessary for older Android versions.

This decision is particularly relevant to the project because older tablets remain useful as permanently running wall clocks. A device too old for current everyday applications can still serve meaningfully as an astronomical clock for many years.

The split was therefore not merely a technical workaround. It corresponded to the actual use case and extended the life of existing hardware.

9. Sun-based alarms

Version 3.1 introduced alarms for astronomical events:

• sunrise,
• sunset,
• beginning of night,
• end of night,
• morning Agnihotra,
• evening Agnihotra.

The alarms are not programmed for a fixed clock time, but for a solar event with a selectable offset. Because the event times change each day, the alarms are deliberately treated as one-off alarms and must be set again for another day.

Here too, the function follows the basic concept of the clock. The alarm is based not merely on an abstract number, but on a real transition in the sky.

10. Graphical rise and set

Version 3.2 fundamentally improved the depiction of sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset.

The Sun and Moon are drawn much larger on the screen than they would be in proportion to the full sky projection. Without correction, their centre would cross the horizon at the astronomically correct moment, but the visible image would rise or set too early or too late.

The new function compensates for this enlarged depiction. The Sun and Moon now touch and cross the horizon according to their displayed size. The pointer, path, and calculated centre remain unchanged. The correction therefore affects the graphical appearance, not the underlying astronomical data.

This is particularly demanding for the Moon because its apparent size varies. Subsequent versions increased the update rate near the horizon and adjusted different Sun images in size and vertical position.

The function is a good example of the care taken over representation. Physical calculation and visual perception are not confused, but deliberately aligned.

11. More realistic stars

In July 2026, the stellar display was rebuilt. Earlier versions showed ten bright stars in a more symbolic manner. Version 3.3 increased the number to 22: the 21 brightest stars in the night sky, plus Polaris.

In the Telescope design, the stars are now coloured according to their B–V colour index. This astronomical colour index describes the colour difference of a star and is related to its surface temperature. Hot stars appear more bluish, while cooler stars appear more yellowish to reddish.

The bright core is additionally scaled according to apparent magnitude. Differences between day and night designs prevent the same representation from being treated identically against every background.

The stars are therefore no longer merely position markers. Colour and brightness carry astronomical information. At the same time, the letter labels and relative altitude indicators are retained, so the display remains readable and useful for observation.

The expansion to 22 stars also changes the character of the dial. It no longer shows only a handful of orientation points, but conveys a denser image of the bright stellar sky without becoming an overloaded full star chart.

The number is deliberately limited. Gordon’s Sun Clock is also a learning instrument: the stars shown should not appear as an anonymous collection of points, but should gradually become recognisable and associated with their names, abbreviations, colours, brightnesses, and paths. A substantially larger selection would be more complete cartographically, but would weaken this educational purpose. More than a few dozen stars can hardly remain individually familiar in everyday use. The selection of the 21 brightest stars together with Polaris therefore forms a deliberate balance between astronomical orientation, recognisability, and visual calm.

12. The web and PWA version

Alongside the Android development, a browser version was created in June 2026 at AstronomicalClock.eu.

The first functioning dial appeared on 24 June. Within a few days, the layout, pages, and design were brought closer to the Android application. The first published release appeared on 30 June with time control and information pages.

The following were added over the next few weeks:

• weather display,
• automatic translations,
• stronger file compression,
• performance improvements,
• the original greyscale design,
• the more realistic stellar display,
• additional stars,
• numerous corrections resulting from the translation from Python to JavaScript.

The web version is not simply the Android application running in a browser, however. It follows a different technical emphasis. Instead of Skyfield and JPL DE440, it uses a lighter JavaScript astronomy library. It therefore achieves minute-level rather than sub-second precision, but loads faster and requires less memory.

The source size was reduced from roughly 480 kB to 220 kB. The image files were reduced from around one megabyte to approximately 130 kB. Unnecessary global geometry state and position caches were removed again to simplify the structure.

The web version therefore fulfils several purposes:

• access on iPhone and iPad,
• use on desktop computers,
• simple installation as a PWA,
• lower resource consumption,
• immediate availability without an app store,
• an addition to, rather than a replacement for, the more precise Android version.

The two lines follow the same idea but are deliberately weighted differently: maximum astronomical precision and deeper device integration on Android; lightweight, cross-platform availability in the browser.

13. The dial as information architecture

The project’s particular achievement lies not only in the number of calculations it performs. What matters is that this information is brought together in one shared spatial representation.

13.1 Horizon and viewing direction

The horizontal line across the centre of the screen is the horizon. The user is conceptually looking straight ahead, not down onto a map. Left and right correspond to east and west, depending on hemisphere and selected viewing direction.

The area above the horizon shows the visible sky. The area below contains celestial objects that are astronomically located in the corresponding direction, but lie below the Earth’s surface and are therefore not visible.

Twilight zones divide the transition between day and night. This shows not only whether the Sun has set, but also how far darkness has progressed.

13.2 The solar path as a dial

The solar path is at once an astronomical curve and a clock scale. The hour marks lie at the positions occupied by the Sun at the corresponding legal times.

When daylight saving time begins or ends, the numerals therefore move rather than the solar path. This is precisely what makes the artificial time shift visible: the sky remains the same, while the social labelling moves by one hour.

The single hand ends at the Sun. It does not merely point to a time mark, but connects the centre of the clock with the actual position of the Sun.

13.3 Moon, planets, and stars

The Moon has its own path. Its phase, size, proximity to new or full Moon, and position relative to the Sun become visible.

The five planets visible to the naked eye appear, depending on the design, as images or astronomical symbols. Their brightness is also given on the data page.

The brightest stars provide orientation in the sky. Small indicators show whether a star is rising or falling along its daily altitude path, and whether it lies in front of or behind the selected viewing direction.

The dial thereby becomes a simplified but dynamic view of the sky. It shows a deliberately limited selection of objects and therefore remains readable as a clock.

14. More than a sundial

The term “sun clock” is understandable, but technically only part of the truth.

Gordon’s Sun Clock is at the same time:

• a single-hand clock,
• an astronomical clock,
• a location-based display of the solar path,
• a sky chart in horizon projection,
• a calendar for light phases and lunar nights,
• a display of temporal hours,
• an observing aid for stars and meteor showers,
• a means of travelling through past and future skies,
• a digital wall clock.

The application avoids a common misunderstanding: it does not claim to replace official time with “true solar time”. Legal time remains fully present. What is new is the ability to read its position within natural geometry.

It is precisely this double structure that makes the system practical for everyday use. A pure local-solar-time clock would be inconvenient for appointments and social coordination. A conventional clock, on the other hand, conceals the relationship to the actual course of the day. Gordon’s Sun Clock shows both at once.

15. Technical appreciation

From a technical perspective, the development is notable because several difficult requirements have to be solved at the same time.

15.1 Astronomical precision

The Android application uses Skyfield and JPL ephemerides. It calculates not only individual rise and set times, but complete paths and numerous objects for a graphical model.

It also takes into account:

• location and time zone,
• daylight saving time,
• altitude above sea level,
• atmospheric refraction,
• temperature,
• apparent size of the Sun and Moon,
• lunar rotation and terminator,
• viewing direction and hemisphere,
• twilight limits,
• time-dependent ephemeris ranges.

15.2 Runtime and device diversity

These calculations must work across very different devices, from older Android wall tablets to current phones. Draft and final rendering were therefore separated, calculation paths vectorised, images cached, and background work delayed.

The project also contains a substantial amount of device-specific stability work. System bars, display edges, full-screen behaviour, font sizes, location services, app directories, and Android versions differ more than the finished dial suggests.

15.3 Maintainability rather than mere feature accumulation

The changelog repeatedly shows internal simplification: modules are separated, state is removed, caches are reduced, file structures are reorganised, and unnecessary processes are eliminated.

The web version in particular was not only expanded after its rapid creation, but deliberately simplified again. Unnecessary position caches and global geometry state were removed. This indicates that long-term controllability of the system is considered alongside visible functionality.

16. Visual appreciation

The clock combines a high density of information with a comparatively calm basic form. This succeeds mainly because of the consistent spatial order.

The Sun is not one symbol among many, but the centre of the time display. The horizon is both a geographical dividing line and a visual axis. Paths, hours, altitude lines, and celestial objects do not sit in separate windows, but relate directly to one another.

The Telescope design makes the celestial bodies vivid, while the greyscale design preserves the more abstract and restrained origin in the e-paper clock. Both designs interpret the same astronomical model in different ways.

The clock is therefore suitable both as an information instrument and as a permanently visible wall object. Its display changes slowly over the course of the day and significantly over the year. It does not constantly demand attention, but rewards extended observation.

For children in particular, this form can be more intelligible than a series of isolated teaching diagrams. One sees not only that the Sun “rises in the east”, but how its path, altitude, day length, and rising point change over weeks and months. Likewise, it becomes visible how the Moon moves relative to the Sun and why full Moon and new Moon occur at particular positions along their paths.

17. Conceptual appreciation

The project touches on a fundamental question of modern time perception. Our clocks are extremely accurate, but their display is largely detached from place and nature. Every day looks the same on the dial, even though light, solar altitude, and day length are continually changing.

Gordon’s Sun Clock restores these differences. It does not make time less precise, but richer. The official minute remains the same, yet gains a visible context:

• Is it already light or still dark?
• Is the Sun rising or falling?
• How far has the day progressed?
• Does legal noon fall before or after solar culmination?
• How long is today’s daylight period?
• Which light season are we in?
• Where are the Moon, planets, and bright stars?
• Which parts of the sky are actually visible at this moment?

This creates a form of time display that is both practical and contemplative. It can be read for an appointment, but also invites attention to the relationship between clock time and sky.

The clock is therefore not opposed to technical timekeeping. On the contrary, it uses highly precise technology to reveal something that the conventional technical interface leaves out.

18. Appreciation of the development path

The development from a mechanical clock through two e-paper systems to the Android application and finally the web version shows an unusually clear continuity.

The technical form changed completely several times:

1. mechanical clockwork,
2. small Raspberry Pi with e-paper,
3. large digital e-paper wall clock,
4. mobile Android application,
5. cross-platform browser and PWA version.

Yet the central idea remained intact: the clock should not press the daily cycle into a rigid scheme, but derive the scheme from the daily cycle.

The speed of public development since June 2025 is equally notable. Within roughly thirteen months, the following were added, among other things:

• ten fully supported languages,
• atmospheric refraction,
• Agnihotra,
• temporal hours and night watches,
• light seasons and lunar-night calendar,
• GPS time synchronisation,
• weather overview and rain radar,
• substantial performance improvements,
• time control,
• meteor showers,
• sun-based alarms,
• graphical rise and set,
• realistic stars,
• an independent web version.

The scope should not be judged by this list alone, however. Behind almost every visible extension are several follow-up versions that organise display, performance, and edge cases. The detailed changelog documents not a smooth success story, but real system development: new functions create new edge cases; operating systems change their requirements; older devices behave differently; translations have to be maintained; computing time and memory use must repeatedly be reassessed.

It is precisely this visible development history that makes the maturity of the present system understandable.

19. Overall appreciation

Gordon’s Sun Clock is a distinctive form of time visualisation.

Its value does not lie in decorating a conventional clock with astronomical imagery. Its value lies in structurally connecting clock time and sky. The hour marks form part of the solar path. The solar hand is at once a clock hand and an astronomical direction indicator. The horizon does not merely divide areas, but separates visibility from invisibility. The Moon, planets, and stars do not sit decoratively in the background, but follow the same spatial logic.

The application therefore makes visible something that conventional clocks systematically conceal: legal time is a social grid laid over local solar time. This grid is necessary, but it is not natural. Daylight saving time demonstrates this particularly clearly, because the entire labelling of the day shifts while the solar path remains unchanged.

Gordon’s Sun Clock does not resolve this contradiction by rejecting legal time. It makes the contradiction intelligible. That is its strength.

The project is also an example of how a very personal starting point can develop into a generally accessible tool. The application is free, contains no advertising, and can be used largely offline. It can run on an old tablet as a wall clock, serve as an astronomical instrument on a modern phone, or be opened in a browser on almost any device.

In its present form, the project is therefore simultaneously:

• a practical clock,
• a long-term astronomical observation,
• a historical time instrument,
• a learning tool,
• a designed wall object,
• and a critique of the idea that time is merely a number on an unchanging dial.

The development is not complete, even though the original functionality of the hardware clock has now been reached and exceeded. The most recent changes to the stars, display, web version, and internal structure show that the project is increasingly moving from pure feature completion towards refinement.

Its most important achievement remains the same as at the beginning: a clock once again shows what time actually means at one’s own location.