About the project

Welcome to the page of the first Bohemian Forest (Šumava) mountains Astronomical Clock. It is located in the middle of the recreational area Hojsova Straz, part of the Zelezna Ruda district. The opening took place 17th November 2017.

 

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It all began in May of 2014 by finding a gear from a sewing machine and then by attempting to modifying it into an escape wheel for powering a clock tower. The attempt succeeded. Soon afterwards, followed by the processes of making an anchor escapement, calculation and production of the gear wheels, shafts, turret clock’s frame, shouldering into the ball-bearings, etc. Finally, a fully operational clockwork was created , which shows the time of day on the Astronomical Clock’s face. The idea has been continued, with production of the other clockworks, in order to make the complete Astronomical Clock, which would belong to the one of the most wonderful villages of Sumava (Bohemian Forest). The clockwork was completed, composed of a 24 hour dial, rotating rings and pointers that were able to show (in addition to mean solar time) also sidereal time, date and calendar month, representation of the Sun’s motion along the signs of the zodiac, current phases of the Moon, the days left until the next full moon and, last but not least, mutual aspects of the Sun and the Moon. The next component to be made was the striking mechanism, which chimes the first eight tones of The Czech Republic’s national anthem everyday at noon, and after these tones fade away, a skeleton continues by ringing the bell twelve times. Eventually a driver was made for powering the rotating star map as well as a so-called dragon pointer, which predicts solar and lunar eclipses (not just for a given location, but for any other place worldwide). Using the same driver, there are actuated hands of two smaller dials, which show sunrise and sunset times on any given day.

 

Hereby, I would like to express my thanks to the district of Plzen, citizens of Hojsova Straz, my friends and all the others for help and support during this project.

 

Please feel free to contact me if you need any further information, either via aforementioned email or on my cell phone +420 732 445 700.

 

Zdenek Landa

orloj-sumava-hojsovastraz.cz