About Aviator
Aviator is an engraver's almanac for the oldest instrument there is: the
sundial. It is not a clock widget and not a photo 📸 filter 🎚️. It is a working
gnomonics bench where you set a dial up properly, read the shadow, and find out
by how many seconds you were wrong ❌.
THE SHADOW DESK
The heart of the app Aviator📱. Every reading is a full instrument setup:
• Tilt the gnomon's style until its angle matches the latitude — the plate
creaks toward the mark and seats with a detent.
• Spin the rim until the verditer notch sits on true north. An unoriented dial
lies, and the app 📱 will let it lie.
• Scrub the sun along its arc and watch 👀 the sanguine shadow cross the hour
lines.
• Call the apparent hour, then fold in the equation-of-time ⏱️ offset to reconcile
apparent solar time ⏱️ with clock time.
Get the style angle wrong ❌ and your reading drifts by whole hours, exactly as it
would on a real dial. Call the hour to within a minute and the reading is filed
as a mastery ⭐ cast. The solar mathematics 🧮 — declination, equation of time ⏱️, hour
angle, per-dial-type ⌨️ shadow bearing — are computed properly, not faked.
THE DIAL REGISTER
Fifty catalogued dials: horizontal, vertical, equatorial, analemmatic and more.
Twenty-five carry a full record — history ⏳, geometry, reading method and cross
references to related dials. Mark the ones you want to come back to.
THE DIALLING SCHOOL
Fifteen lessons that take you from "what is a gnomon" to reconciling apparent
and mean time ⏱️, with multi-page explanations and knowledge checks. Lessons
unlock 🔓 as you finish the one before it AND put a real reading through the
Shadow Desk — reading about dialling is not the same as dialling.
THE CAST DRAWER
Every reading you file becomes a dated cast: dial type ⌨️, latitude, the hour you
called and your error ❌ in seconds. Attach a reference photo 📸 of a real dial you
found in the world, add a note 📝, or replay the cast to see 👀 the shadow fall
again. Export 📤 a cast as an engraved card to your photo 📸 library 📚.
THE ALMANAC SHEET
The reference bench: an analemma plate, a computed equation-of-time ⏱️ table 📋 you
can tap 👆 to copy, an hour-line fan you can filter 🎚️ by latitude, and a dial-type ⌨️
comparison at a glance.
FOUR ENGRAVED THEMES
Rag Almanac, Nocturnal Plate, Sanguine Folio and Verditer Survey. Every dial
illustration is drawn live and re-inked when you change plate, so the
instrument always matches the paper.
BUILT TO STAY OUT OF YOUR WAY
• No account, no sign-up, no email required.
• No ads, no subscriptions, no in-app 📱 purchases.
• Works fully offline 📴 — the sun does not need a network connection.
• Everything you save 💾 stays on your device 📱.
Set the style. Seat the north. Read the shadow in Aviator app
