Saturday, January 24, 2015

Janusz Korczaks Różyczka - * An asterisk story about the Shadows at the Little Rose




Asterisk (a little star) is a small starlike symbol *, used in writing and printing as a reference mark.


Here I tried to use * as a marker of possible places where the pictures from Korczaks Rózyczka were possibly were taken. On the areal photographs that are from August 1944 it is most likely that many trees and wooden objects like climbing ladder were been taken for the household purposes, a.o warming the houses.


The shadows and the sun can help one to determine the time picture was taken. Here at the late afternoon as shadows are almost parallel to main building.


The shadows and the sun can help one to determine the direction on earth and the time picture was taken. The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. In the northern hemisphere, the sun will be due south when at its highest point in the sky, or when an object casts no appreciable shadow. Shadows move clockwise. With some practice, one can use shadows to determine both direction and time of day. I was using the shadow method to find the time pictures were taken in the Warszawa Ghetto.





The shadows and the sun can help one to determine the direction on earth and the time picture was taken. The sun always rises in the east and sets in the west. On this particular picture (above) the four cardinal directions of north, east, south, and west, denoted by their initials: N, E, S, W were taken from the Polish map. From the cockpit clock we know that the time was 05.20 PM and that it was taken on 16th of August 1944. Comparison of the shadows on this picture with other "Rózyczka pictures" is rather helpful to determine the time and also the place. The sunset was at 07.55 PM. The shadow of the church tower is almost parallel to the north-west (N-W) cardinal direction.


Most people know that the Sun "rises in the east and sets in the west". However, most people don't realize that is a generalization. Actually, the Sun only rises due east and sets due west on 2 days of the year -- the spring and fall equinoxes! On other days, the Sun rises either north or south of "due east" and sets north or south of "due west."

Each day the rising and setting points change slightly. At the summer solstice, the Sun rises as far to the northeast as it ever does, and sets as far to the northwest. Every day after that, the Sun rises a tiny bit further south.