DaylightClock
A clock gadget with a twist: I've partitioned the face of the clock into day and night, showing at a glance how many hours are remaining in the current period. Along the way, it also shows you sunrise, sunset, twilight, moon phase, and stars – all accurate for today at your location, or anywhere else you choose.
You could think of it as a "daylight map" for a single geographic location, with the time axis plotted as a polar ordinate, rather than the cartesian latitude and longitude of my original DaylightMap.
Want your own DaylightClock?
- New! Get the DaylightClock app for your Android phone.
-
Add it to your
home page
- Or, get the code for including the gadget on any other web page
DaylightClock Usage Tips
The basic DaylightClock is an ordinary analog clock, with the face colored partially black and partially blue. The current day/night state is indicated by which of those two colors the hour hand (the short yellow one) is in. The colors correspond to the sky for the appropriate period: sky blue for day, black (with stars) for night.
By the same token, the blue and black areas show the hours for which day and night are in effect, read from the clock's numbers. Twilight is shown as the gradient between them, and the rising or setting sun (as appropriate) is shown at the correct time on the edge of the face.
Moon and Stars
Halfway between the center and the edge of the clock face is a small icon showing the current moon phase. This icon moves around the clock as the phase changes, indiating generally whether the moon is more likely to be up during the daytime or nighttime.
The stars on the night side of the clock are a miniature snapshot of the heavens for your hemisphere (northern or southern), though admittedly it's too small to show much detail. They are accurately positioned for your longitude and season, however.
Options
The gadget has a number of options (accessed by clicking Edit Settings when it's on your iGoogle page). These include switches for turning the numbers, digital time, and sunrise/set text on and off, as well as a choice of a smaller version of the clock.
In addition, you also have an option for displaying the DaylightClock in 24-hour mode, as shown at right. This shows both sunrise and sunset for the current day, as well as the entire day/night cycle, and (in my opinion) is more pleasing than the conventional 12-hour clock above.
However, it does take a bit of mental adjustment when reading the time; the angle of the hour hand won't generally be what you expect for a given hour. Instead, you need to look at what numbers the hour hand is pointing near, and read the hour from there.
Note: the clock at right is actually what I call hybrid mode, a 24-hour dial labeled with the conventional 12 hours. There is also a pure 24-hour mode available, if you prefer.
* Mac OS X 10.4.3 Tiger (or higher) is required. If you're using Safari, click the download link above. When the widget download is complete, Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it. If you're using a browser other than Safari, click the download link. When the widget download is complete, unarchive it and place it in /Library/Widgets/ in your home folder. Show Dashboard, click the Plus sign to display the Widget Bar and click the widget's icon in the Widget Bar to open it.