☂️ The Invercargill Umbrella ☂
OUR PEOPLE - TIME AND PLACE
BY
Russell | Beck
Funded by Invercargill City Council and Fulton Hogan Ltd as part of the Inner City Upgrade
UNVEILED BY
His Worship The Mayor Tim Shadbolt
SUMMER SOLSTICE • DECEMBER 2000
Contractors - Crown Sheet Metal Ltd, Montgomery Watson N Z Ltd, Southtile,
Argus Foundry Ltd, Fulton Hogan Ltd, Southland Monumental Masons
Assistance from Southland Astronomical Society and IC Roading Department Staff
Project Management - McCulloch and McDowell Architects
Position of Site - Longitude | 68° 20' 57" E - Latitude 46° 24' 45'
I
The artwork by local sculptor and former Southland Museum Director Russell Beck was installed on the summer solstice in 2000. The bricks feature the surnames of all those living in the city at the time. The umbrella itself is a sundial, while its canopy features the stars which are visible in our night sky.
The umbrella was in part a tribute to James Stewart, a Southlander who built over 200 sundials throughout New Zealand and was dubbed the 'sundial king'.
INVERCARGILL TIME
This Sundial shows Invercargill Apparent Time which is the time as
measured by the Sun's apparent motion. The centre of the shadow cast
by the shaft is behind clock time because of the following factors. The
Earth's elliptical orbit around the Sun plus its tilted spin axis causes the
length of the apparent solar day to fluctuate. Additionally, Invercargill is
the western most city in NZ being 895 km west of the 180° (12 hir)
meridian from which NZ Standard Time is taken. Therefore,
considerable time correction is necessary for Invercargill. The difference
to be added to equate with NZST can be calculated from the Equation of
Time graph. Invercargill is also NZ's southern most city so it experiences the longest summer day and the shortest winter day.
CONCEPT
This sculpture was designed to embrace the people of Invercargill with their time and
place in the Universe for the year 2000. The umbrella is one of the oldest inventions and,
in this case, symbolises the protector from rain and Sun for the 5103 Invercargill family
names below. The spiral handle with its shadow represents the Tangata Whenua and also
reminds us that our Solar System is positioned on one of the spiral arms of our galaxy.
Invercargill's time and westerly position is demonstrated by the Sundial. Its alignment also
recognises | T Thomson who, in 1856, surveyed Invercargill with the main streets due
north-south and east-west. Our position on Earth, journey around the Sun, and place in our
galaxy is defined by the circumpolar stars shown in the umbrella canopy. This sculpture
illustrates the movement of our planet which is spinning at about I 150 km/h (Invercargill)
and speeding around the Sun at some 107 000 km/h carrying a unique cargo of life.
INVERCARGILL CIRCUMPOLAR STARS
Over 800 years ago, Murihiku Maori studied and named the southern stars for
navigation and a calendar. The umbrella shaft is angled to Invercargill's latitude,
so is pointing to the South Celestial Pole and thus parallel to Earth's spin axis.
to slowly rotate in the same direction taking a year to complete the circle.
Unique features of the southern sky are the Southern Cross constellation, the
two Magellanic Clouds (SMC and IMC) which are companion galaxies to our
own and Alpha Centauri, a double star which is 4.3 light years distant and is the
Therefore the stars shown in the canopy are the main ones visible all year from
Invercargill. No other city in New Zealand sees as many circumpolar stars. The
star positions shown are fixed forthe winter solstice at 6.00 pm NZST. However,
closest star to our Solar System.
To visualise where the actual stars are during the year, night or day, face south
in reality the night sky is not stationary and the stars appear to move towards the
and imagine that each umbrella segment represents both three hours daily
movement and one and a half months of annual movement (clockwise)
west (opposite to Earth's spin) taking almost a full day to do one revolution.
Similarly because of Earth's journey around the Sun, the night sky also appears
beginning at June 22, 6.00 pm NZST.
Originally the Umbrella was located in Don st, near the court house but was moved to the town belt park when upgrades to the city centre began.
^ Umbrella in its original location
🤩LOGGING REQUIREMENTS🤩
1) Take a photo of either yourself or your group or your GPS or some form of identifying object (ie paper with your caching name) with the umbrella in the background and add it to your "found it" log
2) When standing under the umbrella facing north there are six grey circles on the ground each with a number on them from left to right you need to send all 6 numbers via the send answers option (you don't have to wait for my reply to log the find)
Virtual Rewards 3.0 - 2022-2023
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between March 1, 2022 and March 1, 2023. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 3.0 on the Geocaching Blog.