Cranmer Park is a Denver city park located in the Hilltop

Hilltop, Denver

Hilltop is a neighborhood of Denver, Colorado. According to the Piton Foundation, in 2007, the population of the neighborhood was 8,623; in 2000, the average household income was $117,835, and there were 3,724 housing units.-Boundaries:...

 neighborhood off of Colorado Boulevard between East 1st and East 3rd Avenue. It is most famous for a large astronomical sculpture called a sundial

Sundial

A sundial is a device that measures time by the position of the Sun. In common designs such as the horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from its style onto a surface marked with lines indicating the hours of the day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, often a thin rod or a...

, which does double duty as a climbing appliance for children.

An inscription at the base describes the axis of the gnomon

Gnomon

The gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts the shadow. Gnomon is an ancient Greek word meaning "indicator", "one who discerns," or "that which reveals."It has come to be used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields....

 as elevated 39°43' in the direction of polar north

True north

True north is the direction along the earth's surface towards the geographic North Pole.True geodetic north usually differs from magnetic north , and from grid north...

. The stone is perpendicular

Perpendicular

In geometry, two lines or planes are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruent adjacent angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective...

 to the gnomon at 50°17', which makes it parallel to the equator

Equator

An equator is the intersection of a sphere's surface with the plane perpendicular to the sphere's axis of rotation and containing the sphere's center of mass....

. The south side of the stone is similarly marked for wintertime observation.

A polar chart at the base of the sundial describes the zodiac

Zodiac

In astronomy, the zodiac is a circle of twelve 30° divisions of celestial longitude which are centred upon the ecliptic: the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year...

 and degrees of the sun's position, and how to set a clock based on the gnomon's shadow. For winter viewing, the chart continues on the south side of the stone.

History of the Sundial

The current sundial is the second one to exist at this location in the park. The first was donated in 1941 by long time Manager of Denver Parks George E. Cranmer, for whom the park is named. It was destroyed by vandals who exploded dynamite under it in September 1965. The replacement sundial was installed in March, 1966 after a successful city-wide fundraising effort led by the Denver Junior Chamber of Commerce.