Project Background:

A Solar System Planet Sculpture Walk along the Blue River Trail was established by The daVinci Pursuit in partnership with the City of Shelbyville in 2018. Each planet sculpture along the trail is proportionally distanced from one another as you would find the planets placed from the sun. The planets were painted by members of the Shelby Art Guild Association. Poems for each planet were written by poets involved with Brick Street Poetry Inc. in Zionsville, Indiana. The walk begins at the Big Blue River Trailhead near the Knauf Greenway and ends at Blue River Memorial Park.

A sculptural element was not initially designed for the sun. The ‘sun’ was a paved circular section of the Blue River Trail near the Big Blue River Trailhead that was often overlooked. To make this area more visible, a design for an oversized sundial in the space was developed. Thermoplastic art was first added to the area in May 2024 to form the foundation for the sundial.

The foundational artwork and gnomon (shadow-casting device) were designed by Laura Land who is part of the Blue River Community Foundation team and a resident of Waldron, Indiana. The gnomon was fabricated by Ignition Arts, LLC in 2025.

Blue River Community Foundation desired this initiative to pay tribute to Roland Hobart, an Austrian artist who lived and worked in Shelbyville from the late 1960s-80s. Here, Hobart produced impressive printmaking, mural, and sculptural pieces. Some of his notable works include the Urban Wall Mural in Indianapolis, screen prints for L.S. Ayres, Sesquicentennial designs for Shelby County and Indianapolis, elaborate prom sculptures for Shelbyville High School, and the bandstand mural that was once a part of Morrison Park in Shelbyville. (learn more about Roland Hobart)

As community members learned about this project, Roland Hobart’s artwork from the Butler Morin Collection was donated to Grover Center: Museum and Historical Society. These pieces are now on display at the museum. This museum is open to the public from Wednesday-Saturday 10am-4pm / Free Admission.

“Hobart was a master with color harmony and design in general,” Land said. “I’m fascinated by the art studio that he once had in Shelbyville and love hearing stories from artists who worked with him over the years. I am excited that some of his work is now featured at Grover Center and hope to see his art continue to be honored.”

Solar Time vs Local Time

Solar time is different than legal clock time. This means that the time on the sundial will rarely be the same as what the time reads on your clock, watch, phone, or other devices.

“Local Time” of a location is influenced by time zone, daylight savings time, and other man-made decisions. Shelbyville, Indiana is in the Eastern Time Zone and observes daylight savings time from Sun., March 9, 2025 – Sun., November 2, 2025. During these months, clocks are moved forward by one hour.

The solar time at the Shelby Sundial may differ from your clock time by as much as 1 hour 45 minutes (plus or minus) at any given time of year.

According to the sun or solar time, “solar noon” occurs at the instant that the sun is at its highest point in the sky at a specific geographic location. This means that “solar noon” occurs at an infinite number of different times around the globe.  

The shadow-casting piece of a sundial is called a gnomon. For a sundial to be functional, it is important for the gnomon to point True North, that the angle of the gnomon matches the latitude of the location, and that the angles of the hour lines are computed. The latitude of Shelbyville, IN is 39.52°; therefore, this is the angle of the sculpture. (*Fun Fact! The gnomon points to the North Star).

To find the local to solar time relationship, you can use the following tools to help you:

• Search “Solar Noon in Shelbyville, Indiana” online (or use a website like timeanddate.com)

  o   Once you determine the time of Solar Noon in Shelbyville, Indiana, you can learn the time conversion.

  o   Example: If Solar Noon is listed at 1:43pm for a particular day, this means that the sundial’s shadow will be at the 12pm marker at 1:43pm (clock time).

  o   Now that you know that there is a 1 hr and 43 min. time difference, you can figure out what time the sundial should be reading. (Example: At 11am – clock time, the solar time would be 9:16am / At 1pm – clock time, the solar time would be 11:16am / etc.)
  

• An online calculator between local and solar time can also be found here: https://www.susdesign.com/sunangle/
  

• AI Assistance is also helpful in determining the time conversions.