Assuming you have accomplished the tasks to set up the sundial, the sundial should be ready to use. If set up properly, the sundial will not only indicate the true solar time but also mean solar time or watch time and the date.

At first glance the sundial will look like a bunch of curved lines and figure eights placed all over the paper. However, with a simple explanation of what the lines mean, anyone can learn to read the time and date off the sundial. To accomplish this I have included two diagrams. The first diagram, figure 3 is a picture of the entire sundial with labels indicating the major features on the face of the sundial. The second diagram, figure 4 focuses on one of the many figure eights on the sundial.

  
Figure 3: Shows a scaled down version of the sundial template with the important features labeled.

I shall first discuss the lines labeled hour lines in figure 3. Above each hour line, you will notice a label which indicates a time of day like 10 AM. These hour lines represent the set of points that the tip of the gnomon will fall on for a given time for every day of the year. But these hour lines do not account for what we all know as the tilt of the earth's axis. If we neglect the earth's tilt, the hour lines very closely represent mean solar time.

The horizontal lines on figure 3, some of which are labeled, represent the path of the tip of the gnomon for a certain select set of days. More specifically those days are:

The solstices are very special days of the year. On these days, the sun reaches its furthest northern position for the Summer Solstice, and its furthest southern position for the Winter Solstice. We in Bloomington perceive the sun as being high when it is north and low when it is south. Thus, the solstices are the times when the sun is highest in the sky for the Summer Solstice, and lowest for the Winter Solstice. The Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes mark the days that have equal lengths of days and nights. On the equinox the path of the gnomon traces out a straight line. On any other date, the shadow of the gnomon will fall somewhere between the Summer and Winter Solstice lines. But it will change smoothly between the lines. Meaning, if the date lies between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, then the tip of the shadow will lie somewhere between the Vernal Equinox line and the Summer Solstice line.

  
Figure 4: Diagram of Analemma and its major features.

The most difficult lines to understand are the figure eights that appear centered on each of the hour lines. These figure eights, displayed in figure 4 are called analemmas. They come about when one accounts for the tilt of the earth's axis by . By definition the sun should be directly overhead at noon. The tilt of the earth's axis has the net effect of making the sun late or early. In fact, it can be as far off as 20 minutes late, or early. This difference is known as the equation of time. It turns out that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the equation of time, the height of the sun on the sky, and the date. That is what the analemma shows. The analemma marks the difference between your watch time ( mean solar time) and the time told by the sun ( true solar time). Thus to get the time that your watch says from your sundial, you need to use the analemmas for the hour lines.