Kala Universal Pocket Nocturnal

Last updated: 28 October 2026

What a nocturnal actually does

A sundial needs the sun. A nocturnal does the same job after dark, using the stars that circle the pole. The pole star sits almost still while the two stars of the Plough swing round it once a day. Their angle is a clock face, if you know how to read it.

You hold the instrument up by its handle, sight the pole star through the hole in the middle, then swing the long arm until it lies along the pointer stars. The hour is where the arm crosses the scale. Before that you set the outer ring to the date, because the whole sky shifts by about four minutes a night through the year.

Sailors used these for centuries. Royal Museums Greenwich holds a room of them. One in the collection is a combined nocturnal and horary quadrant by Eufrosino della Volpaia. It is the earliest known work by that maker, and one of the earliest scientific instruments anywhere that its maker signed and dated. So this is not a novelty shape borrowed from an old engraving. It is a working instrument that has been made, in one form or another, for five hundred years.

The part that is genuinely new

Every historic nocturnal is a northern instrument. It reads Polaris, and Polaris is not visible south of the equator. Take one to Sydney and it does nothing at all.

Kala's answer was to put a second system on the same disc. The southern side works from Alpha and Beta Centauri together with the Southern Cross, which is the nearest the southern sky offers to a fixed marker. Kala say on their own page that this is the first nocturnal to do both. They also say it was produced with the designer Tony Sprent in Tasmania, which is roughly where you would want a southern-sky instrument tested.

They also make a point about how long it stays right. The stars' right ascension drifts so slowly that the readings hold for many years, which is a different proposition from a watch that needs a battery every two.

Size, material and what arrives

It is 60mm across, which is 2.36 inches. Kala chose that because it is the international sizing standard for a pocket watch, so it sits in a waistcoat pocket or a coat pocket the way a pocket watch does. The body is solid brass. Kala hand-check each one before it ships.

Two things follow from solid brass. It has real weight for its size, more than the photographs suggest. And it will tarnish, unevenly, wherever your fingers go most. Brass owners either like that or they polish it, and there is no third option.

Buying it at £90, or from Kala at €75.90

Royal Museums Greenwich list it at £90 in the Royal Observatory shop. Kala's own shop prices it at €75.90 and bills in euros, so the comparison moves with the exchange rate and adds shipping from Spain. A UK buyer may also meet an import charge on the way in.

So the €75.90 is not a straightforward saving, and it is not presented here as one. It is the maker's price, useful for knowing what the object costs at source. The Greenwich route is the simple one: a UK price, UK delivery, UK returns.

There is a second reason to buy it there. The shop sits at the Royal Observatory, on the prime meridian, in the building the whole business of navigation by the stars ran out of. Buying a star clock from Greenwich is a better story than buying one from a warehouse, and the money goes to the museum.

Buy the pocket nocturnal at Royal Museums Greenwich, £90

Living with it, honestly

It needs a clear sky and it needs you to find the pole star. In central London, on most nights, you will get neither. This is an instrument for a garden away from streetlights, a hill, a boat or a holiday. The rest of the time it sits in a drawer or on a shelf, looking like the thing it is.

It is also not accurate to the minute. A nocturnal read by eye, by hand, in the dark, gets you to within about a quarter of an hour on a good night. Anyone buying it to check the time has misunderstood the purchase. Everyone else is buying a five-hundred-year-old method, rendered in brass, that happens to work in Australia too.

The gift version of that is easy to place. It suits somebody who already looks up: an amateur astronomer, a sailor, a person who knows what a horary quadrant is. It suits a Greenwich visit as a souvenir with substance. It does not suit somebody who wants a gadget, because it is the opposite of one.

Kala pocket nocturnal FAQs

How does a nocturnal tell the time?

You set the outer ring to the date, sight the pole star through the central hole, then rotate the long arm until it lines up with the pointer stars. The hour is read where the arm crosses the scale. The stars turn round the pole once a day, so their angle acts as the hand of a clock.

Does the Kala nocturnal work in the southern hemisphere?

Yes, and that is the point of it. Polaris cannot be seen from the southern hemisphere, so historic nocturnals stop working there. This one carries a second system reading Alpha and Beta Centauri with the Southern Cross. Kala say it is the first nocturnal to cover both.

How big is it?

60mm across, which is 2.36 inches. That is the international sizing standard for pocket watches, so it fits a pocket-watch pocket.

What is it made of and where?

Solid brass, made in a small family workshop outside Madrid to Kala's designs, and hand-checked before shipping.

How accurate is it?

Close enough to be useful, not close enough to set a watch by. Reading it depends on your eye, your grip and the clarity of the sky, so a careful reading on a clear night lands within about a quarter of an hour.

How much does the Kala pocket nocturnal cost in the UK?

£90 from Royal Museums Greenwich, in stock on 6 September 2026. Kala sell it directly for €75.90 from Spain, before shipping and any import charge.

Do you need a clear sky to use it?

Yes. It reads specific stars, so cloud stops it, and heavy street lighting makes finding the pole star hard. It is an instrument for dark skies.

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Prices, stock and terms change. Everything here was checked on 6 September 2026, from the Royal Museums Greenwich shop listing and Kala's own product page. The historic instrument mentioned is in the Royal Museums Greenwich collection, and the museum's wider holding of nocturnals can be searched online.

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