Questions tagged [time]
Questions on time, the indefinite progress of events in the Universe.
198
questions
2
votes
0
answers
116
views
Understanding the Julian Date equation in detail
I am trying to figure out the Julian date equation by myself. Unfortunately, there are not many resources I could find which explains in depth. Moreover, there are several variations of the same ...
- 173
1
vote
0
answers
46
views
How to find the constellation in which the sun is located using the night sky map?
The following sky map was given as part of practice problems in my Astronomy course
The moon is in its first quarter phase. I am supposed to find the approximate date and time of the year in which ...
- 111
2
votes
2
answers
126
views
Asteroid in Deep Space 🌌
Suppose a asteroid in deep space and there is nothing around it to compare it with.
My question is how would you known that the asteroid is moving if there is nothing to compare it with
- 21
0
votes
0
answers
94
views
How to even approach this type of question
Can someone tell me how one would approach this type of question. is there an equation we would use or something of the sort.
Ths solution to this question is given below but I just want to understand ...
- 125
2
votes
0
answers
109
views
Is it possible (and if so where can I find one) to buy a sidereal wall clock or kitchen clock?
I've done some research and can't find one of these anywhere but would be dumbfounded if they didn't exist, surely sidereal wall clocks are sold somewhere (preferably online)?
- 21
5
votes
0
answers
170
views
Why does the tropical year have a ~161 years cycle?
Using PyEphem, I calculated the time difference between consecutive summer solstices in the south hemisphere for the last 4000 years, and plotted them in a graph. It seems like random noise around the ...
- 173
0
votes
1
answer
130
views
Following Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms for the Calculation of JD
For the Calculation of Julian Day (JD), I followed Chapter 7 of Meeus's Astronomical Algorithms. I could get the numbers mentioned in Example 7.a and 7.b.
On the basis of these methodology, proceeded ...
- 61
3
votes
2
answers
261
views
Converting UTC (10 digit) to LST (Local Sidereal Time)
I am an astro-particle physicist looking for some simulation based on the experiment observation.
The simulation dataset contains 10 digit Epoch dataset for UTC time, however, I need to convert this ...
- 127
16
votes
12
answers
6k
views
Why are there not a whole number of solar days in a solar year?
I've been trying to find an answer to this question for some time now, and I seem to be missing something. I understand that the rotation and revolution of the Earth are not synchronized. I understand ...
- 169
4
votes
3
answers
714
views
Earth's Rotation & Longitude
I live in Townsville Australia which has a
longitude of 146 degrees East. I'm trying to get my head around how long the Sun takes to move from Greenwich to my latitude. I have a world globe in front ...
- 41
1
vote
2
answers
168
views
How do I find out when sidereal time was 13:30 on a certain date and location?
I live in Lehi, Utah, USA and I want to know what time of day it was on sidereal time on February 25th, 2023. Someone said it was 3:32 AM and I wanted to check and see if that was true.
- 21
4
votes
2
answers
351
views
How is Earth's Rotation Angle (ERA) defined and measured
UTC typically ticks with TAI. But to keep UTC from drifting far from the rotation angle of the Earth we occasionally add leap seconds to ensure that UTC does not drift too far from the UT1 timescale. ...
- 210
7
votes
0
answers
118
views
What are the twinkling stars in the New Horizons Arrokoth approach?
I've circled them in this edit:
Source: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_Horizons_Approach_to_Arrokoth.ogv
Note, this has generated frames, see the source....
- 748
6
votes
1
answer
238
views
How exactly is UT1 measured/calculated?
Background: I am an atomic physicist so I understand atomic time pretty well. But I'm not an astrophysicist or astronomer and I know very little about astronomical measurements.
I am interested in ...
- 210
1
vote
1
answer
69
views
Moonrise and Moonset time in Sydney vs Perth
I'm very confused with multiple moonrise and moonset times across Australia.
For Example (According to https://timeanddate.com)
Moonrise in Sydney on 22 Mar 2023 is at AEST 7:09AM which is going to ...
- 31
2
votes
2
answers
118
views
Modified Julian Date (MJD)'s epoch is 0:00 on November 17, 1858 (JD − 2400000.5) has fewer digits than JD. But what's so special about November 1858?
A week ago in the Observatory chat room @HDE226868 wrote:
Happy MJD 60000, everyone!
Thank you!
According to Wikipedia's Julian day; variants the epoch for Reduced JD is 12:00, November 16, 1858 (...
- 31.3k
4
votes
2
answers
495
views
What was the GPS time at J2000 epoch?
The simple version of the question is: what was the GPS time expressed in week number (pure number) and time of week (SI seconds) at the J2000 epoch? I am asking because my hand calculations differ ...
- 43
2
votes
1
answer
80
views
How to calculate Local Sidereal Time from RA of a star and Longitude of Observer
I have been banging my head against a wall trying to understand these time conversions and the relation between all of these astronomical measurements.
This is the question I am currently working on, ...
- 21
2
votes
3
answers
7k
views
How were sundials and moondials possible 800 years ago?
In India, there is a temple named Konark Sun Temple which is around 750 years old and made up of 100% stones and rocks, and has a chariot which is headed by 7 horses and includes the Hindu god Surya(...
- 139
6
votes
1
answer
520
views
J2000 and J2000.0 difference?
I've seen the standard epoch described as both J2000 and J2000.0. Is there any difference between the two designations?
- 1,023
5
votes
1
answer
195
views
Is the speed of time much slower on sun surface?
The gravity forces on Earth and Sun is different and in Interstellar, they said something like high gravity slows time. So if we say Sun is N billion years old, that must be earth time but on Sun's ...
- 161
2
votes
1
answer
201
views
Why is time not a spatial dimension? [closed]
I am a little confused about dimensions.
People say we have three spatial dimensions and one temporal dimension but I don't know how this is possible. How can there be different "types" of ...
6
votes
2
answers
276
views
Light or neutrinos graze or pass through the Sun and arrive at Earth - need an expression for Sun's gravitational effect on observation direction/time
Skyfield's Github has discussion Jupiter hiccup #815 which then links back to to Non-physical gravitational deflection corrections for Solar System bodies #734.
The script and plot from #815 are shown ...
- 31.3k
3
votes
3
answers
173
views
What kind of beast is Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time?
I understand that UTC, for example, is a "time system" and that there are regions of the globe that are divided into "time zones" (offsets from UTC); but what class of thing is, ...
- 341
3
votes
1
answer
125
views
How to show that a complete revolution of Earth around the sun takes 365 1/4 days?
Seasons change regularly and day and nights also.
The fact that Earth takes 365 1/4 days to complete one complete revolution was found a long way back in history, but so far I can't find any current ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
252
views
(Fiction) How would a time traveler locate himself with 1962 technology?
I'm a writer doing research for a time travel story; my character's origin is in 1962 and his contraption has been built into a DC-3 No fancy mechanical clock dials or precision digital readouts; when ...
- 153
5
votes
2
answers
228
views
What programs do astronomers use to ensure their observatory control computer has accurate time?
Somewhere I've seen that especially those observing asteroids, in order to provide accurate observations, use timing servers that sync to atomic clocks. What software can be used to do that?
- 1,648
5
votes
1
answer
439
views
Sidereal times occuring twice a day question
I'm reading Practical Astronomy With Your Calculator Or Spreadsheet by Duffett-Smith and Zwart. Discussing the conversion of GST to UT, the authors mention that because the sidereal day is slightly ...
- 1,023
4
votes
1
answer
234
views
Maximum mass of the observable universe
As I understand it, the maximum radius of the observable universe will be about 62.9 billion ly (at t = ∞). Does it mean that the observable universe will reach a maximum mass (baryonic + dark matter)?...
- 155
5
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Is time finite or infinite? [closed]
I am not a scientist nor do I have a degree in Astrophysics, but I do like to learn new things by asking questions. With that being said, I have read that time is relative to space which began after ...
- 317
22
votes
2
answers
7k
views
How many light seconds away is the JWST?
The processing for JWST's alignment is done on Earth. How long does it take for a signal from Earth to reach the JWST?
- 995
2
votes
0
answers
640
views
Calculating local solar time with python ephem library
I was learning to calculate local solar time with ephem. I must admit, unit conversion between radians, hours and days, which are all represented by a float in the ...
- 121
2
votes
2
answers
477
views
How can we see black holes collapse if time inside the event horizon is infinite?
My understanding is that if you fell into a black hole, i.e. crossing the event horizon time would be speed up infinitely fast. This means I could see my whole galaxy die, new blackholes develop and ...
- 123
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Depth of gravitational well within our local Virgo supercluster?
For simplicity we could imagine standing at the north pole so we do not have to care about how fast we are moving in relation to the gravitational field of the earth.
Now calculating how much faster ...
- 457
2
votes
2
answers
203
views
Earth’s rotation speed vs rate of lunar cycle
Hypothetical Question
If the earth’s rotation slowed down to align to the lunar cycle so that the orbital period began and ended at the same lunar phase, what other things would result?
For example, ...
3
votes
2
answers
481
views
Calculation of Terrestrial and Universal time scale difference, ΔT
$\Delta$T is defined as the 'measure of the cumulative effect of the departure of the Earth's rotation period from the fixed-length day of atomic time'.
I tried to calculate $\Delta$T corresponding to ...
- 61
5
votes
1
answer
195
views
Discrepancy in Horizons planet ephemerides for equivalent times in TT and UTC in dates during 1969
I have recently been experimenting with JPL Horizons planet ephemerides web App, and found a puzzling discrepancy.
Horizons allows to specify the time at which the planet ephemerides should be ...
- 351
5
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Time in 0 gravity points
If being close to a supermassive body like a black hole makes time pass more slowly for us than for an observer from a point of view with a weaker gravitational field, if we get to be at a point in ...
user45319
2
votes
1
answer
261
views
How to determine sidereal time just looking at the picture?
I have this picture:
I need to determine what sidereal time it is (in hours), or how long has it been since the upper culmination of the point of the vernal equinox. How can I do that?
- 1,027
2
votes
0
answers
74
views
Daytime length and sunrise / set cardinal directions
Let me illustrate the question with an example. On Feb 2nd 2022, the sun rises in Los Angeles at cardinal direction 110 and sets in direction 250 (according to timedate website). This means that the ...
- 21
2
votes
0
answers
57
views
How long is the sunrise (or sunset) on North (or South) Pole? [duplicate]
I wonder how to calculate the duration of the Sun crossing the line of the horizon on equinox on Pole. For equator I used this formula:
$t = \frac{2 \times p}{\cos(\phi) \times u}$, where $u$ - is ...
- 1,027
1
vote
2
answers
181
views
How to calculate the local time of sunrise and azimuth of rising point of Sirius?
I know that right ascension equals to $6^h45^m$ and declination equals to $-16°43'$. I need to calculate local time of sunrise and azimuth of rising point of Sirius on 23 of September for an ...
- 1,027
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Local mean time & Solar Noon
Is local mean time supposed to represent actual sun movement? Does 12pm on local mean time (not clock time), mean that the sun is on meridian or solar noon?
I understand LMT means 1 degree for 4 ...
2
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Conversion of seconds since J2000 epoch Terrestrial Time to UTC time
A recent question on Space Exploration mentioned that Planet Labs provides public ephemerides for their satellites here. I believe this provides a very valuable resource for testing different orbital ...
- 351
3
votes
2
answers
254
views
Pendulum clock correction
I'm trying to solve this task:
The pendulum clock was transported from the Earth's equator to Antarctica (in the vicinity of the southern geopole) for scientific experiments. Estimate the pendulum ...
- 1,027
3
votes
1
answer
534
views
Equation of time with arbitrary eccentricity and obliquity
I'm working on an on-line app to show the Equation of Time for arbitrary eccentricity and obliquity of the Earth's orbit.
It looks good for small eccentricities and obliquities:
but for bigger ones ...
- 432
1
vote
1
answer
158
views
Would a Jovian calendar be based on the Jovian sidereal year or tropical year? [closed]
According to many places online, Jupiter's tiny axial tilt makes it have no seasons, and its huge size eliminates any variance possible due to its orbital eccentricity. All these considered, what ...
- 161
1
vote
2
answers
831
views
Is the information about space we have old? [duplicate]
As we know light has a definite speed i.e. $c=299792458$ m/s so it takes some big time to travel from distant galaxies, right? So I always wonder about the big telescopes and big space companies ...
- 71
1
vote
0
answers
586
views
J2000 conversion to Position of date
Having spent an inordinate amount of time comparing the LBR values of Meeus (Astronomical Algorithms 1998) vs. ELP82B (Chapront's ELP82b Fortran Program)
I have figured out the data set I'm using is ...
- 192
3
votes
1
answer
125
views
Why is planet visible very good in a specific time of the year?
I'm trying to solve this task:
Why do periods of good evening visibility of the planets usually come in winter and spring, and morning ones - in summer and autumn?
Could somebody please explain what ...
- 1,027