Time

Faraz Ahmed
May 2023

Table of Contents
1 Introduction 2

2 Time 2
2.1 The Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.2 The Month . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 The Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.4 Julian Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.5 Time zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

3 Equation of Time 6
3.1 Analemma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

4 Conclusion 10

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1 Introduction
In this handout, we’ll learn about the different ways in which units of time are measured, then
we’ll learn about the effects that affect our observation and how to correct for it.

2 Time
We studied that the hour angle of a star was the time since the last culmination of the star, or the
time since the star was last seen on the local meridian.

In similar vein, we define the Local Sidereal Time or LST to be the hour-angle of the vernal
equinox. How do we figure that out? We need to know the hour angle corresponding to a particular
RA and we’re done. This can be known by just observing a star. How do we proceed from here?
Because you know a particular RA (say, α) culminated at some t hours from now, it must’ve been
α + t hours from now such that the vernal equinox was on the local meridian(Remember that as
you go from west to east, you’re moving along higher RAs) Hence, we can now formally write the
equation for LST formally,
LST = α + t
Let’s skim through some more definitions,
Greenwich Hour Angle: Hour angle of a star from the Greenwich local meridian
Greenwich Sidereal Time: Hour angle of the vernal equinox from the Greenwich local meridian.
Where,
GST = GHA + α
and h
∆λ◦

GST = LST ±
15◦

2.1 The Day

A solar day is the time between two successful culminations of the mean sun1 .
A sidereal day is the between two successful culminations of a distant star, it is equivalent to the
period of rotation of the earth.
The length of a sidereal day is about 23h 56m 4s while the length of the solar day is about 24h ,
because the earth has rotated about 1◦ extra to make the sun appear at the same position.

A consequence of this is that as the vernal equinox culminates on the local meridian at local
noon, it moves westwards by around 3m 56s every day. Using this information we can figure out
the LST at a particular date and time.
1
I should write this formally but, mean sun is the hour angle assuming sun that moves uniformly while the true
sun is the time shown by a sundial.

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Figure 1: Solar vs Sidereal Day

Example 1 (GeCAA)
A stargazer in Chiayi, Chinese Taipei (23.5°N, 120.4°E, GMT+8) saw two meteors streaking
through the sky at 21:00 (Chinese Taipei time) on 25th September 2020. What is the Local
Sidereal Time (LST) at the time of observation? The Greenwich Sidereal Time (GST) at
00:00 UT on 1st January 2020 is 6h 40m 30s. Sidereal day = 23.9344 hrs, Sidereal year =
365.2422 days.

Solution: Let us first calculate the Greenwich Sidereal Time on 25th September 2020 00:00 UT.
As the vernal equinox moves 3m 56s westwards each day, this is simply,
24
GST = 6h 40m 30s + 268 ·
365.24
Because 25th September and 1st January are separated by an interval of 268 days. Now, we
will find the GST corresponding to 13:00 UT because from there we can simply account for the
longitude difference and find the LST. So,
24 24
GST = 6h 40m 30s + 268 · + 13 ·
365.24 23.93
Calculating it gives us,
GST ≈ 13h 19m 14s
Finishing off,
h
120.4◦

LST = GST +
15◦
LST ≈ 21h 20m 50s

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2.2 The Month

Lunar synodic month: This is also is the time taken for the moon to complete a cycle of its
phases. The lunar synodic month is about 29d 12h 44m in length.

Figure 2: Lunar phases

Lunar sidereal month: This is time it takes for the moon to revolve around the earth once with
respect to the distant stars. The lunar sidereal month is about 27d 7h 43m in length.

Lunar draconic month: The lunar draconic month is the time between two successive passages
of the moon through the ascending nodes. This is different from the sidereal month because the
orbit of the moon precesses. The lunar draconic month is about 27d 5h 5m in length.

Figure 3: Lunar Nodes

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Example 2 (Folklore)
Calculate the time period of precession(also known as the nodal period) knowing the differ-
ence between the lunar synodic month and the lunar draconic month.

Solution: Because the angles are small,

δθ = ω∆t

where
Tside − Tdrac
δθ = · 2π
Tdrac
and,
2π
ω= ; ∆t = Tside
Tnodal
So,

Tdrac · Tside
Tnodal = ≈ 18.6 years
Tside − Tdrac

Some other relevant cycles are the Metonic cycle and the Saros period. Metonic cycle corre-
sponds to the interval of time after which lunar phase occurs at the same time of the year again.
The length of the Metonic cycle is about 235 lunar synodic months or about 19 years. A Saro is
interval after which the sun, the moon and the earth are in approximately the same geometry. It
corresponds to about 223 lunar synodic months or about 18 years.

2.3 The Year

Tropical Year: Time between two successive passages of the Sun through the vernal equinox.
It’s about 365.242d in length

Sidereal Year: Time to taken revolve around the sun with respect to distant stars. It’s about
365.256d in length. The tropical year is shorter than the sidereal year because of precession of the
vernal equinox.

Anomalistic Year: Time between two successive passages of the earth through the perihelion or
the aphelion. The length of the anomalistic year is about 365.257d

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2.4 Julian Dates

Julian Date 0 corresponds to the noon of 1/1/4713 BCE, which was a Monday. Day change in
JD occurs at noon in UT.
The JD for 1 Jan 2000, 00:00 UT would be JD 2,451,544.50. The JD for 1 Jan 2023, 12:00 UT
would be JD 2,457,056.00. To find the JD for a specific time you just need to subtract for the
dates and account for the time difference in UT.

There’s also the Modified Julian Date, which is analogous to how the Julian Date is calculated
except that it now corresponds to the midnight of 17th November, 1858. So,

MJD = JD − 2400000.5

2.5 Time zones

A time zone corresponds to the collection of land that keeps the same time. This time usually
corresponds to a meridian within this area. Universal Time(UT) corresponds to the time at the
prime meridian.
Obviously, the difference in longitude will give rise to a difference in the local solar time, so we
might observe local noon at 12:00 from the place where time is calibrated but the easternmost
and westernmost places in the time zone would’ve had their local noons before and after 12:00
respectively, or precisely, at
 ◦ h
h ∆λ
t = 12 ±
15◦
As we know that a difference of 15◦ in longitude corresponds to difference of 1 hour in time.

3 Equation of Time
The equation of time is given by,
E.T = Ttrue − Tmean
or to put it in words, the difference it’s the difference between the true sun and the mean sun as
a function of time. Why do they vary you might ask?
Two reasons, obliquity of earth’s axis and eccentricity of the earth’s orbit.

Obliquity of earth’s axis: We know that the celestial equator is at a tilt of ϵ = 23.5◦ with the
ecliptic, hence this would mean that the daily motion of the sun is not exactly along the small-RA
circle. So the 1◦ /day change that we assumed while deriving the solar day is not exactly 1◦ along
the small-RA circle, it’s 1◦ along the small-longitude circle, and it varies throughout the year, the
fastest being near the equinoxes and slowest near the solstices.

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Figure 4: Obliquity Effect

Eccentricity of earth’s orbit: This is more intuitive than the previous component. We know
that planets must be at their fastest near the perihelion and slowest near the aphelion, which means
the projection of the sun on the celestial sphere moves fastest near the perihelion and slowest near
the aphelion, hence this also gives rise to an offset from the mean sun.

Figure 5: Eccentricity Effect

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The combined effect from both of these effects gives us the offset of the true sun from the mean
sun and effectively the equation of time.
Which is plotted as shown,

Figure 6: Equation of time

As observed from the graph, the difference between the True Sun and the Mean Sun ranges from the
true sun being ahead by +16 minutes on 3rd November to lagging behind by about 14 minutes on
11th February. Zeroes are achieved on 15th April, 13th June, 1st September and 25th December.

3.1 Analemma
Analemma is the shape created by plotting the position of the sun in the sky at the same civil
time throughout the year.

Figure 7: Analemma

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The northernmost and southernmost ends of the Analemma are just the points of solstices. De-
viation from the arc joining these two points is due to the difference between true sun and mean
sun.

Figure 8: Equation of time and Analemma

Example 3 (USAAAO Round One 2021)

What would happen to the analemma of the Sun if the obliquity of the Earth’s orbit suddenly
went to zero degrees and its eccentricity remained unchanged?

(a) The analema would be perfectly symmetric in both axes and would have the shape of
an “8”.

(b) The analemma would look like a dot.

(c) The analemma would be the arc of a great circle.

(d) The analemma would look like a circle.

(e) The analemma would be a spherical triangle

Solution: Based on our discussion in the previous section, you know that the ends of the analemma
would coalesce into a point and the deviations from that point would arise from the eccentricity

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effects. Hence, the correct answer would be option (c)

Option (a) would be true for the case when the orbit is perfectly circular, in that case the only
contribution to the equation of time would be the obliquity effect.

Option (b) would be true for the case when there’s no obliquity or eccentricity or the true sun is
the same as the mean sun.

4 Conclusion
We learnt the various ways in which time was measured, the deviations that arise between these
ways and how to correct for them.

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