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Sidereal Time:

As we view the night sky we will note that a star will not return to the same position on the sky in exactly twenty-four hours. In fact note that if the Earth did not rotate on its axis at all, we still would have the sun rise and set once a year because of our motion about the Sun. So this means there is a difference between the 24 hour rotation time and the one year revolution time of 24 hours in 365.25 days, or about 3 minutes 56.5 seconds a day. Therefore a sidereal clock, based on the stars, adds 3 minutes 56.5 seconds a day, compared to a solar based clock. Since the two are the same on about September 21 every year, we can correct our local standard time to sidereal time by adding 3 minutes 56.5 seconds to the local time for each day after September 21. This works out to be 0.0657 hours per day.

We must also correct for the fact that we are not quite at the meridian of our time zone, which for our time zone is . We are at W or 3.4 degrees west of the meridian, which converts to 16 minutes, 36 seconds (3.4 degrees degrees/hour = .2267 hours. = .2267 hours 60 minutes/hour = 13.6 minutes. Note that .6 minutes 60 seconds per minute = 36 seconds.). Hence,

LST = ZT + 0.0657 hrs (No. of Days after Sept 21) -- .2267 hrs.

Where LST is the Local Sidereal Time and ZT is the Local Standard Time in the time zone of observation.

Returning to the celestial globe, we can place the time corresponding to LST on the celestial equator adjacent to the meridian ring, and the portion on the celestial sphere above the horizon ring will be the observable portion of the sky for that ZT. Keep in mind, to keep left and right correct, we must view the sphere from the inside, or through the Earth.



next up previous
Next: Azimuth and Altitude: Up: The Celestial Globe: Previous: Setting up the



Hans Krimm
Thu Jun 5 17:18:27 EDT 1997