What Time is it?
Reading Time with our Sun
Since sundial time differs from clock time, we need a way to convert from the time read by a sundial to clock time. To make this conversion just follow these steps:
1) During Daylight Savings, add one hour to the time read by the sundial.
2) For every degree of longitude you live west of the center of your time zone, add four minutes to the sundial reading. For every degree of longitude you live east of your time zone, subtract four minutes to the sundial reading.
To find the center longitude of your time zone, note the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), also known as Universal Time. Greenwich is where the longitude is defined to be 0 degrees. For each hour that you are ahead of GMT, the center of your time zone is shifted 15 degrees of longitude to the East. Likewise, for each hour you are behind of GMT, the center of your time zone is shifted 15 degrees of longitude to the West. For Morehead, KY, add 33 minutes and 46 seconds.
3)Use the Equation of Time, which is the difference between sundial and clock time. The irregularity of the Sun's motion is due to the non-circularity motion of the Earth's orbit and by the 23.4 degree tilt in the Earth's rotation axis. The Equation of Time takes into account these differences. This website gives the required time to add or subtract for each day of the year:
http://www.go.ednet.ns.ca/~larry/orbits/jsjdetst.html
11/30/2007