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More exactly, sidereal time is the angle, measured along the celestial equator, from the observer's meridian to the great circle that passes through the March equinox (the northern hemisphere's vernal equinox) and both celestial poles, and is usually expressed in hours, minutes, and seconds. (In the context of sidereal time, "March equinox" or ...
27.321661 days [7] (equal to sidereal orbital period due to spin-orbit locking, a sidereal lunar month) 27 d 7 h 43 m 11.5 s 29.530588 days [ 7 ] (equal to synodic orbital period , due to spin-orbit locking, a synodic lunar month )
Thus, the sidereal day is shorter than the stellar day by about 8.4 ms. [37] Both the stellar day and the sidereal day are shorter than the mean solar day by about 3 minutes 56 seconds. This is a result of the Earth turning 1 additional rotation, relative to the celestial reference frame, as it orbits the Sun (so 366.24 rotations/y).
On a prograde planet like the Earth, the sidereal day is shorter than the solar day. At time 1, the Sun and a certain distant star are both overhead. At time 2, the planet has rotated 360° and the distant star is overhead again (1→2 = one sidereal day). But it is not until a little later, at time 3, that the Sun is overhead again (1→3 = one solar day). More simply, 1→2 is a complete ...
Thus, the speed of the diurnal motion of a celestial object equals this cosine times 15° per hour, 15 arcminutes per minute, or 15 arcseconds per second. Per a certain period of time, a given angular distance travelled by an object along or near the celestial equator may be compared to the angular diameter of one of the following objects: up ...
A sidereal rotation is the time it takes the Earth to make one revolution with rotation to the stars, approximately 23 hours 56 minutes 4 seconds. A mean solar day is about 3 minutes 56 seconds longer than a mean sidereal day, or 1 ⁄ 366 more than a mean sidereal day. In astronomy, sidereal time is used to predict when a star will reach its ...
The exact length has been variously defined as either that of a solar day or of a sidereal day. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] Astronomical days were historically used by astronomers (in contrast most commonly to solar days), but since the Industrial Revolution this usage has generally fallen out of favor, in order to avoid confusion with more conventional ...
The paradox is related to sidereal time: a sidereal day is the time Earth takes to rotate for a distant star to return to the same position in the sky, whereas a solar day is the time for the sun to return to the same position. A year has around 365.25 solar days, but 366.25 sidereal days to account for one revolution around the sun. [6]