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Although ERA is intended to replace sidereal time, there is a need to maintain definitions for sidereal time during the transition, and when working with older data and documents. Similarly to mean solar time, every location on Earth has its own local sidereal time (LST), depending on the longitude of the point.
The local hour angle (LHA) of an object in the observer's sky is = or = + where LHA object is the local hour angle of the object, LST is the local sidereal time, is the object's right ascension, GST is Greenwich sidereal time and is the observer's longitude (positive east from the prime meridian). [3]
Sidereal time is the hour angle of the equinox. However, there are two types: if the mean equinox is used (that which only includes precession), it is called mean sidereal time; if the true equinox is used (the actual location of the equinox at a given instant), it is called apparent sidereal time.
In 1928, the term Universal Time (UT) was introduced by the International Astronomical Union to refer to GMT, with the day starting at midnight. [8] The term was recommended as a more precise term than Greenwich Mean Time, because GMT could refer to either an astronomical day starting at noon or a civil day starting at midnight. [9]
Universal time tracks the Earth's rotation in time, which performs one revolution in about 24 hours. The Earth's rotation is uneven, so UT is not linear with respect to atomic time. It is practically proportional to the sidereal time, which is also a direct measure of Earth rotation. The excess revolution time is called length of day (LOD).
The horizontal, or altitude-azimuth, system is based on the position of the observer on Earth, which revolves around its own axis once per sidereal day (23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds) in relation to the star background. The positioning of a celestial object by the horizontal system varies with time, but is a useful coordinate system ...
[1] [7] By comparing the corrected lunar distance with the tabulated values, the navigator finds the Greenwich time for that observation. Knowing Greenwich time and local time, the navigator can work out longitude. [1] Local time can be determined from a sextant observation of the altitude of the Sun or a star. [8] [9] Then the longitude ...
EOT, the time difference between apparent solar time and mean solar time; GHA, the Greenwich Hour Angle of the apparent (actual) Sun; GMHA = Universal Time − Offset, the Greenwich Mean Hour Angle of the mean (fictitious) Sun. Here time and angle are quantities that are related by factors such as: 2 π radians = 360° = 1 day = 24 hours.