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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]
For example, if a star with RA = 1 h 30 m 00 s is at its meridian, then a star with RA = 20 h 00 m 00 s will be on the/at its meridian (at its apparent highest point) 18.5 sidereal hours later. Sidereal hour angle, used in celestial navigation , is similar to right ascension but increases westward rather than eastward.
Angles greater than 360° (2 π) or less than 0° may need to be reduced to the range 0°−360° (0–2 π) depending upon the particular calculating machine or program. The cosine of a latitude (declination, ecliptic and Galactic latitude, and altitude) are never negative by definition, since the latitude varies between −90° and +90°.
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. The difference between these two is known as the equation of the equinoxes, and is tabulated ...
Terrestrial Time (TT) is a modern astronomical time standard defined by the International Astronomical Union, primarily for time-measurements of astronomical observations made from the surface of Earth. [1] For example, the Astronomical Almanac uses TT for its tables of positions (ephemerides) of the Sun, Moon and planets as seen from Earth.
Local mean time (LMT) is a form of solar time that corrects the variations of local apparent time, forming a uniform time scale at a specific longitude. This measurement of time was used for everyday use during the 19th century before time zones were introduced beginning in the late 19th century; it still has some uses in astronomy and navigation.
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 ...