please empty your brain below
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I love all this kind of geeky astronomical info.
"Noon was once simply the time when the sun was directly overhead." But is there anywhere in the world where the sun is actually directly overhead at noon? Over to you, DG.
Great Aunt Annie | 12.10.09 - 8:57 a.m. | #
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Pardon my interjection. Image a line drawn from the centre of the sun to the centre of the earth. At any time of day there must be precisely one place in the world where the sun is directly overhead.
Pedantic of Purley | 12.10.09 - 10:24 a.m. | #
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Don't forget to enjoy a day at the Bluebell Railway. There is a meridian marker on the platform at Sheffield Park.
Andrew | 12.10.09 - 11:14 a.m. | #
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And soon, huzzah, we will be back on Greenwich Mean Time (albeit sadly only until next spring). British Summer Time is an abomination; a con trick perpetrated on behalf of factory owners to stop the workers staying up too late enjoying themselves. It forces us to keep all our clocks an hour fast for half the year and pretend it's an hour later than it is. That's all. Yet loads of people still seem to think that it's some kind of magic that 'gives us lighter evenings'. Some people even want us to subscribe to this farrago all year round and so completely lose any vestige of a link between the sun's position and the time of day. I accept both the arguments that it would be easier if we didn't have to change the clocks twice a year, and that it might be good to do things later in order to take better advantage of the hours of daylight. But let's stick with GMT and do it honestly! Sorry. Always gets me going at this time of year.
dg writes: Try blaming this bloke.
Sarah | Homepage | 12.10.09 - 11:44 a.m. | #
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Does Tom Standage still live near you DG?
dg writes: Still? I know nothing about him.
jerym | 12.10.09 - 3:22 p.m. | #
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Fascinating stuff! Historical, astronomical, geographical and highly entertaining.
It's interesting, yet odd that the virtual meridian is 102.5 meters off from the historical meridian.
Jon | Homepage | 12.10.09 - 4:06 p.m. | #
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"when the sun was directly overhead"
it should be "...was at it highest"
The tropics of cancer and capricorn are the limits of where the sun can be directly overhead.
Michael | 12.10.09 - 5:08 p.m. | #
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I'm afraid I won't be going as far south as Oxted, the Bluebell Railway or the Tropic of Cancer. London meridian only.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 12.10.09 - 6:28 p.m. | #
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There is also a meridian marker by one of the bus stops in Lee High Road but I've never seen the tourists queuing up there.
DG - pity those in the war when apparently there was Double BST for a while. My mother said that getting up at the equivalent of 4 in the morning you had no idea what the weather was going to turn out like. Does anyone know whether the jump was staged - one hour one month and another the next - or done all in one lump - or was BST the norm for winter and then DBST in the summer?
Tamsin | 13.10.09 - 5:01 a.m. | #
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@Tamsin: there's some good info in wikipedia under British Summer Time.
Great Aunt Annie | 13.10.09 - 8:24 p.m. | #
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