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Why PST??

BalkanSabranje

By BalkanSabranje
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BalkanSabranje

+BalkanSabranje

Posted
Posted

Why do GC officials announce a reboot of the fora by stating it will be at "1 pm PST"?????

 

As these seem to be internationally used fora, could someone please (at least)translate this to a sensible time format?

 

Try using UTC 2400 (or, if you have to, UTC +/- something), else it's quite hard to calculate the local time anywhere else.

 

Thanx,

BS

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Metaphor

+Metaphor

Posted
Posted (edited)

I just finished reading The Illustrated Longitude, by Dava Sobel and Wm. Andrews, a fascinating look at how an accurate means of measuring longitude and keeping time over distance was developed in the 18th century. (It also has lots of pictures.) The fifth astronomer royal in Great Britain, Nevil Maskelyne, located the prime meridian seven miles from the heart of London (Greenwich), and during the time he lived at the observatory there, from 1765-1811, he published 49 issues of the most comprehensive charts in his Nautical Almanac, for sailors to measure lunar distances to calculate their bearings. Mariners all over the globe relied on his tables to calculate their longitude, from Greenwich. Because they were universally used, they became the de facto standard; even the French used the Greenwich tables to calculate on their ships.

 

In 1884, in the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., representatives from 26 countries voted to make this common practice the international standard. (198-199)

 

So, because the origins and development of geocaching are based on the West Coast of the U.S., they are the prime meridian of geocaching. All over the world, people will calculate their time differentials from PST.

Edited by Metaphor
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WalruZ

+WalruZ

Posted
Posted

Yeah, see, it's sort of insulting to Californians (and Washingtonians), to say that we shouldn't be using Pacific Time because it's not the time "where everybody lives" (as it were). What makes Eastern or Central time so special? Why should we have to change because of you?

 

West coast rules, East coast mewls.

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DocW

+DocW

Posted
Posted
Get used to it. eBay official time is also PST (they're in San Jose)

Thats not true. The minutes and seconds might be generated somewhere else, but for sure the local Ebay sites (like ebay.de) are showing local time, MEZ, in this case. Its a simple offset thingy. They are - in this case - customer orientated.

 

It would be great to be able to define a local time base for your geocaching account. Like the forum software does allready.

No big deal, but some things are annoying: You have take extra care when logging a found before the new day has begun in PST-land. Otherwise the log is being logged on the wrong day.

And while generating PQ you have to take care, if you want them fast: selecting the wrong day and you receive your new query many hours later the expected.

 

Isn't this topic in the wrong chapter? Shouldn't it be better moved to "Geocaching.com Web site"?

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Jeremy

Jeremy

Posted
Posted

Until this day forward, everyone in the world must conform to the Geocaching Prime Meridian, called PST. This stands for Painful Standard Time. It is based on the position of the first Geocache located outside Portland, Oregon.

 

WGS84 will be changed to the IRISH04 Datum. It's about time.

 

Jeremy

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parkrrrr

+parkrrrr

Posted
Posted (edited)
WGS84 will be changed to the IRISH04 Datum. It's about time.

No, no, no, datums are about SPACE. Time zones are about time. Geez, if you can't even get THAT part right....

 

Also, you're 54 years late; there's already an Irish datum:

EUR-K "EUROPEAN 1950, England, Ireland"IN -86 3 -96 3 -120 3 48 62 -12 3

Edited by parkrrrr
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GEO*Trailblazer 1

+GEO*Trailblazer 1

Posted
Posted (edited)

I thought time was a measure of distance???

 

GWT Greenwich Mean Time =0,each degree is a measure of distance from that point.

 

In the Mean time.

 

The apparant,relation to longitude,from Greenwich the civil,local, mean time, equation is based on the emphemeris of the elongation and culmination of Polaris the standard for the true,universal sidreal day.

 

The interval of time occupied by one apparent revolution of the Sun about the Earth is called a solar day,the unit in which we are all familiar.

 

The interval of time occupied by one apparent revolution of the Vernal Equinox is called a sidreal day,a unit much used by astronomers.

(Prior to 1925,for astronomical purposes the solar day was considered as starting at noon.)

Both Sidreal and Solar days are divided into 24 hrs. each of 60 minute duration,

For Surveying purposes,the hours are reconed consecutively from 0 to 24.

 

Civil(Mean Solar) time.

The mean solar day begins at midnight,as does the civil day, and the mean solar time is given by the hour angle of the mean sun plus 12h.

 

In the Nautical Almanac the equation of time to,01s, is given for each day at 0-h and 12-h Greenwich Civil Time.

 

Sidreal time, 24 hour clocks,the time at any place is the hour angle of the vernal equinox at that place;and the beginning of the sidreal day,occuring when the vernal equinox crosses the upper branch of the Meridian. :ph34r:

 

edit spellin and typo's

 

We love u2

Edited by GEO*Trailblazer 1
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rusty_tlc

+rusty_tlc

Posted
Posted
Yeah, see, it's sort of insulting to Californians (and Washingtonians), to say that we shouldn't be using Pacific Time because it's not the time "where everybody lives" (as it were). What makes Eastern or Central time so special? Why should we have to change because of you?

 

West coast rules, East coast mewls.

Uh Hemmm.

You kind of left out about a third of the US.

Never mind that there is a whole state (ORE.) between WA and CA, I'm pretty sure that there are maybe 4 or 5 other states that are in PST. :ph34r:

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Right Wing Wacko

+Right Wing Wacko

Posted
Posted

Never mind that there is a whole state (ORE.) between WA and CA, I'm pretty sure that there are maybe 4 or 5 other states that are in PST. :ph34r:

Well, you would be wrong :ph34r:

 

The Pacific Time Zone includes:

 

1. ALL of Washington State

2. MOST but not all of Oregon

3. All of California

4. All of Nevada

5. The Idaho Panhandle.

 

Plus parts of Mexico and Canada, but they don't count :P

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rusty_tlc

+rusty_tlc

Posted
Posted

Never mind that there is a whole state (ORE.) between WA and CA, I'm pretty sure that there are maybe 4 or 5 other states that are in PST. :ph34r:

Well, you would be wrong :P

 

The Pacific Time Zone includes:

 

1. ALL of Washington State

2. MOST but not all of Oregon

3. All of California

4. All of Nevada

5. The Idaho Panhandle.

 

Plus parts of Mexico and Canada, but they don't count :D

I'm wrong about how many states but what about the one third part? :ph34r:

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sbell111

+sbell111

Posted
Posted

Does it really bother you that much?

 

PST is the time zone one the west coast of North America. This is the location of Groundspeak and GC.com. The way I look at it, it's there website. They just let me play here.

 

I'm used to it because most of the web services that I utilize give time info at there location, not mine.

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Sparky-Watts

+Sparky-Watts

Posted
Posted
Does it really bother you that much?

 

PST is the time zone one the west coast of North America. This is the location of Groundspeak and GC.com. The way I look at it, it's there website. They just let me play here.

 

I'm used to it because most of the web services that I utilize give time info at there location, not mine.

I can't think of much I do on the internet anyway that requires me to actually know what time it is.....

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ClayJar

+ClayJar

Posted
Posted

Hehe... okay, so this is -1: Irrelevant right off the bat, but I can't help myself. The official topic banner in the chat is, and I quote, "Official geocaching chats Mondays at 8:30pm CST (Tuesdays 02:30 UTC)..."

 

That about covers it, eh? (And yes, it changes to "...8:30pm CDT (Tuesdays 01:30 UTC)..." when lots of us do the US summer shuffle.

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