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The planetary hours are an ancient system in which one of the seven classical planets is given rulership over each day and various parts of the day. Developed in Hellenistic astrology, it has possible roots in older Babylonian astrology, and it is the origin of the names of the days of the week as used in English and numerous other languages.
Unequal hours were the result of dividing up the period of daylight into 12 equal hours and nighttime into another 12. There is more daylight in the summer, and less night time, so each of the 12 daylight hours is longer than a night hour. Similarly in winter, daylight hours are shorter, and night hours are longer.
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 ...
Mercury and Venus are visible only in twilight hours because their orbits are interior to that of Earth. Venus is the third-brightest object in the sky and the most prominent planet. Mercury is more difficult to see due to its proximity to the Sun. Lengthy twilight and an extremely low angle at maximum elongations make optical filters necessary ...
Sidereal time was defined such that the March equinox would transit the meridian of the observatory at 0 hours local sidereal time. [7] Beginning during the 1970s, the radio astronomy methods very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) and pulsar timing overtook optical instruments for the most precise astrometry.
Animation showing equation of time and analemma path over one year.. The United States Naval Observatory states "the Equation of Time is the difference apparent solar time minus mean solar time", i.e. if the sun is ahead of the clock the sign is positive, and if the clock is ahead of the sun the sign is negative.
A graphical view of the Cosmic Calendar, featuring the months of the year, days of December, the final minute, and the final second. The Cosmic Calendar is a method to visualize the chronology of the universe, scaling its currently understood age of 13.8 billion years to a single year in order to help intuit it for pedagogical purposes in science education or popular science.
This is a partial list of solar eclipses visible from Britain and Ireland between AD 1 – AD 2091.. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. Below is a complete list of total and annular eclipses visible anywhere within the modern extent of the United Kingdom between AD 1 and AD 2090 [1] and a ...