The night between Saturday and Sunday, March 24 and 25, was shortened by one hour for Europe, because of Daylight-Shifting Time; as was the night of March 10/11 for America.
Part of a rising-and-setting graph for 2018. The numbers along the top are local mean time, to which the Standard Time for your time zone approximates. 24, or 0, really is in the middle of the night. Vertical lines toward the left show clock time for 17 (5 p.m.). In winter they really are at 5 p.m.; but after the forced clock change, at March 11 in America or March 25 in Europe, 4 p.m. is called “5 p.m.” and 11 p.m. is called “midnight..”
Online petitions to abolish “Daylight-Saving Time” can be found by googling words something like that. One that appears to have nearly 150,000 signatures is here. I signed it, though having to comment that it was not clear whether what it asks for is the clean return to standard time, or the idiot idea of making things even worse by staying on the unnatural time all year – as has been politically proposed in Florida.
My view on clock time, expressed more fully than I had space for in the printed Astronomical Calendar, is in a new section on it found by clicking the “Astronomical Calendar 2018” tab at top
“Daylight-Saving Time” is hopelessly insensitive to latitude. The range between winter and summer sunrise times varies from two hours in the southern U.S. to six hours in Canada and Scotland. “A modern approximation to the old human habit of starting daily life around dawn would be for cities to recommend opening hours for schools and businesses by the month, after considering the actual times of sunrise and sunset for their latitudes” – found easily from an app which I could make. You will have useful comments.
Actually the clock-backtwisting night was for me shortened by more hours than one, because it was another of those in which the backlog of things to do had me up for several of the “small” hours. A time of even less time is looming. You could help by buying an ancient house in the heart of a romantic English seaport, so that we can have somewhere to live instead of becoming migrants when we have to quit Greenwich on April 15.
Because of these stresses I have not always been able to keep up with supplying sky news. If I had stayed up even longer and been able to go out to a spot with a clear horizon and a dark sky (rare, in Greater London; the astronomy club based at the Greenwich observatory goes for star parties to a farm fifty miles away near the south coast), I would have seen this, as you could tomorrow morning.
As Eric David has gently pointed out without waiting for me, there is a “parade” along the ecliptic – Saturn, Mars, Antares, Jupiter, Spica. Mars at this moment happens to be at the “Apex of Earth’s Way” or “EDOT,” Earth’s direction of travel: it is dead ahead of us at this point in the curve of our orbit. Mars will pass 1.3 degree south of Saturn on April 2. All these planets in the morning sky are falling back westward in relation to the Sun (which is far off our picture down-left). Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars will arrive at opposition to the Sun on May 9, June 27, and July 27.
This issue of time shifting is probably the only political issue on which I agree with you.
I’d buy it if I could but I can’t afford a house right now. I’m a homeless migrant myself though I do own my small chiropractic office, in which I have remodeled parts of the basement and 2nd floor yoga studio to squeeze in a living area.
At least I don’t have a house payment, and my commute to work is only a set of stairs.
I just took the tour of Sherbourne House and Lyme Regis. I live in a flat in an old house by San Francisco standards (because it was built before the 1906 earthquake and fire), and it has some interesting quirks. But nothing like Sherbourne House! I hope the new owners will be able to match the house’s character and properly occupy it.
I’ve been enjoying the dawn parade. Thanks for pointing out that we’re heading for Mars. Fortunately Mars will get out of the way, and we’ll veer away from a collision, well before we get there.
We here in US of A already set our clocks ahead last week. My houseplants love it as they prefer a darker morning to produce theiry Hoya carnosa flowers, so faragrant at night. Goodness! How could they ever know? There’s much debate as to whether we should keep doing this or not. As a retiree, I could care less.