Suppose the Sun were directly over a certain point on Thus, any difference of longitude between two points is a measure of the angle through which the Earth must rotate to separate them. Therefore, places east of an observer have later time, and those west have earlier time, and the difference is exactly equal to the difference in longitude, expressed in time units. The difference in time between two places is equal to the difference of longitude between their meridians, expressed in units of time instead of arc.

Since time grows later toward the east and earlier toward the west of an observer, time at the lower branch of one's meridian is 12 hours earlier or later, depending upon the direction of reckoning. A traveler circling the Earth gains or loses an entire day depending on the direction of travel, and only for a single instant of time, at precisely Greenwich noon, is it the same date around the earth. To prevent the date from being in error and to provide a starting place for each new day, a date line is fixed by informal agreement. This line coincides with the 180th meridian over most of its length. In crossing this line, the date is altered by one day. If a person is traveling eastward from east longitude to west longitude, time is becoming later, and when the date line is crossed the date becomes 1 day earlier. At any instant the date immediately to the west of the date line (east longitude) is 1 day later than the date immediately to the east of the line. When solving celestial problems, we convert local time to Greenwich time and then convert this to local time on the opposite side of the date line.

• Parts and principle of the sextant - 2009-07-02 - 11:25:19
• Reducing Star Sights to a Fix - 2009-04-24 - 02:08:03
• Convert A Polaris Sight To Latitude - 2009-04-24 - 04:45:52
• Longitude at Meridian Passage - 2009-04-24 - 04:15:10
• Latitude at Meridian Passage - 2009-04-23 - 01:03:09
• Reducing A Planet Sight - 2009-04-23 - 12:37:29
• Reducing A Moon Sight - 2009-04-23 - 12:18:18
• Reducing A Sun Sight - 2009-04-23 - 11:56:15
• Celestial Body’s Amplitude - 2009-04-23 - 09:29:35
• Compass Error By Azimuth Of Polaris - 2009-04-23 - 09:11:02

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