AEST is used in Queensland Australia, Papua New Guinea, Guam, and Vladivostok in far eastern Russia on the Kamchatka peninsula beside the Pacific Ocean
Brisbane (Sunrise 6:38AM
Sunset 5:06PM
)
Note, Queensland is a large state: Townsville (Sunrise 6:47AM
Sunset 5:47PM
) Mount Isa (Sunrise 7:19AM
Sunset 6:14PM
)
Vanuatu, Solomon Islands are 1 hr ahead. New Zealand and Fiji are 2 hrs ahead. Tonga is 3 hrs ahead. American Samoa is 3 hrs ahead but on the previous day due to the International Date Line. Since December 2011 Samoa and Tokelau are 3 hrs ahead and on the same day as New Zealand Tonga and Australia.
Sydney (Sunrise 7:00), Hobart (Sunrise 7:41), Melbourne (Sunrise 7:35)
Adelaide (Sunrise 7:23 B7:53), BrokenHill (Sunrise 7:05 B7:35) ½ hr behind
Darwin (Sunrise 7:08 B7:38) ½ hr behind
Tokyo, Seoul 1 hr behind
Japan adopted its current time zone in 1886
North Korea 1½ hrs behind
Perth (Sunrise 7:17 B9:17) 2 hrs behind
- except for Eucla in WA (Sunrise 7:09 B8:24) 1¼ hrs behind
China (including Tibet), Philippines, Malaysia also 2 hrs behind
Beijing, capital of China in the far north (Sunrise 4:52 B6:52
Sunset 7:45 B9:45
)
China adopted Shanghai "Coastal Time" for shipping in the 1880s. It became Peking (Beijing) time with the Chinese revolution in 1912
Java, Sumatra, Thailand, Vietnam, Novosibirsk-Russia (chief city in Siberia) 3 hrs behind
Myanmar 3½ hrs behind
Bangladesh, Kazakhstan-East 4 hrs behind
Nepal 4¼ hrs behind
Nepal adopted Indian Standard Time in 1920, but advanced their clocks by 15 minutes in 1986
India 4½ hrs behind
Calcutta Time and Bombay (Mumbai) Time (one hour behind) were adopted officially in 1884. From 1870, many railway companies had been adopting Madras Time (almost midway between the two). In 1906, a 30 minute compromise between Calcutta and Bombay established Indian Standard Time, though for many years much of Bombay refused to change.
Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan-Central 5 hrs behind
Afghanistan 5½ hrs behind
Iran 6½ hrs behind
Tehran time adopted in 1884
Turkiye, Moscow, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania 7 hrs behind
In 1927 Turkiye adopted Eastern European Time (8 hours behind Brisbane). Previously all of the Ottoman Empire had followed a 12 hour clock that started at daybreak. In 2016 it aligned its time zone with Moscow and Saudi Arabia (7 hours behind).
Noting too in Islam the day starts at sunset, when the call to prayer is heard.
Saudi Arabia adopted its current clock in 1968.
Athens, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Lithuania also 7 hrs behind (Daylight Saving)
Cairo in Egypt from 1800 was 2 hours and 5 minutes ahead of London. At midnight 1st October 1900 it adopted Eastern European Time (exactly 2 hours ahead).
Libya, Congo Democratic Republic, South Africa 8 hrs behind
Rest of Europe except UK & Portugal also 8 hrs behind (Daylight Saving)
France, Holland, Luxembourg, Belgium used to be in the same time zone as the UK, but in the summer of 1940 and continuing after the war, Germany changed their clocks to match the German zone (one hour ahead of the UK) with Spain's General Franco following suit.
Algeria, Nigeria 9 hrs behind. Also Morocco, except during Ramadan 10 hrs behind.
England, Portugal also 9 hrs behind (Daylight Saving)
South West Africa (Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mauritania) and Iceland 10 hrs behind
"Should auld acquaintance" Time ball synchronization
10 hours behind Brisbane was also known as GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). The phrase "Mean solar time" was introduced in nautical almanacs in England in 1834 and in France in 1835. It averaged the 24*60*60=86400 seconds mean solar day over the course of the year, from March vernal equinox to vernal equinox, noting that mean time runs behind apparent time by about 16 minutes near November 3 but ahead of apparent time by about 14 minutes near February 6. The second then became a fixed unit of time....
An average solar day is 24 hrs. This is the time that we set our clocks to. At perihelion (4th January 2025) the Earth is travelling at its fastest around the sun. Because the sun is moving faster relative to the background stars, it will take longer for the Earth to "catch up" reach solar noon anywhere, resulting in a longer day by about 15 minutes. At aphelion (4th July 2025) the Earth moves at its slowest pace around the sun, so the day is shorter by about 15 minutes. Note also that apparent time, contrasting with mean time, is shorter in March and September than in June or December.
An apparent solar day can be up to 20 seconds shorter or 30 seconds longer than a mean solar day. Long or short days occur in succession, so the difference builds up until mean time is ahead of apparent time by about 14 minutes near February 6, and behind apparent time by about 16 minutes near November 3. The equation of time is this difference, which is cyclical and does not accumulate from year to year. Click here to read more, and see a diagram of these yearly peaks and troughs.
Railway Timeclick here for more info In 1847, using telegraph technology, time signals were transmitted across Great Britain to coordinate railroad activities, becoming known as Railway Time.
USA steadily followed 1853-1882 using four time zones, then NSW 1855-1859 (Sydney time), India 1860-1870 (less clearly) with Calcutta Bombay and Madras times, Italy 1866-1867 (Rome time), North Germany 1874 (Berlin time) with all Germany Austria Italy Hungary becoming GMT+1 in 1893, France 1891 (Paris time) noting that in 1911 France delayed Paris Mean Time by 9 minutes 21 seconds to make it equivalent to GMT without mentioning "Greenwich" , and Ireland (GMT) in 1916. Finally USSR (Moscow) in 1919 — initially GMT+2, but changing to GMT+3 in 1930 with regions further east adjusting their clocks accordingly.
The Greenwich Royal Observatory in London was chosen by the USA (in particular), as the centre for synchronizing world time (before Daylight Saving emerged). On 1 November 1884, Greenwich Mean Time was adopted universally at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC with the line at the Observatory bisecting East and West, becoming 0 degrees longitude. An issue involving the Date Line had been The Philippines when their Spanish Governor in 1844 skipped a day and Monday December 30 1844 was followed by Wednesday January 1 1845. And so the International Date Line was drawn up in the Pacific Ocean and 24 time zones were created.
Originally, astronomers considered a GMT day to start at noon, while for the general public it started at midnight. In 1928, the name Universal Time or UT was introduced to denote GMT as counted from midnight.
Historically, Universal Time was computed from observing the position of the Sun in the sky. But astronomers found that it was more accurate to measure the rotation of the Earth by observing stars as they crossed the meridian each day.
And while Universal Time (UT1) is tied directly to Earth's rotation angle, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is based on an atomic timescale using Newcomb's tables 1750-1892, a weighted average (in nanoseconds) of 450 atomic clocks worldwide, occasionally adjusted with an intercalary leap second to remain within 0.9 seconds of UT1.
In 1972 the day length in earth's rotation averaged 3 additional milliseconds, dropping to 1 millisecond in 2016 and -1 millisecond in 2021. The decision to add (or subtract) a leap second in UTC comes from the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS) in Paris working with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)...
In 1955 the BIH (Bureau International de l'Heure) adopted a proposal by William Markowitz, effective January 1, 1956, dividing UT into UT0 (GMT, Pendulum Clock), UT1 (UT0 with small stellar angular differences), and UT2 (UT1 with small seasonal fluctuations). From 1956 to 1972, UT2 was the international standard recommended for radio broadcasting.
UTC Starting in 1956, WWV in Colorado USA broadcast an atomic clock signal stepped by 20 ms increments to bring it into agreement with UT1, thus it was never more than 20 ms in error. By 1960, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, the US Naval Observatory, and the UK National Physical Laboratory coordinated their radio broadcasts so that time steps and frequency changes were coordinated, and the resulting time scale was informally referred to as "Coordinated Universal Time". In 1963, WWV ceased issuing corrections to UT2.
In April 1967, WWV stopped using the local time of the transmitter site (Eastern Time until 1966, and Mountain Time afterwards) and switched to broadcasting Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The same year the ITU based in Geneva formally established UTC (Co-ordinated Universal Time) as their official time standard, overseen from Paris France by the BIPM (Bureau of International Weights and Measures). On January 1 1972, UTC was defined to follow UT1 within 0.9 seconds with UT2 subsequently becoming irrelevant. In 1974 WWV switched GMT format name to UTC.
Currently UTC deviates from TAI (International Atomic Time fixed on 1 January 1958) by a number of whole seconds. As of 1 January 2017, when another leap second was put into effect, UTC is currently exactly 37 seconds behind TAI. The 37 seconds result from the initial difference of 10 seconds at the start of 1972, plus 27 leap seconds in UTC since 1972.
GPS. At midnight on 5 January 1980 –19 seconds behind TAI– the US Dept of Defense initiated Global Positioning System time. It now uses four GPS satellites at any given moment continuously broadcasting to a GPS receiver on earth a Navigation Message of 37,500 bits of clock and position data. At a rate of 50 bits-per-second this message takes 12½ minutes on a completely cold start. Currently GPS is ahead of UTC by 18 seconds.
Today GMT (always identical with UT / UTC) is the basis for civil time in the United Kingdom, including the BBC World Service, the Royal Navy, and the Met Office. And others, particularly in Arab countries such as the Middle East Broadcasting Centre.
Click here for a live UTC clock, started at midnight December 31st 1899 (called January 0, 1900).
Central and Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina 11 hrs ahead (previous day)
Chile, Western Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela 10 hrs ahead (previous day)
also Haiti, Cuba, Florida and Washington DC and New York in USA, Toronto and Montreal and Quebec in Canada 10 hrs ahead (previous day) (Daylight Saving)
Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Cancún in Mexico 9 hrs ahead (previous day)
also Ojinaga in Mexico, Texas and Chicago in USA, Winnipeg in Canada 9 hrs ahead (previous day) (Daylight Saving)
San Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico City and most of Northern Mexico 8 hrs ahead (previous day) all year round
also Juárez in Northern Mexico, Colorado Utah and New Mexico in USA, Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada 8 hrs ahead (previous day) (Daylight Saving)
Arizona in USA 7 hours ahead (previous day) (all year round)
Baja California in Mexico, Los Angeles and Seattle in USA, Yukon in Canada 7 hrs ahead (previous day) (Daylight Saving)
Alaska 6 hrs ahead (previous day) (Daylight Saving)
Hawaii, Tahiti 4 hrs ahead (previous day)
On Tuesday March 21, 2017 1:56 PM, "Stephen Williamson" wrote:
Subject: March Equinox now past, almost time to fix up our clocks :-)
Hi all
Yep, nearly that time of year when we realign with Sydney time. This Sunday week.
Great little link below, you can change month and year, by manually altering the hyperlink. Or clicking on their date option (just below their heading). You can also change countries. Boy, I could have used one of these at school when I was in that geography/physics class trying to figure out all those "bits and bobs and what ifs".
March 20 last night. Our Equinox (sun was directly over Equator at 8:29pm)
Brisbane Sunrise 5:51AM
Sunset 5:59PM
March 25 will be our most equal day
due to a light lingering "quirkiness" thing. Technical term : "refraction"
Brisbane Sunrise 5:53AM
Sunset 5:53PM
11hrs 59 minutes 43 seconds
almost, not quite, 12 hours.
December 21 was our Longest day, ie sun was furthest to the south over Tropic of Capricorn
Brisbane Sunrise 4:49AM
Sunset 6:42PM
13hrs 52 minutes 54 seconds
June 21 (Shortest day, sun furthest to the north over Tropic of Cancer)
Brisbane Sunrise 6:37AM
In ancient times, by using sundials there were always 12 hours in the day, though its length varied with the seasons. Romans were fond of the water clock, a mechanised way of knowing the time day and night. After pendulum clocks were invented in 1656 AD, the length of the second gradually became fixed. People varied their opening hours between seasons, as it suited them.
Daylight saving was introduced during World War 1 by both sides of the conflict. Berlin initiated the move in summer on Monday 1st May 1916 as a means of conserving coal, by having more light in the evening. Other countries followed suit, including Australia, in 1917 only. After 1919, while UK US France Canada and Ireland kept it going, the rest of Europe and Russia abandoned it. In 1930 the USSR adopted permanent daylight saving, all clocks moving ahead by one hour. Daylight Saving resumed for many European countries in 1940 during World War 2, abandoned afterwards in 1949 (or 1950), then widely adopted again from the 1970s. It restarted in Tasmania in 1968 with most of Australia following in 1971, except for Western Australia and Northern Territory. After many complaints in much of Queensland, it was not adopted in 1972. It was retrialled under Labour Premier Wayne Goss in 1989, but has been abandoned since 1992.
when the sun was in the south :-)
Brisbane (Sunrise 4:44AM
Sunset 6:27PM
)
Note, Queensland is a large state: Townsville (Sunrise 5:25AM
Sunset 6:36PM
) Mount Isa (Sunrise 5:52AM
Sunset 7:08PM
)
Vanuatu is 1 hr ahead. Fiji is 2 hrs ahead. New Zealand is 3 hrs ahead (on Daylight Saving). Tonga is also 3 hrs ahead (but without Daylight Saving). Samoa is 4 hrs ahead (Daylight Saving). American Samoa is 3 hrs ahead (without Daylight Saving) and on the previous day due to the International Date Line.
Sydney (Sunrise 5:37 B4:37), Hobart (Sunrise 5:27 B4:27), Melbourne (Sunrise 5:52 B4:52)
NSW, Victoria and Tasmania are 1 hr ahead (except for Broken Hill in NSW). Daylight Saving
Adelaide (Sunrise 5:55 B5:25), BrokenHill (Sunrise 5:51 B5:21) ½ hr ahead (Daylight Saving)
Darwin (Sunrise 6:11 B6:41) ½ hr behind
Tokyo, Seoul 1 hr behind
North Korea 1½ hrs behind
Perth (Sunrise 5:03 B7:03) 2 hrs behind
- except for Eucla in WA (Sunrise 4:57 B6:12) 1¼ hrs behind.
China (including Tibet), Philippines, Malaysia also 2 hrs behind
Beijing, capital of China in the far north (Sunrise 7:14AM B9:14AM
Sunset 4:50PM B6:50PM
)
Java, Sumatra, Thailand, Vietnam, Novosibirsk-Russia (chief city in Siberia) 3 hrs behind
Myanmar 3½ hrs behind
Bangladesh, Kazakhstan-East 4 hrs behind
Nepal 4¼ hrs behind
India 4½ hrs behind
Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan-Central 5 hrs behind
Afghanistan 5½ hrs behind
Iran 6½ hrs behind
Turkey, Moscow, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania 7 hrs behind
Egypt, Libya, Congo Dem Rep, South Africa 8 hrs behind
Athens, Israel, Syria, Jordan also 8 hrs behind
Algeria, Nigeria. Morocco 9 hrs behind
Europe except UK & Portugal also 9 hrs behind
South West Africa (Ghana, Mali, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mauritania) and Iceland 10 hrs behind.
England, Portugal also 10 hrs behind
Central and Southern Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina 11 hrs ahead (previous day)
also Chile, Paraguay 11 hrs ahead (previous day) (Daylight Saving)
Western Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela 10 hrs ahead (previous day)
Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Cancún in Mexico 9 hrs ahead (previous day)
also New York, Toronto, Montreal, Cuba, Haiti 9 hrs ahead (previous day)
San Salvador, Guatemala 8 hrs ahead (previous day)
also Mexico City, Texas 8 hrs ahead (previous day)
Northern Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Alberta 7 hrs ahead (previous day)
Baja California in Mexico, Los Angeles, Seattle, Yukon 6 hrs ahead (previous day)
Alaska 5 hrs ahead (previous day)
Hawaii 4 hrs ahead (previous day)
, and Ireland (GMT) in 1916. Finally USSR (Moscow) in 1919 — initially GMT+2, but changing to GMT+3 in 1930 with regions further east adjusting their clocks accordingly.