Date Mixup Yesterday
Written by Fraser Cain
I want to apologize for the way I presented the dates in yesterday's article of Universe Today about the lunar eclipse. I had a few people write me back convinced that the eclipse was on November 8, not the 9th, and you're absolutely right. When I wrote the story I was thinking in Greenwich Mean Time, which is the same as UT or Universal Time. But for folks in the Americas, the eclipse will happen entirely in the evening of Saturday, November 8th. I've rewritten the article to make the times make more sense for people in different timezones – take another look, just to make sure you get the right date.
However, I'd like to take this opportunity to make a public service announcement for the concept of Greenwich Mean Time. If you haven't noticed, I always post the times in my stories in GMT (I'll sometimes add Eastern Standard Time to give additional info). Everyone who reads this should know what timezone you're in compared to GMT. For example, here in Vancouver, I'm GMT -8 (GMT -7 during daylight savings). So if something's going to happen at 2200 GMT, I subtract 8 hours and get 1400 local time – or 2:00pm.
If you don't already know it, visit this site and find out your local timezone's difference from GMT. Put it on a post-it note on your computer. Then, whenever you see a reference to GMT, you can just do the conversion in your head. It'll come in handy.
Thanks!
Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today
Filed under: Uncategorized
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