What time is it on the Moon?

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joeshoup

·Jan 27, 2023

From Wednesday's article in Nature, there is an international committee attempting to decide on how to measure time on the Moon:

It’s not obvious what form a universal lunar time would take. Clocks on Earth and the Moon naturally tick at different speeds, because of the differing gravitational fields of the two bodies. Official lunar time could be based on a clock system designed to synchronize with UTC, or it could be independent of Earth time.

An interesting discussion of the issues of time zones, general relativity, and politics follows. Personally, I can't wait for the 2035 Speedmaster with an LMT (lunar mean time) complication!

 

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BlackTalon

·Jan 27, 2023·This Space for Rent

you would think the subregisters on the moon there could have been laid out like on a Speedmaster. There is no balance in that illustration 😁

 

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pdxleaf

·Jan 27, 2023·"I cut it TWICE and it's still short!"

Depends on how late the bars will be open 😁

 

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joeshoup

·Jan 27, 2023

pdxleaf

Depends on how late the bars will be open 😁

Clearly the SuperDuperMoonSwatch LMT will also need a bar-o-meter complication

 

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Dan S

·Jan 27, 2023

Before we get too excited, the theoretical difference in rate amounts to 1 second over 50 years.

 

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Omegafanman

·Jan 28, 2023

pdxleaf

Depends on how late the bars will be open 😁

They are all rubbish…. Just no atmosphere in them …… (well only 2.96x10-15 atmospheres to be precise :0)

 

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SpeedyPhill

·Jan 28, 2023

Reminds MoonwatchUniverse of this clock: Helbros Moon wrist watch by Kenneth Franklin
.

 

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Pvt-Public

·Jan 28, 2023

I wonder how many billions of $$ will be spent (Wasted) on this before it is realized that simply basing it on earth time will be completely sufficient. After all, it has worked for all the lunar missions so far.