TIME to wake up to change in UK by Ignorant MP´s

The FOLLOWING is an example of the kind of email that I have been throwing around the World at this time of year - for the last 4 years.

Everyone knows about the "First Days" of Spring and Autumn, mostly from the commercial hoo-hah at those times.

I will be referring to the time on your clocks and watches on those days around that time - directly to those times shown in newspapers on their weather pages, or even on the horoscope page ! You should be looking at the sunrise/sunset/moonrise/moonset/and times for the tides around September 22/23 - which can be seen here in Spain at the foot of the website www.eltiempo.es/madrid.html  - or most of the www.eltiempo.es/(City-Name).html in Spain.

(An idea can be detected from particular websites in the USA - but you must be aware that some of their experts are not too clear about the time on the clocks in Europe !! (You might need to change times by one hour).

In past years, I have been able to demonstrate the actual times around the World on your clocks at the nearest city to you - by using the "Sun Times" facility on the website of the famous US Naval Observatory, Maryland. The usefulness of that facility has coincidentally been banned to me by a flagrant violation of the Freedom of Information in the USA - about which you should be concerned ! - All I can do now is to print out a calendar of daily Sun Times for some selected location - but which does not show the whole year properly ! (You have to select TWICE - once for wintertime times and an extra one for Summer ).

At the foot of the website pages in Spain you can see something of the following (simulation) for the following 10 days:

08:06 08:07 08:08 08:09 08:10* 08:11 08:12 08:13 . . .

20:18 20:16 20:14 20:12 20:10* 20:08 20:06 20:04 . . .

This month, when the minute figures are much the same above and below the times shown, then you are seeing the day with 12 hours of Sun between sunrise and sunset - as shown on the clocks in double Daylight Saving Time in Spain ( CEST or MESZ or GMT+2 or UTC+2).

That day is later than the official date for Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere - or earlier than the official date for Spring in the Southern Hemisphere - on the day I call "Gulliver´s Day". That was the traditional day for the "First/Last" in Jonathan Swift´s day - and he made his protest about the official changes in "Gulliver´s Travels" - in Brobdiggnag - because it was the British Astronomers in Greenwich who then adopted the new confounded scheme - for a new day which did not show anywhere in the World as the 12-hour day/night - not even on the Equator !

In other countries - big exception France -YOU are much more likely to see figures closer to 07:00 and 19:00 - or, possibly, 06:00 and 18:00 hours, for your own locality in the World !

The contrary in Spain happens because midday and midnight here are most likely to be around 14:10 and 02:10 on the clocks here in September ! The table thus clearly shows that the clocks here are running at more than two hours faster than the sundial time in summertime.

Note that the sunrise time is extraordinarily late on the clocks here in September (and will continue to get much later) - sunrise being the time at which the banks are opening in Spain at this season end. Such workers must be awakening well before dawn to go to work NOW ! - just as develops in midwinter in Spain !

Cheers,

SPBC, 12 / IX / 2009 

A D D E N D U M:

GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME !!

I have just checked, and that website in Spain no longer shows the Sun Times for any location in Spain - for anybody in the World !

Just like the US Naval Observatory Maryland !

Why should that be so ? ?

I can only guarantee information in future as follows:

http://wetter.rtl.de/redaktion/wettercockpit/index.php  

 - a page appears - but at the top is a box "HOME"

selecting that shows a selection box in which you type the CITY name  and - for Malaga - you will see Malaga Spanien appear for the search - use that.

A page for Malaga Weather then fills the page, and some way down you will see a triplet row ot sun times for sunrise (aufgang) and sunset (untergang) valid for 1 -6 days only. (seeing more days requires registration!).