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Earth and Space Sciences · Glossary

What is Solar time?

Also known as: apparent solar time · mean solar time · equation of time

Definition 1.15 University Earth and Space Sciences — Year 1 · Chapter 1 — Spherical Astronomy

Apparent solar time is the hour angle of the Sun plus 12 hours: a sundial shows it, and it is noon when the Sun crosses the meridian. Mean solar time is the hour angle, plus 12 hours, of a fictitious mean Sun that moves along the celestial equator at a uniform rate, completing a turn in a tropical year. Their difference, apparent minus mean, is the equation of time.

The equation of time through the year (apparent minus mean solar time): a sundial is up to 16.4\, min fast in early November and 14.2\, min slow in mid-February. Computed from a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity 0.0167, the obliquity 23.44, the longitude of perihelion and the date of the 2026 March equinox.
The equation of time through the year (apparent minus mean solar time): a sundial is up to 16.4 min16.4\,\mathrm{min} fast in early November and 14.2 min14.2\,\mathrm{min} slow in mid-February. Computed from a Kepler orbit with the eccentricity 0.0167, the obliquity 23.44∘23.44{}^{\circ}, the longitude of perihelion and the date of the 2026 March equinox.
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