Libra
12-01-2016, 01:34 PM
It is possible to tell time on the moon. In fact, back in 1970, Helbros Watches asked Kenneth L. Franklin, who for many years was the chief astronomer at New York's Hayden Planetarium, to design a watch for moon walkers that measures time in what he called "lunations," the period it takes the moon to rotate and revolve around the Earth; each lunation is exactly 29.530589 Earth days.
For the moon, Franklin developed a system he called "lunar mean solar time," or Lunar Time (LT). He envisioned local lunar time zones similar to the standard time zones of Earth, but based on meridians that are 12-degrees wide (analogous to the 15-degree intervals on Earth). "They will be named unambiguously as '36-degree East Zone time,' etc., although 'Copernican time,' 'West Tranquillity time' and others may be adopted as convenient." A lunar hour was defined as a "lunour," and decilunours, centilunours and millilunours were also introduced.
Interestingly, one moon watch was sent to the president of the United States at the time, Richard M. Nixon, who sent a thank you note to Franklin. The note and another moon watch were kept in a display case at the Hayden Planetarium for several years.
Quite a few visitors would openly wonder why Nixon was presented with a wristwatch that could be used only on the moon.
Forty years have come and gone without the watch becoming a big seller.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y.
For the moon, Franklin developed a system he called "lunar mean solar time," or Lunar Time (LT). He envisioned local lunar time zones similar to the standard time zones of Earth, but based on meridians that are 12-degrees wide (analogous to the 15-degree intervals on Earth). "They will be named unambiguously as '36-degree East Zone time,' etc., although 'Copernican time,' 'West Tranquillity time' and others may be adopted as convenient." A lunar hour was defined as a "lunour," and decilunours, centilunours and millilunours were also introduced.
Interestingly, one moon watch was sent to the president of the United States at the time, Richard M. Nixon, who sent a thank you note to Franklin. The note and another moon watch were kept in a display case at the Hayden Planetarium for several years.
Quite a few visitors would openly wonder why Nixon was presented with a wristwatch that could be used only on the moon.
Forty years have come and gone without the watch becoming a big seller.
Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, N.Y.
![[-]](https://gayspeak.com/images/duende_v3_local/collapse.png)
