Help:Timezone

The data field Timezone gives the abbreviation of the effective timezone name, if known.

It also gives the effective time meridian for the birth time, in one of two formats, which correspond to the timezone notation style of Astrodienst. We never use plus or minus to indicate a timezone, but 'e' to indicate timeszones east of Greenwich, 'w' to indicate timezones west of Greenwich.

• h5w = hours 5 west (of Greenwich)
• h2e = hours 2 east (of Greenwich)

In cases when the time difference is not a multiple of half hours, we give the time meridian in degrees and minutes:

• m43w30 = time meridian 43°30' west of Greenwich
• m02e20 = time meridian 2°20' east of Greenwich

Finally, the 'time type' is indicated, which can be

• standard time = this is a regular time, no daylight saving time applicable
• DST = one hour daylight saving time
• war time = the same as DST, but used during World War I and II
• double war time (occured in UK and Germany during and after WW II
• local mean time

Please note that in case of DST/war time the difference has already been applied. For example, EDT (Eastern Daylight time), the timezone during the summer in the eastern parts of the US will be listed as:

• EDT h4w (is DST)

The value 'h4w' means 'hours 4 west', i.e. the DST shift of one hour twoward the east has already bee applied.

The birthtime field will usually list 'wrist watch time' or 'wall clock time', which is the time which was shown at the birth location on a correctly set wall clock or wrist watch, without any transformations of any kind. This is the time usually used in documents which record time.

Calendar and year

Currently (March 2009) all dates given are using the Gregorian Calendar, even for data before the introduction of it. This originates from the old Astrodatabank software, from which the wiki content is imported.

In a future release this will change, and the calendar 'greg' or 'jul' will be indicated with the date, for years where there could be a doubt.

The old software could not represent years BC, and therefore no data for such birth years are present. There are two false records for the Greek philosopher Socrates, though, which make no sense, because they give the wrong year.