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How to Convert to Sidereal Time

Sidereal time is a system of time used by astronomers to accurately point their telescopes. The main difference between sidereal time and standard "solar" time is that solar time is oriented to the sun while sidereal time is oriented to the stars. A sidereal day is slightly shorter than a solar day, measuring about 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds, compared to the 24-hour average length of a solar day.

Instructions

- 1
  Multiply 60 seconds by 60 minutes to determine how many seconds are in a standard hour of a solar day. The arithmetic finds that (60 seconds * 60 minutes) = 3600 seconds.
- 2
  Multiply the number of seconds per hour by 24 to calculate the number of seconds in a solar day. The arithmetic finds that (3600 seconds * 24 hours) = 86,400 seconds.
- 3
  Multiply the number of seconds in a solar day by the fraction (1 / 1.002737909350795), the ratio of the lengths of a solar day and a sidereal day. The arithmetic finds that ((1 / 1.002737909350795) * 86, 400 seconds) = 86,164.090530833 seconds.
- 4
  Divide the value of the sidereal day, in seconds, by 60 to convert to minutes. The arithmetic finds that (86,164.090530833 seconds / 60 minutes) = 1436.068176 minutes.
- 5
  Divide the value of the sidereal day, in minutes, by 60 to convert it to hours. The arithmetic finds that (1436.068176 / 60) = 23.93446959 hours. This is the number of hours in a sidereal day.
- 6
  Multiply the number of hours in a sidereal day by the number of solar days you wish to convert to sidereal. For example, to determine how many sidereal hours are in three solar days, multiply 23.93446959 sidereal hours by three solar days. The arithmetic finds that (23.93446959 sidereal hours * 3 solar days) = 71.80340878 sidereal hours.

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