This data service provides the Greenwich mean and apparent sidereal time, local mean and apparent sidereal time, and the Equation of the Equinoxes for specified time(s).
Data will be provided for a three year period from 1 January of the preceding year through 31 December of the following year. For dates outside of this range, see MICA.
Use Form A for cities or towns in the U.S. or its territories. Use Form B for all other locations. Both forms are immediately below.
Be sure to read the Notes section (on this page beyond the two forms) for definitions and additional details on the data.
Form A - U.S. Cities or Towns
Form B - Locations Worldwide
Notes
How to Import the Table into a Spreadsheet
Open your favorite text editor, then copy the numerical part of the table (i.e., do not copy the table headings) from your browser and paste it into the text editor. Save the data as a text file.
In Excel for Windows, select Data on the menu bar, then From Text. Select your saved text file. Choose fixed width in the dialog box.
In Excel for Mac, select Data on the menu bar, then Get External Data, then Import from Text File. Select your saved text file. Choose fixed width in the dialog box.
Sidereal Time
Sidereal time is equal to the hour angle of the catalog equinox and is a direct measure of the diurnal rotation of the Earth. Apparent sidereal time is defined by the intersection of the true equator of date with the ecliptic of date and is affected by the precession and nutation of the axis of the Earth. Mean sidereal time is measured against the mean equinox of date and is only affected by precession.
The tabulated sidereal times are given in hours, minutes and seconds, rounded to the nearest 10-4 second. The two quantities differ by very little.
Equation of the Equinoxes
The Equation of the Equinoxes is equal to the apparent sidereal time minus the mean sidereal time.
Equation of Time
The Equation of Time is the difference apparent solar time minus mean solar time. To obtain this value for a specified time, calculate the apparent geocentric right ascension and declination of the Sun using the Geocentric Positions of Major Solar System Objects and Bright Stars service.
Application Programming Interface
This data service uses one of our new Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The API returns data in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format for users who wish to manipulate data into a customized format. For more information on the API, please see the documentation page.