MnAstro Forums

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed legislation, called the Sunshine Protection Act, that would make daylight saving time permanent starting November 2023. The House must still pass the bill before it can go to the president to sign, but it seems it's on the fast track.

I have ALWAYS appreciated getting back to standard time, because we could start star parties early enough for the little kiddos. From Nov - Jan, you could start during the 5:00 hour and get done before 8:00. I always try to pack 'em in before DST starts in March. If this kicks in, that all goes away. Won't be able to start until after 6:00. <sigh>

Of course, MORNINGS will be darker (with Civil Twilight going all the way past 8 am,) but I've given up morning events long ago. No one shows! Everyone seems to have a very tight schedule in the morning - get up, get dressed, get out the door, get to work - with NO time to spare.

Just seems weird, now that the technology allows us to change with hardly any hassle. My phones, my software, my watches, my clocks, all change by themselves, or with a simple click.

Worse things, I know, but still. Getting tough to be a vampire.

I wrote an article, which was published in last Friday's (3/11/22) Star Tribune, advocating a new clock standard that would eliminate the need for Daylight Saving Time. The new clocks would run slightly faster in the spring and slightly slower in the fall so that sunrise would be at the same time year round. I call this Sunrise Standard Time. Of course this wouldn't do anything for amateur astronomers, pushing sunset even later in the summer!

See https://www.startribune.com/its-time-fo ... fresh=true

I too wish it was standard, not daylight saving, that was being made permanent.

Regarding Dick's progressive adjustment, there is an added complication for anyone who needs to make international calls. As an example, the lab I used to work in had a sister lab in Sweden. When making calls to our Swedish colleagues (and sometimes other countries) it was hard enough keeping track of the time zone differences and when they went on/off daylight saving (not the same dates as in the U.S.). But at least we did not also have to calculate an odd number of minutes difference that varied with each passing day.

Standard time should be just that -- THE standard time for the US. Particularly important for northern tier states, where nights are longer and sunrises later. Adding an extra hour of darkness creates a number of problems / risks when applying DST year round. And there is substantial scientific evidence and opinion that supports standard time. If I'm reading the info correctly, states will still have the option to stay on standard time year round. Doubt MN would go that far, but I hope at least the US House weights pros/cons of each before they rush to a change without any advance notice nor consideration of the science as did the Senate.

To Ron's point, with the automated appliances I have, I'll now need to buy new ones that don't change twice a year. TV & phone,no problem, but my coffee maker is "hard wired" to automatically change. I could just wait an hour for the brewing to begin or I suppose I could look through the manual to find where the start button is. I have a year to figure it out...

I'd definitely prefer Standard vs Daylight time as well, but that doesn't seem to be on the table. From what I've heard, they've already weaponized this as CAUSING heart attacks and killing people when Daylight time starts. Let's try to avoid yet another decisive debate that splits the nation and go with my dad's suggestion, move the time 1/2 hour and leave it.

Merle

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this is weird. I've long wanted to get rid of Daylight Saving Time because it was an arbitrary hassle that saved nothing. Getting rid of Standard Time doesn't make any sense to me. High noon will forever be at 1pm. <sigh>

I had totally forgotten about it, but in the 1970's the US did an experiment where we stayed on Daylight Saving Time for almost two years! For the most part, people did not like it.

https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/03/1 ... -hated-it/

Personally, I wouldn't mind if we did away with the twice a year change, but I'd much prefer we stayed with Standard Time all the time.

Dale Smith wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:28 am ... there is an added complication for anyone who needs to make international calls. As an example, the lab I used to work in had a sister lab in Sweden. When making calls to our Swedish colleagues (and sometimes other countries) it was hard enough keeping track of the time zone differences and when they went on/off daylight saving (not the same dates as in the U.S.)...

I understand your pain. Throughout the period from 2004-2018 I worked with a team who had members in Switzerland, England, Australia, France, Spain, India, and even one person in Russia, in addition of course to people all across North America. It was crazy trying to find a time for conference calls that weren't absolutely horrible for at least half of the participants. At least it's now easy enough to Google "What is the current time in <city, country>" to figure out when you can call someone.

setnes wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:19 am I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this is weird. I've long wanted to get rid of Daylight Saving Time because it was an arbitrary hassle that saved nothing. Getting rid of Standard Time doesn't make any sense to me. High noon will forever be at 1pm. <sigh>

Hopefully they'll include funding to reset every sundial from coast to coast so that they will more accurately report the time.

Dale Smith wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 8:28 am I too wish it was standard, not daylight saving, that was being made permanent.

Regarding Dick's progressive adjustment, there is an added complication for anyone who needs to make international calls. As an example, the lab I used to work in had a sister lab in Sweden. When making calls to our Swedish colleagues (and sometimes other countries) it was hard enough keeping track of the time zone differences and when they went on/off daylight saving (not the same dates as in the U.S.). But at least we did not also have to calculate an odd number of minutes difference that varied with each passing day.

Under my Sunrise Standard Time proposal, there would be a single internationally agreed upon time adjustment. This would provide an exact constant sunrise time at one latitude, say 40 degrees north, and a less accurate adjustment at other latitudes. Countries would either adopt the new standard or stay on the present standard time, as they do now. The difference between old and new standard time would vary throughout the year, but would be the same worldwide.

Sunshine Protection Act! Solar observers will be very happy, planetary and deep space observers, not so much!

kibatme wrote: ↑Fri Mar 18, 2022 9:31 am Particularly important for northern tier states, where nights are longer and sunrises later.

Well, the Senator who pushed this through the Senate is from a very southern state. Likely didn't even consider the views of northern states.