Daylight Savings Time for 2011 is a thing of the past as it was time to fall back as Standard Time, which officially began at 2am local time for people all across the nation, made its annual fall return. While most people are indifferent to the time change, for astronomers, though, this moving back to Standard Time (never mind that 'standard' is now only about 4 months of the year!) makes for a happy time. So why, you may ask.
First, losing an hour of light off the tail end of the day offers one last, albeit brief, window during which one can observe the summer constellations under dark skies. Every night, any given star will rise (and set) four minutes earlier than the last. With the rapidly shortening days, the early rise/set times have been somewhat offset by the shortening days. However, not even this can help turn back the sky the way a sudden hour-long time shift can.
Second, with the clocks being set back an hour, the stars will essentially rise an hour earlier, too. Yes, while night is not coming that late anymore, for anyone wanting to get a look at the winter sky before the Cleveland area, lake effect clouds blot out the stars, falling back can make for an earlier bedtime as most astronomers have day jobs, too.
As always, astronomers in the Cleveland area should be sure to keep an eye on the Cleveland weather forecastand, for hour-by-hour cloud predictions, the Cleveland Clear Sky Clock. The good news: the weather, for this time of year, is looking really good in the Cleveland area this week. Live somewhere else? Find a clockand see if it will be clear near you.
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National Space News Examiner
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