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Orbital Mechanics III: SNS 304 L-3

Sidereal time is used to track satellites and is measured based on the Earth's rotation relative to distant stars, not the sun. It is about 4 minutes shorter than solar time, which is based on the Earth's rotation relative to the sun. The Julian day numbering system is also introduced, which counts days continuously from January 1, 4713 BCE and is used to calculate time differences between events.

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39 views

Orbital Mechanics III: SNS 304 L-3

Sidereal time is used to track satellites and is measured based on the Earth's rotation relative to distant stars, not the sun. It is about 4 minutes shorter than solar time, which is based on the Earth's rotation relative to the sun. The Julian day numbering system is also introduced, which counts days continuously from January 1, 4713 BCE and is used to calculate time differences between events.

Uploaded by

Doaa Khaled
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Orbital Mechanics III

SNS 304
L-3
Sidereal Time

Osama M. Shalabiea
Introduction: Why SIDEREAL TIME?

• To explain how satellites are tracked, the Julian day (JD) numbering
scheme is introduced along with the notion of
sidereal time.
** Description of the topocentric coordinate systems and the
relationships among topocentric right ascension/declination angles
and azimuth/elevation angles.

*** describe how orbits are determined from measuring the range
and the angular orientation of the line of sight, together with their
rates.
✓ To deduce the orbit of a satellite or celestial body from
observations requires, among other things, recording the time
of each observation.

✓ The time we use in everyday life, the time we set our clocks by, i
the solar time.
It is reckoned by the motion of the sun across the sky,

✓ Universal time (UT) is determined by the sun’s passage across


the Greenwich meridian, which is 0° terrestrial longitude (see
Fig. 1.18).
The astronomers are interested to
determine the rotation time of the Earth about its axis
not only with respect to the Sun, but also with respect
to the distant stars (the so-called fixed stars).
In other words, they want to determine how long it
takes the Earth to rotate 360° around its axis with
respect to the fixed stars.
This period of rotation is called sidereal day and can
be determined by observing the starry sky by night.
However, the rotation of the Earth about its axis
does not comprise exactly 360° in a solar day,
because the Earth also revolves about the Sun. In
order for the Earth to do one revolution about the
Sun, that is, in order for the Earth to travel an arc of
360° about the Sun, 365.25 solar days are necessary.
Thus, 360° travelled in 365.25 solar days are about
0°.985626 per solar day.
This means that, in the course of a solar day, the
direction of the Sun seen from a point of the Earth
changes by about 1°. This also means that the Earth
must travel an arc of about 361° in order for the Sun
to travel (in its apparent motion with respect to the
Earth) an arc of 360° along the sky.
The difference between solar day and sidereal day is illustrated
in the preceding figure, where the amplitude of the angle
α= 0°.985626 has been exaggerated for the sake of clarity.
The difference between solar day and sidereal day is illustrated in
the preceding figure, where the amplitude of the angle
α= 0°.985626 has been exaggerated for the sake of clarity.
Since two consecutive passages of the star of reference through
the same meridian take about 23 h, 56 min and 4 s of ordinary
solar time to occur, then a sidereal day is on the average 3 min
and 56 s shorter than a solar day.
In other terms, a solar day is longer than a sidereal day by a factor
which is about
In general terms, sidereal time is defined by some authors as the hour angle
of the vernal equinox, that is,
the hour angle of the ascending node of the ecliptic on the celestial equator.
The Julian day number is the number of days since noon UT on January
1, 4713 BCE. The origin of this timescale is placed in antiquity so that,
except for prehistoric events, we do not have to deal with positive and
negative dates.

The Julian day count is uniform and continuous and does not involve
leap years or different numbers of days in different months.
The number of days between two events is found by simply
subtracting the Julian day of one from that of the other.
The Julian day begins at noon rather than at midnight so that
astronomers observing the heavens at night would not have to deal
with a change of date during their watch.
SIDEREAL TIME

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