GUIDANCE for BEGINNERS HOW TO READ OUR CHARTS

The times of events presented in this section are based on the city of Ottawa. It is common for astronomical almanacs to be centred on the capital of the country for which they are designed. Purely celestial events happen at the same absolute time across the country. Since Canada is such a broad country, the time of celestial events must be corrected for your time zone, whether west of Ottawa (add hours) or east (subtract hours). Other events involving a terrestrial reference will require additional corrections for your distance from Ottawa, which are provided in the Ottawa Time Corrections table.

DETERMINING LOCAL TIME FOR LOCAL EVENTS

Most celestial events listed in the “Notable Events” column only need correction for your time zone difference from eastern time (Ottawa). However, the sun and moon times, and events that reference the horizon or meridian, will benefit from the Ottawa Time Corrections table because risings, settings and transits depend on your difference in latitude and longitude from Ottawa.

Once you make the time zone correction from Ottawa’s eastern time zone to your time zone, you must then apply the Ottawa Time Corrections table to get more accurate local times. This corrects for your longitude within your time zone, as well as the latitude difference between Ottawa and your city. To your initial time zone correction from eastern time, add the number (in the table) corresponding to the month and your city, or subtract it if the number is negative.

The entries are given for mid-month, so you may wish to interpolate to specific days for more accurate values. There will be additional errors due to interpolation of the data if you are not in the city centre or at ground level; however, these will be relatively small.

MONTHLY TABLES

These tables provide the times of numerous celestial events.