Sol Standard Timekeeping
Time is a river, and like a river it does not flow smoothly nor evenly. The planets, as divine celestial bodies, warp time around them. People, divine in their own way, do too. Time pools around movement, and flows quicker when still. Yet a minute spent in activity is little more than a moment, while in boredom it drags on forever.
Interplanetary society emerged sometime between the first radio signal caught by a foreign body and the first commercial flight between planets. To coordinate such a society, an interplanetary system of time became a necessity. One of the first goals of the Alliance of Nations was to establish one standard for all. A committee was formed, and a conference was held. Dozens of proposals from each planet were carefully considered, but it was the planet that didn't submit a proposal that won. The Tellian Standard, put forward by the Jovian Timekeeper Institute, was chosen.
The Tellian standard, now called Sol Standard or SST, is based on the celestial dynamics of Tellus. A full Tellian rotation became a day, and a full orbit around the sun, 365 days, became a year. An hour, 1⁄24th of a day, and a second one sixtieth of an hour. It was a nice surprise that the Tellian day aligned with the natural sleep rhythm of most humans and nymphs.
A second standard, Sol Astronomical Standard Time (SAST) was introduced alongside Sol Standard Time (SST). SST was meant to be an interplanetary standard for everyday activities, while SAST was a far more techical standard used by professional spacers and telecommunication technology.
Sol Standard uses an absolute time, which is presented next to the local time. Using SST, a message sent at 5pm one light hour away will arrive at the destination at 6pm. Should two people agree to look up at space at exactly 1pm SST, they would know that they are looking up at the same time. Keeping SST consistent across the Sol System is possible because of Bosonic Clocks. These unique clocks can only be observed once before breaking. It has become tradition to broadcast the timetaking over Universal New Years Eve.
SAST, however, uses relative time. SAST always accounts for flashtime, meaning the speed of light. Using SAST, the message in the example above is sent and recieved at 5pm. It took an hour to arrive, but the destination is an hour further out in astronomical time. When two different people in two totally different location observe the same flicker of a satellite, they observe it at different absolute times, because it takes the light from the satelitte different amounts of time to reach each planet. SAST doesn't actually have a 5pm, instead it uses a mix of celestial coordinates and pulsar flash patterns to stamp when a given signal was sent or recieved. That information allows for time to be triangulated.
Sol Standard uses an absolute time, which is presented next to the local time. Using SST, a message sent at 5pm one light hour away will arrive at the destination at 6pm. Should two people agree to look up at space at exactly 1pm SST, they would know that they are looking up at the same time. Keeping SST consistent across the Sol System is possible because of Bosonic Clocks. These unique clocks can only be observed once before breaking. It has become tradition to broadcast the timetaking over Universal New Years Eve.
SAST, however, uses relative time. SAST always accounts for flashtime, meaning the speed of light. Using SAST, the message in the example above is sent and recieved at 5pm. It took an hour to arrive, but the destination is an hour further out in astronomical time. When two different people in two totally different location observe the same flicker of a satellite, they observe it at different absolute times, because it takes the light from the satelitte different amounts of time to reach each planet. SAST doesn't actually have a 5pm, instead it uses a mix of celestial coordinates and pulsar flash patterns to stamp when a given signal was sent or recieved. That information allows for time to be triangulated.
Origin of Flashtime
The Solar Observatory at Hun Kal, had three satellites placed out in the calm zones of Mercury's orbit. Two satellites flanked the hour-star, while the third was at the opposite side of the sun.Every hour, these satelites send out a flash of information. Reading the information in the flash requires specialized equipment, but the twinkle of the satellites is visible to the naked eye.
After the destruction of Hun Kal, the signal went dead. It was later revived, and is currently produced and sent out from Caduceus.
Early spacefarers mostly used one of two systems: the Jovian Fifth, a timekeeping pattern based on the harmony between the orbit of Jupiter and Saturn, or Hour Star Reckoning, based on observations of Mercury.
Some historical accounts mention an obscure third method called starsinging, which allegedly involved occult rituals, imbibing drugs, or the 'pounding of star-struck blood'.
Some historical accounts mention an obscure third method called starsinging, which allegedly involved occult rituals, imbibing drugs, or the 'pounding of star-struck blood'.
Sol Standard has been adopted in most of the Solar System, even by nations that have not joined the Alliance of Nations. A few hold-outs remain, like Questa Spaceport, which continues to use the Jovian Fifth.
Detractors persist in calling the Sol Standard the Tellian Standard or Noone's time (sometimes shortened to nuntime). The opposition is mostly rooted in either a sense of national or planetary pride, or an unwillingness to learn a new system. SST and SAST is considered by detractors to be impersonal and cold.
Some say it is emblematic of how useless the Alliance of Nations is, that when faced with too many standards, they decided to introduce yet another.
Detractors persist in calling the Sol Standard the Tellian Standard or Noone's time (sometimes shortened to nuntime). The opposition is mostly rooted in either a sense of national or planetary pride, or an unwillingness to learn a new system. SST and SAST is considered by detractors to be impersonal and cold.
Some say it is emblematic of how useless the Alliance of Nations is, that when faced with too many standards, they decided to introduce yet another.
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Notice: This article is a stub. It may be expanded later!
'pounding of star-struck blood' :-D I want to know more about this starsinging. Very nice article and concept.
Check out Shadowfire
Thank you! If you ever run into anyone in Solaris who travels by starsinging, you should probably run.
Solaris -— a sapphic space opera
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