The Sidereal Time App gives the user a simple and quick way to determine:
- Local Apparent Sidereal Time (LAST) based on longitude
- Rough estimate of LAST based on Time Zone
- Greenwich Apparent Sidereal Time (GAST)
- Select one of 30 Stratum-1 NTP servers or add your own to synchronize the clock against the primary network time standard
The App uses core location (GPS, cellular triangulation and/or Skyhook Wirelesss Wi-Fi system) to determine the users present position and hence his LAST. The user may also manually select the longitude coordinate to determine LAST or make a rough estimate by selecting a Time Zone.
A running clock with the Coordinated Universal Time is presented in parallel with the Sidereal Time clock.
Local Apparent Sidereal Time at any location differs from the Greenwich Sidereal Time value of the same moment, by an amount that depends on the longitude of the location. When one moves eastward 15° in longitude, sidereal time is larger by one hour and hence wraps around at 24 hours. Unlike computing local solar time, differences in longitude and time are counted here to the accuracy of measurement, not just in whole hours.