[Avodah] Chatzot and location

[Zev Sero]

chaim.tatel at yahoo.com wrote:
> Zev,
> Nice try. But that doesn't explain, how, in this day of "atomic" clocks 
> and UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) how Chatzot varies as much as 30 
> minutes in my chart. Latitude and Longitude make a difference.

No, they don't.  UTC is precisely why your chart shows such variation.
If all the people in Seattle choose to set their watches 9 minutes
ahead, then naturally they must add 9 minutes to all zemanim, including
chatzot.  Tomorrow they might decide to set their watches 15 minutes
behind, and if so they will have to subtract 15 minutes from all
zemanim.  And if you personally decide to keep your watch on Israeli
time, you'll have to subtract 10 hours or so.  None of this affects
the metziut.  The sun still rises when it rises, sets when it sets,
and reaches its zenith when it does, regardless of how people choose
to set their watches.


> Daylight in Seattle varies from 9:15 hours today (Jan 26) to 15:12 hours 
> on July 26.

Yes, it does.  It's even shorter on 21-Dec, and longer on 20-Jun.
But what has that got to do with chatzot?

 
> BTW, "Camp time" is actually "standard time" not "daylight time."

Unless your camp decides on something else.  My point is that it's
an artefact of the camp director's arbitrary decision, and it doesn't
affect anything in the real world.  A camper can't look at a calendar
and say "look, candle lighting isn't until 8, and now it's only 7,
so I have an hour till shabbos".  He has to take into account the
fact that his watch is set differently than the one the calendar
publisher expected.  The exact same thing applies to all those
Seattleites who choose to keep their watches 9 minutes ahead, so
as to be an exact number of hours behind UTC.  Chatzot today is at
12:12, all over the planet, but since you have chosen to set your
watch forward 9 minutes, then on your watch it will be at 12:21.

-- 
Zev Sero               Something has gone seriously awry with this Court's
zev at sero.name          interpretation of the Constitution.
                       	                          - Clarence Thomas