Time zones and the Source-a-Thon (2020)

Question

I keep seeing people asking "when does the Source-a-Thon start for (insert timezone)".  

Times given for start and finish are in US Eastern Daylight Time (currently GMT-4), but around the world things aren't the same, and some have trouble working out the when.  (My kids are in two different timezones for half of the year, and the same timezone for the other half, and my time changes twice a year as well, so we are used to juggling things.)

The Source-a-Thon starts on Friday, October 2 at 8 AM (US EDT) and ends Monday, October 5, 8 AM (US EDT) – which is currently GMT -4,.

East Coast Australia is currently GMT+10, but dratted silly time starts on Sunday 4th October, at 2:00 am, therefore changing halfway through the 'Thon to GMT+11 (except Queensland – other states per table).

Our cousins in New Zealand are currently GMT+12, but by the last weekend of September they will switch to summer time, so by the start of the 'Thon NZ will be GMT+13.

State	Standard Time	Dratted Silly Time
Australian Capital Territory (ACT)	GMT+10	GMT+11
New South Wales (NSW)	GMT+10	GMT+11
Northern Territory (NT)	GMT+9:30	N/A
Queensland (QLD)	GMT+10	N/A
South Australia (SA)	GMT+9:30	GMT+10:30
Tasmania (TAS)	GMT+10	GMT+11
Victoria (VIC)	GMT+10	GMT+11
Western Australia (WA)	GMT+8	N/A

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You can check time zones across the world on https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/

(I hope this is helpful to those who keep wondering.)

Comments

Dratted Silly Time!!! Oh my that made me giggle.

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I usually call it stupid time, but worried that "stupid" might be a tad strong for g2g.

(My daughter's husband has stronger terms for it.)

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Thanks Melanie. This is brilliant.

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Thanks!  I just figured

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Just needed a good belly laugh! Thanks Melanie.

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Just because it's a serious subject, doesn't mean we can't also inject a wee bitty bit of humour. 

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Thanks, Melanie "Dean Martin" Paul!

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(My lyrics after the second line need some work .. but it was off the cuff.)

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Thr military among you will recall that NATO uses a single letter to denote timezone, of which there are nominally only 24 if you ignore rogue nations which use an odd half-hour(are there any now?).  So when the Royal Navy sails East to subdue the Mediterranean (again), families wave goodbye in winter in good old Greenwich time, which is Zulu, expressed e.g. 0800Z.  Then a couple of days later, Colours, or eight  bells of the morning watch if you will, takes place at 0800A.  And so on.  If silly times are in force, one simply changes the letter as appropriate.  So no need for all those plusses, minusses, DSTs and whatnot.  Simple eh?

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Here's an additional listing of standard times across  the world (remember - summer time offsets by 1 additional hour) :

Timezone :

• (GMT -12:00) Eniwetok, Kwajalein
• (GMT -11:00) Midway Island, Samoa
• (GMT -10:00) Hawaii
• (GMT -9:00) Alaska
• (GMT -8:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)
• (GMT -7:00) Mountain Time (US & Canada)
• (GMT -6:00) Central Time (US & Canada), Mexico City
• (GMT -5:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada), Bogota, Lima
• (GMT -4:30) Caracas (GMT -4:00) Atlantic Time (Canada), La Paz, Santiago
• (GMT -3:30) Newfoundland (GMT -3:00) Brazil, Buenos Aires, Georgetown
• (GMT -2:00) Mid-Atlantic
• (GMT -1:00 hour) Azores, Cape Verde Islands
• (GMT) Western Europe Time, London, Lisbon, Casablanca
• (GMT +1:00 hour) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris
• (GMT +2:00) Kaliningrad, South Africa, Cairo
• (GMT +3:00) Baghdad, Riyadh, Moscow, St. Petersburg
• (GMT +3:30) Tehran (GMT +4:00) Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Baku, Tbilisi
• (GMT +4:30) Kabul
• (GMT +5:00) Ekaterinburg, Islamabad, Karachi, Tashkent
• (GMT +5:30) Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, New Delhi
• (GMT +5:45) Kathmandu
• (GMT +6:00) Almaty, Dhaka, Colombo
• (GMT +6:30) Yangon, Cocos Islands
• (GMT +7:00) Bangkok, Hanoi, Jakarta
• (GMT +8:00) Beijing, Perth, Singapore, Hong Kong
• (GMT +9:00) Tokyo, Seoul, Osaka, Sapporo, Yakutsk
• (GMT +9:30) Adelaide, Darwin
• (GMT +10:00) Eastern Australia, Guam, Vladivostok
• (GMT +11:00) Magadan, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia
• (GMT +12:00) Auckland, Wellington, Fiji, Kamchatka

Answer 1

Thank you for that, Melanie.

I am pleased that Daylight Savings starts before the weekend of the source-a-thon in NZ - makes my time conversions much easier.

For the hangouts. I can't do them yet because the schedule is not currently available.

Answer 2

And for most of the Europeans:

At the moment (until end of October) we have the Mitteleuropäische Sommerzeit (MESZ), which is called in british english Central European Summer Time (CEST) and in US-english Central European Daylight Saving Time (CEDT or CET DST).

The time difference between Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), now called Universal Time coordinated (UTC) is UTC/GMT+2.

Our Mitteleuropäsche Zeit (MEZ) - Central European Time (CET) is UTC/GMT+1.

Answer 3

Thanks Mel - I’m always confused by this stuff!  I’m in Qld tonight but NT in the morning!  So if US starts at 8am 2/10 and are GMT-4, 14 hours ahead, does that mean Qld starts tonight 1/10 at 6pm?  So I’m late already!!??

Comments

Cleary I have no head for this - just saw Kathleen’s post saying NT would be 10.30pm start tomorrow (and Qld 11pm)  How can I get that so wrong????

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Because time zones are confusing.

Set your computer (and phone) to two timezones. (I have three on my computer - the one I'm in, the one for my daughter (east coast Aus (the stupid time expression is hers)), and the one for my son (northern east coast Aus (no stupid time change for him)).

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So if US starts at 8am 2/10 and are GMT-4, 14 hours ahead

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Here's where you are getting it wrong.  The US is BEHIND, not ahead.  Australia and New Zealand (and other points west of the US) are all on tomorrow's side of the international dateline.

So, for most of a day, you are tomorrow to my today. 

Answer 4

Can I  just clarify for anyone wherever you are that it starts at 12.00 UTC/GMT so if you know your relationship to this you should be able to work out the local time.

West of this should be earlier in the day and to the East of this such as mainland Europe and Asia much of Africa and Australia and New Zealand  will be late Friday or early Saturday.

Daylight saving time will impact so ensure you consider this.

Comments

The easiest explanation :)