Question about time zones in the Vcal program

[Guest guest]

> Hare Krishna

> My name is Gerónimo Yerena. I live in Caracas, Venezuela.

> I've been using the Vcal program for about two years.

> I write because i think there is a thing about the program that should be

> clarified.

> I understand that the time zone that should be entered for the

> calculations is the legal time zone of the city, in order to know the

> moment for breaking the fast according to the legal time of the city.

> But recently i had discussion with a devotee who insisted that the time

> zone that should be used is the 'actual time zone' of the city. He meant

> that one should use not the legal time zone but a time zone that results

> from converting to hours and minutes the longitude difference between

> London and the city.

> All the subject began because i noticed that the time zone for Caracas

> that is used in the Vcal program is -4.30, when actually the legal time

> zone for Caracas is -4.00. Indeed the legal time zone for all places in

> Venezuela is -4.00. The devotee i mentioned said that for the program

> calculations it is not important the legal time zone, but i wrote once to

> Shyamasundara dasa asking this question and he answered that the legal

> time zone should be used along with the longitude and the latitude, and in

> that way the program can figure out the time for breaking the fast.

> I noticed that in your Web page the time zone for Caracas is also -4.30,

> instead of -4.00.

> I think that if the legal time zone should be used then it would be

> important to explain this in the instructions of the Vcal program, in

> order to avoid confusion among the devotees. It would be also important

> because it would encourage the devotees to find out the legal time zone of

> their locations, in the case that the legal time zone given in the vcal

> program were wrong.

> Finally it think it would be important that the time zones used in the Web

> site and in the future program were reviewed and corrected.

> Please tell me if am wrong or not. I would appreciate if you answered my

> question.

> Thanks for your attention.

> Haribol

> Gerónimo Yerena

 

Hare Krishna! Thank you for your query. As you have correctly ascertained,

this is a point that needs to be clarified.

 

The program uses the 'legal time zone' of the place only for the purpose of

expressing the Ekadasi break fast timings according to the conventional

clock settings in the locality. As your friend has properly pointed out,

calculating which observance is to occur on which day is a function of

'actual time zone' of the city, called 'true local time'. VCal uses true

local time to make all its calculations, but then at the very end of the

calculations it converts the break fast timings from true local time to the

'legal time zone' for the benefit of those whose clocks are set to the

'legal time zone'.

 

I hope that is a sufficient explanation.

 

As far as the time zone setting being incorrect for Caracas, that is how

VCal was set up originally, and the new site vcal.iskcongbc.org simply uses

the same settings. It is unfortunate that it was set incorrectly. We are

making note of this problem and will try to fix it in a future upgrade of

the site.

 

Best regards, Bhaktarupa Das