Time Zone Discrepancies Between astro.com/ACS Atlas versus IANA/Olson Timezone Database
This is a table of time zone discrepancies between two time zone databases:
- The astrological atlas on astro.com, which is based on the ACS Atlas.
- The IANA Time Zone Database (also known as Olson timezone database or “tz database”).
This table lists time zone discrepancies for specific cities for a specific historical time (a time in the past). So, this table lists cities and historical date-times which have time zones that are different from each other in the the 2 databases (astro.com Astrology Atlas and IANA/Olson Time Zone Database).
This table lists the city, date, time, timezone identifier, the time offset (time difference) according to the astro.com Astrology Atlas, and the time offset (time difference) according to the IANA/Olson database.
Formatting:
The date format used below is year-month-day. The time offset is in hours. Positive offsets are eastern time zones, and negative offsets are western timezones. The list is sorted alphabetically by city name (as spelled in English).
Which time zone offset is the correct one?
I don’t know the answer in every case, but see below for notes. Comments are welcome. I would think that the IANA/Olson one is more likely to be correct. Curtis Manwaring, creator of the Terran Atlas, seems to agree (scroll down on his page to read his explanation). The IANA/Olson time zone database has a community discussion with loads of time zone information.
| City | Date (Y-m-d) | Time | Timezone Identifier | Offset (astro.com) | Offset (IANA/Olson/PHP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Busan, Korea | 1965-01-01 to 1965-12-31 | – | Asia/Seoul | 8.5 | 9 |
| Hamlet, Indiana, USA | 1992-01-01 to 1992-04-05 | – | America/Chicago | -5 | -6 |
| Hamlet, Indiana, USA | 1992-10-25 to 1992-12-31 | – | America/Chicago | -5 | -6 |
| Kansas City, Missouri, USA | 1958-04-27 to 1958-10/27 | – | America/Chicago | -6 | -5 |
| Saskatoon, Canada | 1962-07-31 | 12:00 p.m. | America/Regina | 7 | -6 |
| Seoul, Korea | 1961-11-15 | 12:00 p.m. | Asia/Seoul | 8.5 | 9 |
Notes
- Regarding Kansas City, Missouri, USA: It seems that IANA/Olson is correct, while astro.com is wrong on this one. A Missouri newspaper, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, on April 27, 1958 has this quote on page 1:
St. Louis went on daylight saving time at 2 o’clock this morning.
Allen Edwall
September 17th, 2018 at 3:36 pm
How is St. Louis the same as Kansas City? Seems like a big assumption to say 2 cities on either side of Missouri are the same.