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Author
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Topic: Mercury-Atlas 7 time anomaly (Grand Central)
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ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2043
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 01-09-2016 07:11 PM
   
A great supporter of my Mercury series of Springer books sent me a query on something he noticed in the "Aurora 7" book, which is equally puzzling to me, so I'm hoping someone out there might have an explanation. In the book, lift-off of the MA-7 flight of Scott Carpenter is correctly given as 7:45 a.m. EDT, and this time has been fully checked and confirmed. Yet on page 93 of the book, the attached photo shows a huge crowd at Grand Central Station in New York watching the MA-7 launch live on a huge TV screen, and that is notated in the caption. But note the time on the large clock, which reads 8:45, which I hadn't noticed before. Thinking that it might have been a photo from another Mercury-Atlas crewed mission I checked all the launch times and they were: MA-6 (Glenn) 9:47 EDT; MA-8 (Schirra) 7:15 EDT; and MA-9 (Cooper) 8:04 EDT. Can anyone explain this timing anomaly?  |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2043
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 01-09-2016 08:33 PM
Further research shows this image was used in a TIME magazine retrospective of 100 years of Grand Central Station New York in their 1 February 2013 issue, and the caption clearly states it was for the MA-7 mission of Scott Carpenter.Were New York and Florida on the same EDT back in 1962? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-09-2016 08:46 PM
According to the MA-7 post-flight technical report, the launch was at 7:45:16 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.The clock is apparently displaying Daylight Saving Time (EDT). The confusion may lie with how Daylight Saving Time was adopted in the United States. Until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, states and localities were free to choose when and if they would observe Daylight Saving Time. As such, some (like NASA) could use EST at the same time others (like the CBS clock in Grand Central Station) used EDT. Either way, 1245 UTC is the correct time. |
ColinBurgess
Member Posts: 2043
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003
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posted 01-09-2016 09:57 PM
Aha! Well done, Robert. Mystery solved, thank you. |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1758
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 01-10-2016 06:39 AM
It was my birthday and I talked my mother into letting me skip school to watch and follow the launch. I lived in MA at the time and I remember it was 8:45 AM. |
Lou Chinal
Member Posts: 1332
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 01-10-2016 06:41 PM
Ah yes, I also remember it. I had a clock in my room marked "Cape Time". The cape was an hour behind us. |
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