Eli5 how the hell do i read the prague astronomical clock

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Eli5 how the hell do i read the prague astronomical clock

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The Prague clock is actually one of the most amazing and unusual things you will ever have the privilege to fry your brain cells over.

What you must understand about the Prague clock is:
– It’s an astronomical clock, meaning it is designed to show the current astronomy alongside the actual time.
– It’s also laced with a few old time systems which we don’t particularly use anymore.

So how do you read the clock:
1. On the outside of clock is old Czech time. This time is useless in a sense now as it doesn’t start at midnight but instead starts at sunset. To read this you look for the golden hand.
2. In the next ring, is Roman time – which is normal time. Roman time starts at midnight and ends at midnight. This time is not right half the year however as daylight saving is a thing in Prague.
3. Within the next ring is Babylonian time – unlike normal time this time is based on sunrise to sunset. In general, the blueness of the sky is what tells them the current time – but the clock moves to meet this. You look at the sun symbol in order to see the time here.
4. The circle inside the clock represents the current zodiac sign. Basically whatever sign is closest to the edge of the ring is the current sign – this therefore shows off the months as well.
5. The moon symbol shows the current moon cycle and relative to the centre of the clock where the moon and heavenly bodies are relative to Prague.

Below the clock:
1. It’s a massive calendar with all the days on, you should basically just get an idea of how far along we are in the year. You can count if you want.
2. The symbols firstly on the outer ring inner circle is the zodiacs. The symbol then within that shows the current month represented through image.

A very simple way of reading this clock is as follows:
– Don’t read it
– Open Google
– Ask google the answer
– Pretend to your friends you can read the clock
– Get it right because google told you the answers