The Chronicles of Local Space

Aridian Fixed Calendar

The Aridian Fixed Calendar is used on the world Aridia. Each year of the Aridian Fixed Calendar has 12 months each with 28 days.

The calendar is unusual because it is the only calendar in use on a colony where the day is based on the length of the natural day but the year is not based on the length of the natural year. Aridia has only a slight axial tilt of about 1.6 degrees, and this has no noticeable effect on the seasons. Thus, there is no need for a calendar that accurately tracks the year. The calendar was designed to be convenient for administrative purposes.

The actual length of the local solar year is about 165.37 Aridian days (about 191.71 Earth Standard days). A calendar with a length this short is inconvenient for trade and taxation purposes. A longer trade-based calendar was devised that ignores the local solar year. One calendar year is about three per cent longer than two Aridian solar years.

The Epoch of the Calendar (Year 1, First Month 1) is the date the first settlers arrived on Aridia, adjusted backward to the previous local midnight on the Aridian Prime Meridian. This date is equivalent to 11:59:31 on 2760 May 27 SCE and Julian Day 2729276.99966. The calendar has a length of about 389.51533 Standard Days. The calendar abbreviation is AMAC (Ab Mundo Arido Condita: from the founding of the world of Aridia).

The months are named after the twelve brightest stars in the sky as seen from Aridia.

This document was last modified 2010-09-12 11:34:14 UTC.
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