Mean Noon

mean noon

[′mēn ′nün]

(astronomy)

Twelve o'clock mean time, or the instant the mean sun is over the upper branch of the meridian; it may be either local or Greenwich, depending upon the reference meridian.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Mean Noon

 

the instant of upper transit of the fictitious point on the celestial sphere known as the mean sun. At mean noon, clocks operating on mean solar time, which is in general use, register 12 o’clock. Mean noon differs from apparent noon, which is the instant the apparent, or true, sun is over the upper branch of the meridian, by a quantity known as the equation of time.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.