Just a small note about how to use user Whiteboards: they are only for personal use. To contact other users you need to click on their user names, and write on their Whiteboard. Note, that the Information on the whiteboard can be read by other users so is not secure. The passing on of messages and notes with other users can also be made with Personal mail.
If any registered users have any problems, please contact me by the forums private main or post a message onto my whiteboard (not your personal white board, as i do not normally check members pages). Non-members can start a new thread in the 'All queries go here section', or post to a relevant thread.
First; is your new post already covered? This site has many threads covering most astronomical and space topics. To avoid duplicate posts, make sure you've searched thoroughly for the subject which might be covered already. Your new thread may already be covered under an alternate spelling, or simply under an alternative name or expression. Duplicate posts will normally be merged, or alternatively, if your post is a duplicate but it is deemed to be important, your post may have a redirected link added to the original main thread; this is at the discretion of this sites moderators. (A technical issue of merged posts is that your post does not bump up the original thread, ie, does not appear at the top of sections.) If in doubt, post into the members Sorting Office or the public Off Topic sections.
Universal Time (UT) is a timescale based on the rotation of the Earth. It is a modern continuation of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), i.e., the mean solar time on the meridian of Greenwich, and GMT is sometimes used loosely as a synonym for UTC. In fact the expression "Universal Time" is ambiguous, as there are several versions of it, the most commonly used being UTC and UT1 (see below). All of these versions of UT are based on sidereal time, but with a scaling factor and other adjustments to make them closer to solar time. Source