E. Mainers finally get time on their side:Daylight saving offers new light

LUBEC, Maine -- As the easternmost point in the United States, Lubec gets some of the earliest sunrises in America. But it also gets some of the most depressingly early sunsets, with the sun slipping below the horizon before 4 p.m. for weeks on end in early winter.

Which is why, after months of leaving work and eating dinner in dreary darkness, the people of Lubec are eagerly awaiting the earlier-than-usual arrival of daylight saving time this year.

By order of Congress, daylight saving time will start today , three weeks early. Across the country, the sun will set an hour later. In Lubec, that will be 6:29 p.m.

It can't happen soon enough for Jed Coggins, who said he would use the extra sunlight to dig clams, take walks, or simply take in the sun. (snip)

Because Lubec is so far north and east, from mid-November to early January the sun goes down on the town's famous candy-striped lighthouse before many of its 1,600 inhabitants get out of work or get home from school. The earliest sunset is the second week of December, at 3:47 p.m. The shortest day of the year, Dec. 21, has just 8 hours and 48 minutes of daylight.

Because Lubec is situated so far east within the Eastern time zone, the town is often the first place in America to see the rays of the rising sun. The earliest sunrise of the year is in mid-June, at 4:41 a.m. The longest day has more than 15 1/2 hours of daylight.

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"It signals the start of spring in my mind, and I need it," Coggins, 78, said at McFadden's Variety store and deli.

Lubec, situated 180 miles northeast of Portland, has seen brighter days, back when fish were more plentiful and fish processing plants were bustling. Nowadays, its main drag is mostly empty storefronts. Just a few fishing boats are moored in the harbor. The nearest traffic light and movie theater are 50 miles away.

Those early sunsets can make Maine residents crazy, Betsy Anderson joked at Broomstick Creations gift shop. "If you work all day, the worst part is getting off work and it's still dark," she said. "I'm one of those people who need more daylight."

To the east, just across the bridge over Lubec Narrows on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canadians are in the Atlantic time zone. Over there, just a few hundred yards away, the sun sets an hour later than in Lubec, which is in the Eastern time zone.

Erik Lookabaugh, owner of Lubec Hardware, said that daylight saving should be year-round or Maine should join the Atlantic time zone, something the Legislature considered two years ago.

"It's a psychological boost," Lookabaugh said. "The early sunsets are extreme up here."

In 2005, Congress decided to expand daylight saving time in the hope that more daylight in the evening would reduce energy consumption.

Because Lubec is situated so far east within the Eastern time zone, the town is often the first place in America to see the rays of the rising sun. The earliest sunrise of the year is in mid-June, at 4:41 a.m. The longest day has more than 15 1/2 hours of daylight.

In milder climes, people will use the extra hour of daylight to get in a little more golf. For Lubec residents, there is still snow at nearby Herring Cove Golf course.

Karlene Hood, office manager at a former sardine cannery that now houses small businesses processing sea salt and sea cucumbers, intends to use the extra daylight to take rides with her husband on their motorcycle. "We're all happy about it. The sooner it stays light later, the better," she said

Where you are in terms of time zones can make a big difference. I travel out to Ohio in the summer and notice how much longer the daylight lasts out there, compared to Mass.
And there are the times when you can see the difference
being far to the south can be, like on those winter days when you're in New England and it's dark at 4 pm but when you
see a football game in Miami, much further to the west as well as the south, you see it's still daylight out there.

It's funny watching the Red Sox play in Detroit, when it's dark outside and light in Detroit, yet still the same time zone.

The Western Aleutians are on the other side of the 180 meridian and by rights ought to be 12 hours ahead of Greenwich. By convention, they set their clocks one hour behind Anchorage, though they rightly should be two hours behind. Anchorage, in turn, is only one hour behind Seattle, though, by rights, they should be two. The upshot is that during the Summer, clocks in the Western Aleutians run three hours ahead of the Sun. Since some flat windy islands are on the western edge of their "natural" time zones the clocks are actually something like 3:20 ahead of the sun.

Since folks tend to work long shifts out there, five to five is typical. (First shift five am to five pm, second, pm to am). In late summer you have the surreal experience of walking to the chow hall at 4:30 for breakfast in stark darkness, being greeted by Orion burning brightly in the southwestern sky. The equivalent time in New England, based on the position of the stars would be about 2:10 in the morning, including the effects of DLST.

Wonder what's up with the time zone in Nova Scotia.

As they say on the Canadian Broadcasting network, "that's 30 minutes past the hour in New Found Land." The pronounce it that way "New Found Land".

Nova Scotia (new Latin for New Scotland. In classical Latin Scotland is Caledonia) is three and one half hours behind Greenwich, for reasons not entirely clear. As you probably know, up until 1928 New Found Land was an independent country. I suppose it was a concession so they wouldn't join the U.S.

Most countries reckon local time as an integer number of hours offset from Greenwich these days. As late as the 1880's, most every city kept their own local solar mean time. Railroads liked standard "railroad time" to simplify schedules.

Not all countries joined in the rush to reckon time based on the transit of the fictious mean sun across Airey's transit circle, as reckoned by the New Foundland born American astronomer Simon Newcomb, inventor of mean time. The more backward and politically insignificant a country the more they cleave to local standards.

Nepal, Queensland and Iran all have partial hour offsets from Greenwich. France was on Paris mean time, offset from Greenwich by 12 minutes until 1978.

New Found Land may no longer have their own currency, their own postage or a Queen's governor. But they do have their precious half hour of temporal independence.

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