Celestia Forums

Has anyone noticed that you can actually follow the universe even in non-existent past dates ? As every one should know , there has never been a year 0. Timeline goes from 1BC directy to 1AD .

The astronomical calendar does include a year zero, equivalent to the historical 1BCE. Years prior to that go -1 (2BCE), -2 (3BCE) and so on. You'll find that many astronomical data sources use the astronomical calendar: see, for instance, Fred Espenak's eclipse site at http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEcat/SEcatalog.html.

Even astronomers seem to forget this fact, since many of them were among the folk who sneered at the general celebration of the turn of the millennium in 2000 (rather than 2001) - in fact, by the astronomical calendar, that was an entirely logical thing to do.

Grant