Stardate calculators

[Nike]

1313.5 is twelve o'clock noon of one day and 1314.5 would be noon of the next day. Each percentage point is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of one day.

The digit following the decimal point counts tenths of a day. Stardate 45254.4, therefore, represents the noon hour on the 254th "day" of the fifth season.

I rarely see this addressed. It is shown in canon, though:

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Decimal to 24-Hour Time
0.0 = 00:00
0.1 = 02:24
0.2 = 04:48
0.3 = 07:12
0.4 = 09:36
0.5 = 12:00
0.6 = 14:24
0.7 = 16:48
0.8 = 19:12
0.9 = 21:36
1.0 = 24:00


Stardate and time Fraction converted to h:m:s

42592.72 17:16:02 17:16:48 Donald Varley's log (TNG: "Contagion")
42605.57 13:40:22 13:40:48
42607.33 07:55:53 07:55:12
42607.95 22:48:27 22:48:00
42608.29 06:58:01 06:57:36
42609.01 00:14:08 00:14:24

 

[Tuskin38]

How do we know it’s not another random TOS-style stardate?

Because the number was the year the episode took place.

Pike said it was Stardate 2259.something, and season 1 took place in 2259

 

[Nike]

That could easily be a coincidence. There is no way to distinguish. But, of over 900 TV episodes, not one uses Kelvin dates.

 

[The Wormhole]

That could easily be a coincidence. There is no way to distinguish.

That episode also gives another completely contradictory stardate which is completely in the TOS style that the rest of SNW uses.

 

[Nike]

Captain’s log, stardate… shall we say, one?

So, is this a new stardate system for the 25th century? Is Seven’s first captain’s log on the Enterprise-G going to be stardate two?

 

[1001001]

Trying to figure out the un-figure-outable.

 

[The Wormhole]

So, is this a new stardate system for the 25th century? Is Seven’s first captain’s log on the Enterprise-G going to be stardate two?

I'm pretty sure he was just being poetic in that scene. Stardates given in the 32nd century seem to build off the 24th century dates, with the appropriate amount of digits being added to reflect the passage of time.

 

[Nike]

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Sheldons log, stardate 63345.3. While my colleagues are off observing the Leonid meteor shower…

The shower was on November 17, 2009. I calculate that he’s counting from July 15, 1946, 63 years and 122 days earlier, or 63345.3/1000 years. This is consistent with TrekGuide.

For example, BoBW 1 was on stardate 43998.5 and BoBW 2 was on stardate 44001.4. They aired in June and September, respectively. So July 15, 1990, was right in between the two, which was 44000.0. There was a summer break every year around July/August with a rollover to xx000.0 for 15 years on TV, which made these stardates close to the real ones in episodes.

 

[Henoch]

Compounding the issues, for TOS Captain Logs, I have the stardates given as the stardate of the log entry and not the stardate the actual event. Therefore, you can have log entries close together while the events are occurring over a longer period of time; and minutes, hours, days or even months after the event (such as with The Paradise Syndrome.)

 

[BK613]

I rarely see this addressed. It is shown in canon, though:

That's the TOS-R version of the chronometer (yes, they wasted time on this):
Here's whet it looked like originally in The Naked Time and Tomorrow is Yesterday

 

[Nike]

I'm pretty sure he was just being poetic in that scene. Stardates given in the 32nd century seem to build off the 24th century dates, with the appropriate amount of digits being added to reflect the passage of time.

Yeah, I know Riker can’t just declare a new calendar system in his log. Only the Pope can do that.

 

[Lord Garth]

We’d also have to leave out TAS and the movies.

I think Stardates were slowed down during the TOS Movies, so they wouldn't be cycled through so quickly. Then they were sped back up but increased to five digits.

I read this back in the '90s. I think you'll find it interesting. STARDATES IN STAR TREK FAQ (umanitoba.ca)

 

[Nike]

That's the TOS-R version of the chronometer (yes, they wasted time on this):
Here's whet it looked like originally in The Naked Time and Tomorrow is Yesterday

Don’t forget The Galileo Seven.

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Also, see the stardate in 1969.

 

[Nike]

I think Stardates were slowed down during the TOS Movies, so they wouldn't be cycled through so quickly. Then they were sped back up but increased to five digits.

I read this back in the '90s. I think you'll find it interesting. STARDATES IN STAR TREK FAQ (umanitoba.ca)

There’s a link to Andrew Main’s FAQ in the very first post on this thread. Someone in this discussion said they were a contributor on Usenet. The FAQ is 27 years out of date.

According to the FAQ, it’s currently stardate [-26]7748.57. There’s no calculator, but you can find the current stardate listed here. You either have to use the negative “issue number” in brackets [-26], or use the same 4-digit numbers every five years e.g. 7748.57. I’d rather use a 5-digit number, instead.

You might find this link interesting. It’s much more extensive.

 

[BK613]

@Nike The point was that the TOS-R versions of the chronometer are 21st century interpretations that the FX team added.

There was no stardate ticker in the original versions and no one working on the show in the 1960s thought about there being one.

 

[Nike]

@Nike The point was that the TOS-R versions of the chronometer are 21st century interpretations that the FX team added.

There was no stardate ticker in the original versions and no one working on the show in the 1960s thought about there being one.

So? Retcon. They're canon now. But even if they weren’t, there are plenty of 20th century examples of stardates with clocks in canon. In fact, The Star Trek Guide shows that they were thinking of it back in the 60’s. It’s called the “TOS Bible” for a reason.

1313.5 is twelve o'clock noon of one day and 1314.5 would be noon of the next day. Each percentage point is roughly equivalent to one-tenth of one day.

Which was my whole point.

Stardate and time        Fraction converted to h:m:s

42592.72 17:16:02        17:16:48
42605.57 13:40:22        13:40:48
42607.33 07:55:53        07:55:12
42607.95 22:48:27        22:48:00
42608.29 06:58:01        06:57:36
42609.01 00:14:08        00:14:24
Donald Varley's log (TNG: "Contagion")

source

But thanks for the digression into TOS-R. I like the physical switches on the old chronometer.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I think StarDates are supposed to be a nice intermediary "Date & Time" format to convert to local "Date & Time" values.

Since everything seems to operate by "Local Time".

Be it on a Planet, or in space on a StarBase or StarShip.

Every planet will have it's own "Local Time".

Each StarBase & StarShip will have theirs as well since every StarShip / StarBase will probably start operation at it's own time of launch and won't necessarilly have Synchronized clocks since each Facility or Ship will launch on it's date or be aligned with Local Planetary time based on which StarSystem they're in.

It could be a whole host of reasons you wouldn't want every StarShip / StarBase to operate on the exact same time clock.

 

[Nike]

It could be a whole host of reasons you wouldn't want every StarShip / StarBase to operate on the exact same time clock.

Such as?

 

[at Quark's]

There’a difference between the production POV and in-universe POV. IN-universe, Kirk was not trying to obfuscate.

I don't disagree with that. And I'll also concede that trying to make sense out of it can be quite fun. I have done so in the past myself (trying to find useful warp speed formulas).

But if I were a Star Trek writer, I'd deliberately throw in a blatant inconsistency every now and then, just to remind the audience that the warp scale (or Stardate system) is supposed to be inscrutable, and beyond our poor early 21st century understanding of physics, and as a reminder that none of it is meant to be taken literally (and also clearly state in interviews that I did so on purpose)

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

Such as?

If they know that all of StarFleet operates on ___ Time-Zone and most of the staff is sleeping with only a Skeleton crew, it makes it easier to plan a "Surprise Attack" since you know when they're vulnerable.

Having everbody on a different Time-Zone (Relative) would make it harder to predict when to attack since each StarShip / StarBase could've started their "Local Time" based on their operational Launch date.

Ergo, when the "Main Bridge Crew" is fully awake & operational will vary drastically and be sort of Random / Scatter Shot.

That's MUCH harder to plan for and makes it harder for the opposition to plan against you.

That's why you see in many movies that a team needs to "Synchronize their Watches" when they perform a military operation or manuever, to get the timing right for everybody; especially if everybody flies in from different time zones.