Timekeeping

As is natural for a universe governed by physics, the precise orbital and rotational period of every planet is different. In the first decades, interstellar colonies were separated by years of travel time. Humans in Kyandor, Sol, New Sol, and Rangel were unable to communicate with one another due to communications delays lasting centuries, and travel times lasting between 20 and 50 years. In essence, each world was a totally isolated pocket of civilization until the Interstellar Relay Gate was invented in the 3150s.

When contact was made between long-separated groups, exactly how transit should be scheduled was up for debate. Many systems were proposed and most, if not all of them, are still in use in some areas of the galaxy.

## Gregorian Calendar

The Gregorian Calendar was the dominant calendar on Earth for centuries before being abandoned in favor of the Solar Standard Calendar. Its measurements are based upon the orbital and rotational periods of Earth and its moon.

### Epoch

The gregorian calendar starts with when Jesus of Nazareth is believed to have been born. These years are followed by either "AD" or "BC", meaning Anno Domini (Latin: The Year of Our Lord) and Before Christ. The secular name for these eras are "CE" and "BCE", meaning Common Era and Before Common Era.

## Darian Calendar

The standard calendar of Mars and her colonies until 2350 and after 2393. It is based upon Mars' orbital and rotational movements. In each group of six months out of the total of 24, the first five have 28 days, while the last has 27. The only exception is that the last month, Vrischika, has one additional day on martian leap years.

### Martian Months

Mars' months are named for the signs of the zodiac, alternating between their names in Latin and in Sanskrit. For instance, Libra, the 21st month, is followed by Tula, the 22nd month. Both words refer to the same sign, but in different languages. Due to its orbital eccentricity, the seasons are not uniform in length.

### Epoch

The Darian Calendar began in 1609 CE / 11609 HE. In that year, Johannes Kepler made use of Tycho Brahe's observations of Mars to discover the laws of planetary motion, and Galileo Galilei made his first observations of the planet via telescope. This is referred to as the Telescopic Epoch. When Mars was colonized in 2083 CE, the martian year was AT 265, mere weeks from the year 266. The calendar was changed in 416, and was changed back in 439 when Mars regained independence from the Solar Union.

## Solar Standard Calendar

The Solar Standard Calendar was adopted in 2350 CE. It features seven months with 30 days (January, February, April, May, July, August, and November), and five with 31 (March, June, September, October, and December). It follows the same leap year rules as the Gregorian calendar, with one leap year every four years unless the year can be evenly divided by 100, with exceptions to that rule made for years divisible by 400. Leap days are still placed at the end of February for traditional reasons.

### Epoch

The Solar Standard Calendar either uses the Holocene Epoch, measuring years since the approximate birth of agriculture, or the old standard Common Epoch, which was based upon the approximate birth year of Jesus Christ of the Christian faith. The difference between the two is roughly 10000 years, making the date of its adoption either 2350 CE or 12350 HE.

## Kyandor Short Calendar

The Kyandor Short Calendar was created in an attempt to roughly approximate an Earth year using Kyandor's extremely short orbital period.

 Year
 Day

### Epoch

The Kyandor Short calendar's epoch is based upon when the liveship *Traveler* arrived in the Kyandor system, in the year 2925 CE/12925 HE.