Tip on getting the correct RST (Real Solar Time) in bazi-calculator.com

[JLim (Darma W)]

Hi All, bazi-calculator is an application that plots your Bazi chart accurately using the entered birth city.  It also includes DST (Daylight Savings Time) info for so many different cities (big and small) throughout the world.

Let me share a user tip:
After you're done with plotting a Bazi chart, please refresh the time zone info using the "Search" button after you enter the new birth data, even though the birth city is the same.  Blue color below is what you need to input.

For example:

First plot:

Moscow, 5 Oct 2014  ---> the app gives the correct time zone of GMT+4.  Second plot:

Moscow, 27 Oct 2014 -->  the app gives the correct time zone of GMT+3. 

If you don't press the "Search" button again, just because the city is the same, then the time zone will remain at DST+4.  Here are details of Moscow time from wikipedia:

From 27 March 2011    GMT+4
From 26 October 2014   GMT+3

Many governments in the world change their time zone settings throughout history.  I know it's confusing, because in the ancient days, people simply used the local mean time, which reflects the true nature of time.  But if you use bazi-calculator.com, then it solves your headache.  The app incorporates the time zone changes already, so you just need to enter the time and city.  But remember the above tip, please refresh with the "Search button".

[Gmuli]

Nice to keep in mind for most countries the history is a lot more complicated, usually.
For example in Russia if someone is born early before 2014, you will need to do one more adjustment, this time for DST.

Because of this:
https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/russia-abandons-permanent-summer-time.html

I don't know if Bazi-calculator does it. In my country for example, DTS wouldn't count before 1979, and overall each country usually has specific adjustments that are needed to fix different events and changes in the calendar.
In the other forum we talked about France for example, where there are places where apparently they get 2 DST at the same time, so it becomes 2 hours difference.

Overall it can be very complicated and even though there are some apps that try to calculate all that, sometimes you need to know local history of the place to be able to do it, as rarely it can be seen in wikipedia.
And of course all countries using gregorian calendar will have the switch from Julian calendar, at some point, skipping a big amount of days in their calendars.

[Voytek]

Hello,
thank you JLim for clarification.
This is a frequent question from my users.
Many masters out there forget about timezones and people don't know how to correctly count real solar time of their birth.

Gmuli, yes, my calculator also takes summer time into account.
So, if you are a premium member, then you only input birth date, country and city and bazi-calculator automatically sets: longitude, timezone and summertime at the moment of birth.
Timezones like GMT+7,5 (for example Malaysia in 1969) are also correctly calculated.

[JLim (Darma W)]

Nice to keep in mind for most countries the history is a lot more complicated, usually.
For example in Russia if someone is born early before 2014, you will need to do one more adjustment, this time for DST.

Yes, time in Russia is very complicated!
1) The country is very wide, especially in the USSR era.  Consequently, there are many time zones for such a wide country
2) The government kept changing times.  For example, if we look only at Moscow (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Time):

From 1 October 1921   UTC+3
From 1 October 1922   UTC+2 (EET)
From 21 June 1930     UTC+3
From 1 April 1981     UTC+3 with DST
From 31 March 1991     UTC+2 with DST
From 19 January 1992   UTC+3 with DST
From 27 March 2011     UTC+4
From 26 October 2014   UTC+3

I don't know if Bazi-calculator does it. In my country for example, DTS wouldn't count before 1979, and overall each country usually has specific adjustments that are needed to fix different events and changes in the calendar.

About DST (Daylight Saving Time) in your country, please note that in 1943 and 1944, DST was effective in Sofia, Bulgaria. 

Source: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/change/bulgaria/sofia

[JLim (Darma W)]

Hi All, I've shifted the sub-topic of upcoming regulation on DST in Europe to here: European Union is likely to make summer last forever ⏰⏰⏰

[Voytek]

Hi,
if you are folks interested, I've published a short PDF manual about Real Solar Time and how to use it in bazi-calculator.com:
https://bazi-calculator.com/instr/RST.pdf
There are some explanations about timezones and longitude correction, DST, equation of time.
As a bazi-calculator.com admin I am really getting dozens of emails from pple being surprised that they should even consider RST corrections, so it looks like many BaZi schools really ignore it 

[JLim (Darma W)]

Hi,
if you are folks interested, I've published a short PDF manual about Real Solar Time and how to use it in bazi-calculator.com:
https://bazi-calculator.com/instr/RST.pdf

Hi Voytek, you're welcome to publish this document as a new topic in your board, and then make this topic sticky. 

Now your bazi chart contains a question mark on the hour.  I understand that this ? mark is actually a link to that document, but it also suggests that the time is doubtful.  May I suggest that the link is shown in another way?

I showed clients the four pillars chart from your program in my reports, and they question mark caught their eyes

[Voytek]

Hello,
thank you for your suggestion, you are right, on some pictures used outside the website, this may be understood as a sign of doubt.
I have changed this to dotted underline, please have a look and tell me your opinion, I hope it's not misleading now.
I need to add some kind of help there, because I was really getting dozens of email regarding this.  So need to leave the underlined help.

[JLim (Darma W)]

Yeah, I like the dotted underline better!



I'd like to suggest "This may have changed the birth hour pillar."

[Voytek]

I'd like to suggest "This may have changed the birth hour pillar."

Yes, thanks, sounds better. Uploaded to server (to see the change, you need to press Ctrl+F5 in the browser to refresh javascript).