Question, puzzled by clock face concept?

[MilwaukeeLion]

Maybe so simple its staring me in face, but puzzled on this.  One of the things I enjoy is viewing objects passing in front of the sun and moon.  Some ive seen by accident but after getting tips on here regarding sites like Calsky its no longer just luck.  I'm really bad at imaging them, but keep trying.  One problem I have is I can get the time and date and how long the crossing will be no problem but then it will say "in a clock face concept it will appear to move toward 8:56".  Now on the ones that say "it will appear to move toward 8:40" it seems easy both 8 and 40 are in the same place on a clock.  I just point telescope there and observe or attempt to image.  The ones that say 8:56 im confused on, do I go off the hour or minute?   Why would you even need an hour?  Why not just use minute info.?

 Like the image below, are they saying it will be the green or blue lines, moving one direction or the other toward 56?  Are they just saying it will be in the general vicinity like the red lines and are unsure exactly where it will cross?  Or will it actually cross in some kind of curve, like the white line coming in a 8 and leaving at 56?  Most of the objects are not on Stellarium so that doesn't help much.  Bit harder with the moon, I want to zoom in as much as possible to see and image but with an "8:56" im unsure where to zoom?

Thanks for any help !

ML

[Cornelius Varley]

The time (8:40,  8:56 etc) refers to where the hour hand is pointing. So 8:56, for example, the hour hand is nearly pointing at the 9.

[RichM63]

From a Rally Road Book concept under blind navigation conditions; firstly you have to be able to visualise a clock face when looking forwards with your Sun or Moon as a background.

The hour hand/time then gives you, right, left, up/down, and the minutes give the 'angle' away from 90° to the hour.

In other words from your example, if the time was 8:56, I would look in the bottom left quadrant and move upwards. If the time was 3:20 I would look in the lower right quadrant and move downwards.

Driving, take the track at 3:20 tells me I have a fairly sharp right turn, 3:25 even sharper. But both resulting in me then travelling back towards my previous origin in terms of on planet position.

Yikes that sounds as clear as mud, but if I threw a Road Book at you and we spent a W/E zipping along, the idea would become clear.

I doubt that I have helped. Rich

[MilwaukeeLion]

6 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

The time (8:40,  8:56 etc) refers to where the hour hand is pointing. So 8:56, for example, the hour hand is nearly pointing at the 9.

Thanks, clears that up.

[MilwaukeeLion]

5 hours ago, RichM63 said:

From a Rally Road Book concept under blind navigation conditions; firstly you have to be able to visualise a clock face when looking forwards with your Sun or Moon as a background.

The hour hand/time then gives you, right, left, up/down, and the minutes give the 'angle' away from 90° to the hour.

In other words from your example, if the time was 8:56, I would look in the bottom left quadrant and move upwards. If the time was 3:20 I would look in the lower right quadrant and move downwards.

Driving, take the track at 3:20 tells me I have a fairly sharp right turn, 3:25 even sharper. But both resulting in me then travelling back towards my previous origin in terms of on planet position.

Yikes that sounds as clear as mud, but if I threw a Road Book at you and we spent a W/E zipping along, the idea would become clear.

I doubt that I have helped. Rich

Makes sense to me, sounds fun, always wanted to do Mexico desert rally.