The StarDate is a fictious value that was supposedly used to keep track of
mission time while starships were away from known federation planets. Because
of the time distortions encountered by moving at the speed of warp, the
Julian calendar would no longer work, so subspace beacons were needed to
give 'star dates" that account for subspace time fluxes.
But please read the FAQ about the Stardate.
NOTE: the formula gives a "BEFORE WARP" stardate because star dates come do not come
into existance until the year 2323 (when it is rumored that warp technology
was invented, and hence the need for a time system which takes into account
time distortion, subspace anomalies, etc).
It use the following formula:
Take a date such as December 20, 2370 13:12 hrs
YY = 2370 - 2323 = 47
DDD = (334+20)/365*1000 =~ 969
T = (13*60+12)/144 =~ .6
StarDate = 47969.6
The procedure is:
- subtract 2323 from the current year.
- use a special table to get the total # of days that have passed. Divide
this number by 365 or 366, then multiply by 1000. Round to the nearest whole digit.
- Multiply the hours by 60 and add the minutes. Divide this number by 144. Round this
number.
- StarDate is the concatenation of the steps 1,2,3 above.
Another formula from Yves - Switzerland
year-2323*1000
+ 1000*(dayOfTheYear-1)/337+lengthOfFebruary
+ (hour*3600+minute*60+second)/86400