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Zman! III Documentation

Explanation of the times displayed by Zman! III

Sunrise: Upper edge of sun appears on the horizon. (Tip: tap "Sunrise:" on the display to quickly switch to the Sun Rise, Set and Twilights information screen) Sunset: Upper edge of sun disappears below the horizon. Light Candles: 18 minutes before sunset. Only displayed when the date selected or current date is Friday. Alot Hashachar: -16.1 d According to some opinions - center of the sun is 16.1 degrees below the horizon. -72m Commonly accepted time for Alot Hashachar - 72 minutes before sunrise. MeSheyakir - Earliest Talit: -11 d According to some opinions - center of sun is 11 degrees below the horizon. -45 m According to one opinion - for NY City Area - 45 minutes before sunrise. Latest Shema: M.A. - Latest time to recite Shema. 36 minutes before GRA. GRA - 1/4 of the day between sunrise and sunset. Latest Tfila: M.A. - Latest time to recite morning prayers. 24 minutes before GRA. GRA - 1/3 of the day between sunrise and sunset. Chatzot-Midday: 1/2 of the day between sunrise and sunset. PH - Proportional Hour Sha'a Zmanit - 1/12 of the day between sunrise and sunset.
Mincha Gedola: Earliest time to recite afternoon prayers. GRA - The greater of either 30 minutes or 1/2 of a Sha'a Zmanit (PH) after Midday. M.A. - The greater of either 30 minutes or 1/2 of a Sha'a Zmanit (PH) + 6 minutes after Midday. Mincha Ketana: GRA - 9.5 Sha'a Zmaniyot (PH) after sunrise M.A. - 9.5 Sha'a Zmaniyot (PH) after sunrise + 42 minutes. Plag Hamincha: GRA - 10.75 Sha'a Zmaniyot (PH) after sunrise M.A. - 10.75 Sha'a Zmaniyot (PH) after sunrise + 57 minutes. Light Candles: 18 minutes before sunset. Only displayed when the date selected or current date is Friday. Showed again on second screen for convenience. Sunset: Upper edge of sun disappears below the horizon. Also shown again on second screen for convenience. Tzait Hacochavim: +8.5 d - according to some opinions - center of sun is 8.5 degrees below the horizon. +72 m - according to some opinions - 72 minutes after sunset.

Additional Feature Explanation

The Zman! III page 1 display has several buttons at the bottom of the screen.

• Tap the displayed date to use the PalmOS Date Selector to chose another date.
• The "left" and "right" triangle buttons either decrement the selected date by 1 day or increment it by 1 day and recalculates the zmanim.
• T selects Today.
• Tapping the Location switches you to the location screen where you can enter location information.
• Use Next to show the next page of times calculated by Zman! III

Zman! III page 2:

• The Prev button at the bottom of Page 2 of Zman! III returns you to Page 1 of Zman! III

High Latitude Considerations

For locations with high latitudes, [example Barrow, Alaska (longitude W156.8, latitude N71.3)] where the sun does not rise or set during portions of the year, Zman! will not display any times. There are other locations where, during certain times of the year, the sun does rise and set, but the sun does not dip sufficiently below the horizon to be used as a reference for Alot Hashachar, -16.1 degrees, MeSheyakir, -11 degrees, and Tzait - +8.5 degrees. (Example: Oslo, Norway, longitude E10.45, latitude N59.55). Hence, Zman! will not display data for those fields. In these locations, please consult your Rabbinic authority for guidance.

Zman! III Additional Screens

The Zman! III View menu option allows you to access other parts of the program have a subset of features available to Sol! II program users.

Compass - helps you find the direction of North, East, South and West using the sun or your shadow. The compass vanes are labeled for easy identification. Press I push button to invert the compass for "Shadow Compass" use.
Sun Rise/Sun Set - displays information regarding Sun Rise and Sun Set, including the rise and set times, the transit time, and the beginning and end of Civil, Nautical and Astronomical Twilight. Use the Z button on the lower left hand corner of the display to quickly return to the Zman! III primary screen. Use the menu silkscreen icon to display position information for the Sun.

Release History

• 2000 Feb 4 Zman! III Version 1.3.0
  • Calculation correction made to Mincha Gedola M.A.
  • Contact information updated
• 2000 April 18Zman! III Version 1.2.1
  • Made adjustments to the color and small icon resources.
• 2000 April 13Zman! III Version 1.2.0
  • Color Icon and Small Icon added for the Palm OS 3.x operating systems.
• 2000 April 9 Zman! III Version 1.1.2
  • Corrected a rounding bug in the proportional hour value displayed.
• 2000 February 17 Zman! III Version 1.1.1
  • Updated the compass instructions to explain using the Shadow Compass feature.
  • Removed the rest (hopefully) of the Euro characters that were in the programs.
• 2000 February 16 Zman! III Version 1.1.0
  • Several performance enhancements were made to the pop up forms and screens eliminating unnecessary recalculations.
  • Several "quick access" buttons were added to speed up access to features.
    • A small dot button was added to quickly get to the compass.
    • Tapping on "Sunrise:" on the Zman! III primary screen puts you on the Sun Rise & Set screen.
    • The "Z" button on the Sun Rise & Set screen returns you to the Zman! III primary screen.
  • A legend was added to the compass vanes to display, East, South and West.
  • An Invert Button was added to the compass to allow using it as a "Shadow Compass".
  • Several "Euro" characters were displayed by the program in various places. This was fixed.
• 15 January 1999 Zman! III Version 1.0.0
  • Zman! III is functionally equivalent to Zman! II however it supports a multiple location database using Star Pilot Technology's Location Manager
  • Zman! III has the ability to display times with the fractional minutes component, similar to the original Zman!. To get fractional minutes displayed, press the menu silkscreen icon, select Sun Rise and Sun Set, and then check or uncheck the Round checkbox depending on how you want it set. When displaying "unrounded" times, the times are displayed in 24hr format.