[starwarrior99]

The current stardate for today is 52112.87. I don't understand how that works. I think they just put up random numbers or something.

[Sharpkiller]

In the shows, there is supposed to be a logic to it, but there many cases where Stardates aren't very consistent.

With that in mind, we created our own Stardate logic.

52112.87

5 - This was arbitrarily chosen to make it longer, and never changes on our clock.
21 - This refers to the century number we are currently in. In this case, we are in the 21st century so the number 21 is displayed.
12 - This refers to the year in the century, and ranges from 00 to 99. As we're in 2012, this number displays as 12.
87 - This refers to the day of the year the current day is. March 27 is the 87th day of the year.

We don't use the startdate for any real purpose, it was added mostly just to add more of a Trek feel. Again, this is not the method they used on the shows.

[Hixzen]

A bit of worthless information but the .87 is also referred to as a Julian Date, commonly used by major corprations to identify a day of the year as well .

[Christopher Halsey]

In Star Trek canon there is not actually any single stardate system that is used consistantly. The system we use is based on two different systems for calculating the stardate. As Sharpkiller has demonstrated with the exception of the 5 that was added to the front (In TNG most stardates begin with a 5) there is an actual logic behind the system we use and it does work.

[Silynn]

Quite interesting. I always thought they used a pure numerical dating system as it would be easier across the many races and languages of the galaxy. Math is always said to be the true universal language.

Then again, I am picturing the scene in JJ Abram's Star Trek with Chekov trying to get the computer to understand his authorization code.

[starwarrior99]

{UFP}Sharpkiller's definition is understandable. I now understand this stardate system.

[Hermanator]

Thats interesting theory there. I'm not sure how correct i am when i say this but i always believed the first number during the Star Trek TV days E.G. the 5 was for the current season they were in.

I'm sure somone in the fleet will know whether or not this is just a supposition.

[Caymen Greener]

A pretty easy explanation of how they did it on each of the shows/movies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardate.

In some games (and I used this as well), like simming, we used to use a simple YYYYMM.DD Stardate format (so 240903.27 when I wrote this post, EDT local). In fact, we used that in the UFP Simm for a while. Unfortunately, since we're in 2409 STO era, and that year seems to never change even though STO has been around for 2 years, AND since our simm game takes months to write a 1-week mission, we have forgone that that method. We now use the UFP Stardates, which really just tell readers when the post was "submitted".

So yeah, Stardates are in the eye of the beholder? Or some other random quote like that?

Caymen