Lyon astronomical clock, Lyon, France

© kyolshin/Alam

About time

While it might mean an hour less in bed, many of us will be delighted that the clocks went forward at 1am - heralding the arrival of lighter evenings. To mark the occasion, our homepage image features the towering timekeeper that is the astronomical clock at Lyon Cathedral in France. Built in 1660, centuries before the widespread adoption of daylight saving time, the clock's intersecting hands and dials don't just tell time. They form a flattened model of our planet that tracks the positions of the Sun and Moon relative to Earth. The zodiac dial, offset to account for the planet's rotational tilt, shows the star sign which is currently in season (on 28 March - it’s Aries).