Using astro.com I found some interesting information. Atyrau is known as Gurjev in astro.com, and was on LMT until 1 Jan 1931 then GMT+3 (no DST) until 1 Jan 1941 then GMT+4 (no DST) until 1 Jan 1946 then GMT+3 (no DST) until 1 Jan 1964 then GMT+4 (no DST) until 1 Apr 1981 then GMT+6 (with DST) etc. until 1 Oct 1981 ... Aqtobe is known as Akt'ubinsk in astro.com, and was on LMT until 1 Jan 1931 then GMT+4 (no DST) until 1 Jan 1941 then GMT+5 (no DST) until 1 Jan 1946 then GMT+4 (no DST) until 1 Jan 1964 then GMT+5 (no DST) until 1 Apr 1981 then GMT+6 (with DST) etc. until 1 Oct 1981 ... I don't know how much we should believe this, but at least it suggests that there are quite a number of differences between astro.com data and the tz database, and besides that Atyrau might be a time zone in it's own. I couldn't find the location Aqtau, perhaps a spelling problem. Comments? Regards, - Jesper -----Original Message----- From: Paul Eggert [mailto:eggert@cs.ucla.edu] Sent: Miércoles, 13 de Septiembre de 2006 7:20 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Re: Kazakhstan question Jesper Norgaard Welen <jnorgard@prodigy.net.mx> writes:

Atyrau lies betwen the Aqtobe and Mangghystau (Aqtau) regions. Do we know if it followed Asia/Aqtobe or Asia/Aqtau in the past?

I don't know personally, but you should be able to use <http://www.astro.com/cgi/aq.cgi> to find out what Shanks & Pottenger think. Spelling could be a problem, though.

Thanks, Oscar. Yes I already tried Shevchenko to no avail, and also Aktau, which exists in astro.com's database, but with a wrong latitude and longitude, in the eas of Kazakhstan. Instead I was lucky to find Saura, which is latitude 44.23 and longitude 50.83, pretty close to Aqtau. It turned out to have the same time as Aqtobe (Akt'ubinsk) at least until 1981. More important is to determine if we will comply with this in the tz database or not, and why (or why not)? Regards, - Jesper -----Original Message----- From: Oscar van Vlijmen [mailto:ovv@hetnet.nl] Sent: Jueves, 14 de Septiembre de 2006 8:27 To: tz@lecserver.nci.nih.gov Subject: Re: Kazakhstan question

From: Jesper Norgaard Welen

Using astro.com I found some interesting information. ... ... I couldn't find the location Aqtau, perhaps a spelling problem.

Already tried Shevchenko? That was the former name of the capital of the Mangistau Oblast. The capital is now known as Aqtau, outside Kazakhstan also known as Aktau.