Sadly your right they used to be a great tool and were accurate within a few minute almost every time. But they depend on user input to help keep things in sync and updated and either people wouldn't take two seconds to click the little button once a event started or trolls went in and purposely screwed up the timing which with this community I wouldn't doubt. Either way there isn't much use except for the sleeper quest unfortunately.

Yeah, I finally get on when it's a 7th and I'm trying to finish everything, but the event hunting almost has me ready to quit. I'm currently crouched behind a moon rock waiting for the next event to spawn. I don't know if I will have enough time to do this on 3 planets

If you're using the timers: 1. You (or another guardian) have to be in the area at 0:00. 2. The actual event will start up to ~6 minutes later. 3. The event has an indicated likelihood of occurrence. Green is 90%, Amber is 60%, Red is only 30%. All this is explained in the Timer info. Stay in school, kids.

Yup, this sleeper stimulant has me going to back sleep. Lol