Displaying time zones as PST, EST, MDT etc.

Everything works fine with this:
format_date($node->event_start, 'custom', 'D. M d, Y g:i a', $node->start_offset);
But then I simply want to post PST, EST, etc instead of GMT + 800. I tried what php_date function said like this:
format_date($node->event_start, 'custom', 'D. M d, Y g:i a T', $node->start_offset);
The problem is that many of my users aren't able to understand the timezones translated as GMT + 800. Anyone have a solution for this?
Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!

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