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Posted by Sam Wormley on January 3, 2006, 11:10 pm


January 3, 2006

LEAP SECOND ADDED

The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service has announced
that December 31, 2005, will include a "leap second." That is, there will be
86,401 seconds on the last day of the year instead of the usual 86,400.
This leap second will keep our clocks more or less synchronized to the rotation
of the earth, which fluctuates slightly due to the winds and ocean currents,
motion of the fluid core and tidal and current friction at the ocean floor. The
last leap second occurred on December 31, 1998 and this upcoming leap second
might be the last one! The U.S. has proposed abolishing future leap seconds as
the adjustment is primarily made for the sake of navigators making traditional
astronomical observations with sextants. Global Positioning System (GPS)
operations are unaffected by the introduction of a leap second, because its
time, GPS Time is not adjusted.


Posted by Marc Brett on January 4, 2006, 3:10 am



>The U.S. has proposed abolishing future leap seconds as
>the adjustment is primarily made for the sake of navigators making traditional
>astronomical observations with sextants. Global Positioning System (GPS)
>operations are unaffected by the introduction of a leap second, because its
>time, GPS Time is not adjusted.

Let me get this straight -- We should abolish leap seconds, and a billion years
of tracking time via the sun, because nobody (well almost nobody) uses sextants
anymore? WTF?

The merchants of fear should be the first against the wall when the
reality-based revolutionaries burn down Washington DC. How many air-traffic
control centers had problems over the New Year? How many GLONASS satellites
failed? None!

Maybe the USA should invest in educating young people instead. Then when they
grew up to become programmers they would know that sometimes minutes have 61
seconds and systems can be designed to cope with such a strange concept. It'd
make a refreshing change from the faith-based education policies which take ID
seriously and allow military recruiters and ChannelOne to further pollute our
youngsters with monumental lies.

</rant>

Posted by Sam Wormley on January 4, 2006, 9:23 am


Marc Brett wrote:
>
>
>>The U.S. has proposed abolishing future leap seconds as
>>the adjustment is primarily made for the sake of navigators making traditional
>>astronomical observations with sextants. Global Positioning System (GPS)
>>operations are unaffected by the introduction of a leap second, because its
>>time, GPS Time is not adjusted.
>
>
> Let me get this straight -- We should abolish leap seconds, and a billion years
> of tracking time via the sun, because nobody (well almost nobody) uses sextants
> anymore? WTF?
>
> The merchants of fear should be the first against the wall when the
> reality-based revolutionaries burn down Washington DC. How many air-traffic
> control centers had problems over the New Year? How many GLONASS satellites
> failed? None!
>
> Maybe the USA should invest in educating young people instead. Then when they
> grew up to become programmers they would know that sometimes minutes have 61
> seconds and systems can be designed to cope with such a strange concept. It'd
> make a refreshing change from the faith-based education policies which take ID
> seriously and allow military recruiters and ChannelOne to further pollute our
> youngsters with monumental lies.
>

Personally I like leap seconds to keep thing synced up, Marc.



Posted by bcd on January 4, 2006, 2:22 pm


Sam, what is the attribution of this statement? It just says "The U.S. has
proposed ...", without saying what entity in the U.S.

Slightly off topic: there are a lot of us who would dearly love Sidereal
correction to be put in the new navigation message. A brief conversation
with a Coast Guard officer at GPS-ION a few years ago didn't sound too
hopeful, however.

On 1/3/06 20:10, in article LUHuf.672585$x96.433386@attbi_s72, "Sam Wormley"

> January 3, 2006
>
> LEAP SECOND ADDED
>
> The International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service has announced
> that December 31, 2005, will include a "leap second." That is, there will be
> 86,401 seconds on the last day of the year instead of the usual 86,400.
> This leap second will keep our clocks more or less synchronized to the
> rotation
> of the earth, which fluctuates slightly due to the winds and ocean currents,
> motion of the fluid core and tidal and current friction at the ocean floor.
> The
> last leap second occurred on December 31, 1998 and this upcoming leap second
> might be the last one! The U.S. has proposed abolishing future leap seconds as
> the adjustment is primarily made for the sake of navigators making traditional
> astronomical observations with sextants. Global Positioning System (GPS)
> operations are unaffected by the introduction of a leap second, because its
> time, GPS Time is not adjusted.
>


Posted by Marc Brett on January 4, 2006, 3:14 pm



>Slightly off topic: there are a lot of us who would dearly love Sidereal
>correction to be put in the new navigation message. A brief conversation
>with a Coast Guard officer at GPS-ION a few years ago didn't sound too
>hopeful, however.

Can't Sidereal Time be computed from UT1?

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