Re: [LEAPSECS] the tail wags the dog

From: Rob Seaman <seaman_at_noao.edu>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 10:23:29 -0700

On Jan 23, 2006, at 9:33 AM, M. Warner Losh wrote:

> The legal time in the US is the mean solar time at a given
> meridian, as determined by the secretary of commerce

...and many may have seen Mr. Gutierrez shooting the sun with his
sextant out on the Mall in front of the A&S Museum :-)

With all the words that have flowed over the spillway, I'm not sure
the point has been made that a feature of solar time is precisely
that it can be reliably recovered from observations whenever and
wherever needed (once you are located with respect to a meridian, of
course). Mean solar time is a natural standard in that regard.

Rob
Received on Mon Jan 23 2006 - 09:24:15 PST