[fitsbits] Re: leap second alert

[Patrick Wallace]

I detect a fair degree of consensus among the views recently expressed
in this thread.  I've already sent my comments to USNO, but here's a
nutshell version:

1) OK, I can see why there's a move to freeze UTC and do away with leap
   seconds. The public don't understand them, the time-board manufacturers
   never got their act together, and sometimes even observatories haven't
   quite tamed them.

2) People who need precise time should use TAI.  This includes OS
   developers, ATC and defence organizations, some astronomers etc.
   (They should have been using TAI all along.  So should the GPS
   service for that matter.)

3) People who are satisfied with a few ms accuracy should use some
   cheap'n'cheerful approximation to UT (aka UT1).  Daily UT-TAI
   predictions could be put on the web by interested institutions such
   as USNO:  no need for the providers to agree exactly.  Users include
   surveyors, astronavigators and the general public.  (We could even
   label it "GMT".)

4) People running existing software that uses UTC and UT1-UTC can either
   accept that UT1-UTC will grow past the 0.9 sec limit or, if the
   software won't stand for it, generate their own private UTC.

5) Any change will cost money.


Patrick Wallace
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Starlink/HMNAO                                  Internet:  ptw at star.rl.ac.uk
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory                       Tel:    +44-1235-445372
Chilton, Didcot, Oxon OX11 0QX, UK                   Fax:    +44-1235-446667
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