[fitsbits] Re: leap second alert

[Arnold Rots]

Steve Allen wrote:
> In article <Pine.OSF.3.96.991214080223.23121A-100000 at rlsaxps.bnsc.rl.ac.uk>,
> Patrick Wallace  <ptw at star.rl.ac.uk> wrote:
> 
> 
> If the definition of UTC is modified in this ex post facto manner
> we risk another era of confusion and the ridicule of posterity.
> 
> UTC should stay as it is, with leaps.  If the civil authorities
> need a leap-free time they should adopt an existing scale.

The mechanism is already in place:
1. Forego the expected leap second 2000-06-30T23:59:60 UTC
2. Set 64.184 negative leapseconds at the end of 2000:
   2000-12-31T23:58:55.816 UTC = 2001-01-01T00:00:00.0 UTC
3. By general agreement, no more leap seconds after that

That way, we enter the third millennium in a dignified way, with UTC
and TT synchronized :-)
I would bet, though, that a year isn't enough and that it won't come
about till the start of the twenty-second century, in 2101.

  - Arnold

> 
> -- 
> Steve Allen          UCO/Lick Observatory       Santa Cruz, CA 95064
> sla at ucolick.borg     Voice: +1 831 459 3046     FAX (don't): +1 831 459 5244
> WWW: http://www.ucolick.borg/~sla               PGP public keys:  see WWW
> Junk mail is irrelevant -- my return address has been assimilated.

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Arnold H. Rots                                Chandra X-ray Science Center
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory                tel:  +1 617 496 7701
60 Garden Street, MS 81                              fax:  +1 617 495 7356
Cambridge, MA 02138                             arots at head-cfa.harvard.edu
USA                                     http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~arots/
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