This is a hot topic right now: the GPS community (at least I think they are the perpetrators) are trying to persuade IERS to abandon leap seconds entirely so that their software is easier. This would mean noticeable drifts of UTC relative to the sky on timescales of a decade or so, and make a lot of professional astronomy software seriously broken. The astronomy community are screaming and telling the nav people that if they don't like leap seconds they should just use a perfectly good preexisting timescale like TAI or TT, and don'tmess with our UTC. Today is actually the deadline for users of UTC to send in their comments on the proposal: see the questionnaire at http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/products/questionnaire-utc.txt and if you have strong opinions about leap seconds, send it in TODAY. Would visual observers prefer to switch to something like TAI? Or do you like the fact that UTC directly relates hour angle to RA (admittedly only at equinox of date?). It'll be thousands of years before we start getting daylight at midnight due to lack of leap seconds, so it won't bother the average member of the public. - Jonathan McDowell ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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