Aberation

Due to the (relative) imprecision of clocks, we all rely on the Navy to tell us what time it is!

The Naval observatory is charged, and has been, with the responsibility of keeping accurate time records for the purpose of Naval Navigation. For a ship to accurately know where it is (pre GPS) it has to know what time it is, accurately. Almost all digital clocks use the power grid for their frequency standard, a few use crystals. The power grid is known for some small variation, which motors and light bulbs could care less about. Individual crystals can vary considerably, and still be within their frequency tolerance. Battery operation is not an answer either, they can vary in output when first taken out of the package. And again, with digital clocks, watches, etc., one is speaking of consumer commodities, meaning accurate enough for daily life, but far from lab standards.

Usenet Quote

 

All computer clocks will be somewhat inaccurate. They are controlled by a crystal oscillator - which is not only temperature sensitive, but the resonant frequency of the crystal also will change over time. This change in resonant frequency can be in either direction.

Bill Nelson

If one goes to the Navy web site one can get the Exact Moment displayed, according to time zone, and instructions on how network servers can dial in daily to sync up with the Navy clocks. So theoretically, if the earth were slowing in rotation due to increased core swirling as Planet X approaches, and this did not change perihelion (based on orbit time) but did change equinox and full moon time (based on rotation time), what changes in the info they give out would need to be made, to disguise this?

1. Leaps seconds would be inserted into daily time syncing, so the worlds network computers all gave the same message. Humm .. must be my darn watch again!
2. As the slowing Earth takes more hours to position to face a full moon, the database will get out of sync with what the public is observing unless hours are added to the data. Since the public is more likely to look to the future for information, and scrutiny going into 2003 could be anticipated, these changes were done early so to avoid scrutiny of the manipulation. Thus the Equinox and Full Moon Navy stats being out of sync with the Perihelion Navy stats. Humm .. the orbit stays the same but the seasons and months are shorter.

It seems the days/hours between Full Moons not only moves about within a year but over years also. This is related to a longer or shorter orbit for the Earth, I gather. There are regular peaks of long orbit (perihelion) years in 1994, 1997, and 2000. Thus, the increase in time between full moons I noted from 1998 to 2000 was just the normal variable. If the days between perihelion are longer, then it would stand that equinox and full moon days for the year would likewise be longer. How do you have a longer perihelion year but the days between equinox or full moon over that year get shorter? But note the Equinox chart goes bloopy around the 1994 time frame. Why? Now the full moon days likewise should grow longer and shorter along with the perihelion days for the year, but this likewise goes bloopy not only around 1994 but 1997, big time! Why? They should be in sync, long or short, together.

The time of full Moon depends on when the Sun, Earth, and Moon all line up. Due to Kepler's second law, both the Earth and the Moon will speed up and slow down during various part of their orbits because their orbits are not circular. Thus the times between full Moons will vary depending on time of sidereal year (due to the Earth) and on time of sidereal month (due to the Moon).

David Tholen

Offered by Nancy.