[LEAPSECS] My FOSDEM slides

[Steve Allen]

On Sat 2015-03-07T02:02:12 +0000, Harlan Stenn hath writ:
> When we get a bit more down the road with NTF's General Timestamp API,
> I'd appreciate your taking a look at what we're doing and helping out in
> any way you are up for.  One of the issues that will need more attention
> is pre-1972 stuff.

Before 1972 is pretty simple.

Without some means of comparing an event with a particular radio
broadcast time signal or a particular astronomical event, everything
before 1972 is just plain UT or GMT back to 1676, and UT before that.

Any subsecond deviations from what those represent (including worries
about UT0, UT1, UT2) are only available by painstaking inspection (and
re-interpretation into modern terminology) of the tabulations in BIH
Bulletin Horaire.

Of course I'm ignoring any timezones.  That's a whole 'nother layer
of painstaking historical investigation for any given locale.

--
Steve Allen                 <sla at ucolick.org>                WGS-84 (GPS)
UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB   Natural Sciences II, Room 165    Lat  +36.99855
1156 High Street            Voice: +1 831 459 3046           Lng -122.06015
Santa Cruz, CA 95064        http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/     Hgt +250 m