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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Leap second tonight
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2015 Jun 30, 14:31 -0700
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2015 Jun 30, 14:31 -0700
Tonight we break the sexagesimal counting system which has been with us, like it or not, since the days of the ancient Babylonians. A minute of arc could never have 61 seconds of arc in it. Wouldn't be proper! But a minute of time... well that's a different story. Tonight just before midnight UTC (just before 8:00 pm Eastern Time), the last minute of the hour will be 61 seconds long. Ancient Babylonian scribes will roll over sixty-one times in their ancient Babylonian graves... Ha ha.
Some of you might also enjoy Richard Langley's article on the event.
Frank Reed
