[LEAPSECS] Google, Amazon, now Microsoft

[Rob Seaman]

On May 30, 2015, at 3:05 PM, Tom Van Baak <tvb at LeapSecond.com> wrote:

> Oh, you're such an old earth+photon guy. Ask any space probe, neutrino, or gravitational astronomer if they share your sleep problem. ;-)

As with timekeeping in general it is a question of complex systems-of-systems, e.g.:

	http://hotwireduniverse.org or
	http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.7552

Non-EM “multi-messenger” phenomena also exhibit diurnal signals and, of course, many space telescopes orbit the Earth and care about Earth orientation.  Coordinated observing modes may depend on multiple telescopes of all wavelengths in several timezones and both ground and space-based.

> I understand that's why JD rolls over at noon instead of midnight. But, for the other 7 billion people on the planet, it's nice that the calendar, and local legal time, and even MJD rolls over at midnight instead of noon.

Decision-making related to timekeeping has often been very shallow.  DST changes at 2am in the US and 1am in the EU.  The operational pivot between one observing night and the next at our observatory is 9am.  Why assume midnight local time in the first place?

On May 30, 2015, at 4:52 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp <phk at phk.freebsd.dk> wrote:

> 2. Do any astronomers even use Microsofts Azure cloud thingie ?

There’s http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

Rob