[LEAPSECS] Time math libraries, UTC to TAI

Pierpaolo Bernardi olopierpa at gmail.com
Mon Jan 2 15:19:51 EST 2017


On Mon, Jan 2, 2017 at 9:10 PM, Clive D.W. Feather <clive at davros.org> wrote:
> Michael.Deckers. via LEAPSECS said:
>>     It is the Julian day numbers used in astronomy that
>>     take integral values at noon epochs -- but they have nothing to do with
>>     the Julian calendar, except perhaps for the origin of the name.
>
> Not even that - I thought Julian days were named after
> some astronomer or other.

I thought the same. But the current English Wikipedia page about
Julian days says otherwise, and actually the Julius of Julian days is
the same Julius of the calendar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day#History

"Although many references say that the Julian in "Julian Period"
refers to Scaliger's father, Julius Scaliger, in the introduction to
Book V of his Opus de Emendatione Temporum ("Work on the Emendation of
Time") he states, "Iulianum vocavimus: quia ad annum Iulianum dumtaxat
accomodata est", which translates more or less as "We have called it
Julian merely because it is accommodated to the Julian year." Thus
Julian refers to Julius Caesar, who introduced the Julian calendar in
46 BC."


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