Multiple celebrations of the New Year
Monday 29 / XII / 2008, The Diarios of Cadiz, Jerez, Sevilla, etc. have another discussion of the effects for the crew of the International Space Station as it travels some 16 times around the World during the celebration of the New Year - which astronomy officials would say starts at 00:00 hours UTC - although some 11 hours earlier for the folks in New Zealand! (Page 41 in the Sociedad Section in Cadiz).
For once, the article, originating from a correspondent in Moscow, on the subject of the times encountered around the World by the crew of the ISS, has no real fault in the times quoted. I have just a slight quibble that the first time would be better quoted as over the Pacific Islands at 12:30 UTC on the 31st December, 2008 - rather than earlier near Ecuador - so that the last celebratory occasion would then follow as around 11:30 UTC on the 1st January, 2009 in the same vicinity.
What is surprising is the omission of the planned stopping of the World´s clocks by one second at the official time of the New Year - which is appearing to be an almost annual event now. Even on the ISS their atomic clock will have to have the extra second inserted. Incidentally, if the extra seconds are abandoned, as some important astronomers are campaigning, the situation in the World in aeons of years later will be almost exactly the same as the current situation of the time on the clocks in SPAIN and FRANCE - particularly in Spain because there is no mention these days how TWO HOURS came to be put fast on the clocks a century ago - completely covered up by officialdom here. In those far-of years ahead they too will have forgotten that the astronomers in the 21st Century abandoned vital seconds on the clocks which help to match the "true Solar Time".
W E G P
[ 12:59 ] [ Monday 29 December 2008 ]