Leap Second tonight, a (very slightly) longer lie in tomorrow

[TheNorthernMonkey]

Tonight, the clock will go to 23:59:60 before 0:0:0 in order to keep the Earth synconised with UTC

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/extra-second.html

[Adrian]

Hooray - Celebrate the longest day of the year

[Black Knight]

I love a nice lie in!

[stargazer1960]

Hooray ! Every second counts

[TheNorthernMonkey]

I seem to have wasted well over my allocation of free seconds in posting the link though

[Black Knight]

Lol!

[Mr Spock]

Finally, they change the time to agree with my watch...

[JamesF]

Isn't it awful that the Earth can't keep time with the clocks? Can't we get it fixed or something?

James

[TheNorthernMonkey]

Isn't it awful that the Earth can't keep time with the clocks? Can't we get it fixed or something?

James

The length of a second is the speed of rotation of the earth in 1860 devided by 86400. As forces exerted on the earth by the moon are causing the earth to slow down, there will be increasing numbers of leap seconds needed to keep the two in sync.

[jeremy1]

Thats a great idea James. We need a giant rocket motor straped to one side of the Earth and just light it up now and again and speed us back up again.

[stargazer1960]

I say get superman on the job he could sort it . LOL

[Marine Bio]

You learn something new everyday. I knew the Earths rotation was slowing down but wasn't aware as to how it was compensated for. Thanks for posting!

[Viv]

No panic yet - that we're slowing down !

Extra lay in tomorrow

[PortableAstronomer]

Artificially keeping the earth spin at a constant rate by use of hypothetical rocket devices could indeed spare the need for such leap seconds, but it would not not prevent the moon from drifting away from the earth in terms of distance.

If we could move the moon closer to the earth so that the moon's orbital period is equal to the earth's rotational period, and have the moon at geostationary position above, say, the mid-pacific ocean , then

a] the earth would not slow down in rotation as much ( ok there are other factors other than lunar tidal friction, but they're relatively minor, such as Sun's gravity effects on earth, and the mean frictional forces exerted by dust/meteors/other natural debris falling to the earth)

b] the moon would be out of the sky all the time, as viewed from Greenwich line of longitude

c] but alas, you'd still have to travel to the mid-pacific ocean to see any eclipse ... so no change to what we're already used to then

... and it would be a very dark eclipse too.

[notaclue]

I will defy the leap second by remaining firmly on the ground. Failing that, beer.

[stargazer1960]

Well just had a beer and off to bed I think because there is no promise of a clear sky so cheers to you all and I will enjoy that extra second lay in.

[Naemeth]

That's one small second for man, one giant leap for mankind.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I blinked and missed it.

[Black Knight]

I blinked and missed it.

Well I enjoyed my slightly longer lie in this morning. Made all the difference ...