On Nov 6, 2014, at 8:04 PM, Alex Currant via LEAPSECS <[email protected]>
wrote:
> The IAU has not taken a stand on this - if it were so simple then the
> disagreements that were expressed in the IAU deliberations would not have
> been sufficient to prevent a resolution.
This is not correct. The IAU UTC working group did take a carefully negotiated
stand on this. All members of the working group contributed in a serious and
professional manner, and I was honored to work with all of them, including
those whose opinions differed from my own. The final report from the IAU UTC
working group is available online from the scrolling news banner at the top of
the page:
http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/
From the executive summary:
"Consequently, the Working Group recommends that the IAU respond to the ITU-R
by stating that the IAU is not in a position to formulate a conclusive opinion
regarding any change in the definition of Coordinated Universal Time.
Nevertheless, in the event of the deletion of future leap seconds the name of
the scale should no longer reference the astronomical time scale “Universal
Time” to avoid technical confusion, and a time interval of at least five years
between adoption and implementation should be allowed."
This supports the consensus from the 2003 Torino colloquium. Whether a large
organization like the IAU or ITU responds efficiently to such a recommendation
depends on many factors, but nothing about the report was "sufficient to
prevent a resolution" or to prevent forwarding it to the ITU, and the report
was delivered to the IAU Exec in a timely fashion.
Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
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