Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

On Sat 2019-11-23T09:29:09+0100 Jean-Louis Rault hath writ: > I'm wondering why the largest hand is used for minutes, and the smaller > hands for hours and seconds If the purpose of the clock was to determine what time it was from an astronomical observation then a second hand was not sufficient.

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Hi Iain There are different institutions on the observatory site in Uccle near Brussels (the planetarium is somewhere else) See https://www.astro.oma.be/en/. I have regularly some meetings with peoples of the Belgium Institute for Space Aeronomy there, so i'm going to ask them if there is

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

My idea is that for the time this was built and used, there was little or no need for really accurate time keeping in most astronomy work. The high accuracy/precision needs really didn't arise until the beginning of what I'll call "modern astronomy", which I'll loosely define as the discovery of

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Celestial navigation users might object to the notion that seconds are not important. That is, if you can find anybody still exercising that art. In that arena, folks are taught to read seconds first, then minutes, then hours. Depending on the latitude, one second can lead to something like 1/4

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Hi Marcus On 23/11/19 14:31,You wrote: On a related note, some trivia that might be of interest. The master pendelum clocks is still in their basement in Observatoire Royal de Belgique, I've seen them. They have their dedicated heating-system to help control the temperature, ovenizing the

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Hi, On a related note, some trivia that might be of interest. The master pendelum clocks is still in their basement in Observatoire Royal de Belgique, I've seen them. They have their dedicated heating-system to help control the temperature, ovenizing the whole basement building (the clocks are

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Hi That’s a very unique piece of history. Hopefully you were able to get it. Bob > On Nov 23, 2019, at 3:29 AM, Jean-Louis Rault wrote: > > Hi all > > A friend of mine offered me a secondary electric clock that was in use at > Observatoire Royal de Belgique, in Brussels, at the end of the

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Pretty nice, I've always wondered why clocks weren't designed this way. Hours last too long and estimating minutes from the hour hand is minimally useful while seconds are too fast and mostly irrelevant for human use. Reading the time as so many minutes past whichever hour is very natural and

Re: [time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

The clock is of a type known as a regulator. This style of design minimises all factors that could reduce performance. One method is to reduce the number of moving parts to a minimum, so there is a wheel for the escapement with the seconds hand on it (bottom), a wheel for minutes, (middle), and a

[time-nuts] Are minutes more important in astronomy than seconds and hours ?

Hi all A friend of mine offered me a secondary electric clock that was in use at Observatoire Royal de Belgique, in Brussels, at the end of the 19th century. The manufacturer is Peyer Favarger & Co, Neuchatel, Switzerland. I'm wondering why the largest hand is used for minutes, and the