Luke Coletti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Arthur, > > Please investigate for us
Touche. I think some of these questions will move to the back burner. To significantly improve my understanding of celestial mechanics, I need to do some systematic reading. This thread started with the Millennium Clock. The plan is to have the clock tell clock time, but to synchronize it using the sun. I would want it to still be accurate to the minute 10,000 years from now. We have established that in that case it will have to take the major changes in orbital parameters into account. Additionally I was wondering if we should anticipate another calendrical reform in the next 10,000 years. Although there would be ways to keep the months better aligned with the seasons, say by making all millennium years leap years, not just those divisible by 400, on a 10,000+ year time scale things change so much that no rule will remain satisfactory for "long". Whether future generations let the seasons drift, introduce intercalary days ad hoc every few thousand years, or establish a completely different calendar is impossible to predict. In conclusion, I would base the primary display of the Millennium Clock on the Gregorian calendar, with separate displays for other calendars (Chinese, Moslem, Jewish, Mayan) and astronomical data (precession of the equinoxes, phases of the moon). Art Carlson
