Of course the time scale will be much shorter for a star occulted by an edge 
etc on Earth.
The longer time scale for a lunar occultation is due to the slower relative 
angular motion of the moon with respect to the star than the motion of the 
Earth with respect to a star.
 
Bruce 
> On 27 March 2019 at 17:41 Bruce Griffiths <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> 
> These light curves for a star being occulted by the moon should give some 
> idea of the effects of diffraction:
> 
> http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/occultations/moon/vb141occa.html
> 
> Bruce 
> > On 27 March 2019 at 15:48 Tom Van Baak <[email protected]> wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > BobH wrote:
> > >> This would be an excellent project for time-nuts to verify.  First, a
> > >> better explanation of John Harrison’s method is in order.  A vertical
> > >> window edge is not sufficient - a second vertical reference at a
> > >> distance is required - Harrison used a chimney on a neighbor's house.
> > 
> > Agreed! The project is the perfect intersection of amateur astronomy and 
> > amateur timekeeping. Surely, a couple of people on the list could 1) 
> > attempt to verify the Harrison method, and 2) determine what the limits of 
> > its accuracy are, say, with little effort vs. with hard work vs. with 
> > extreme dedication.
> > 
> > JimL wrote:
> > > To get 1 second accuracy, you need 360/86400 = 0.004 degree 
> > > measurements. That's 0.073 milliradian - 1 cm  at 140 meter distance.
> > > 
> > > I'm not sure an "edge" is sharp enough (diffraction, etc.), although 
> > > your eye is pretty good at "deconvolving" the linear equivalent of an 
> > > Airy disk/rings.
> > 
> > Keep in mind too that one can take more than one star reading per night. 
> > Any identifiable star that crosses your edge is a recordable timing event 
> > that evening. So, in theory, if you measure N stars you get sqrt(N) 
> > improvement in accuracy per day.
> > 
> > I want to encourage anyone to study the problem and help solve the riddle, 
> > either by uncovering existing professional or amateur literature or by 
> > actually trying this at home. It boils down to how accurately can you 
> > measure earth rotation using the Harrison method.
> > 
> > To put this in time nuts context, precision timekeeping prior to the middle 
> > of the 20th century was always a form of "Earth Disciplined Oscillator". 
> > Not unlike a GPSDO, your observatory's pendulum clock kept accurate time 
> > short-term and star tracking (earth rotation) kept accurate time long-term. 
> > The ADEV's crossed just like a GPSDO.
> > 
> > The short-term ADEV of a really good pendulum clock is here:
> > 
> > http://leapsecond.com/pend/shortt/
> > 
> > The long-term ADEV of earth rotation is here:
> > 
> > http://leapsecond.com/museum/earth/
> > 
> > So the performance of a DIY earth disciplined oscillator would be a 
> > combination of the two.
> > 
> > /tvb
> > 
> > 
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