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Celestial Reference Frame Department

crf.usno.navy.mil

11–20 of 58 posts

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#11
post #7

I think the way the Celestial Reference Frame Department does things might be old-fashioned. With new tech like blockchain for decentralized coordination, or machine learning algorithms that can process astronomical data more accurately and quickly, there might be better and easier ways to do celestial referencing. It might be time for a change to keep up with these new advancements.

You really should put in a sarcasm marker for content like this, there's no way to tell if you're serious.

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#12

I did a deep dive on this once: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is coordinated among ... who? The answer (at least when I looked into it): University of Paris, NIST, and the US Naval Observatory. The other two are constantly comparing state of the art atomic clocks. USNO is the only member looking outward.

What other two?

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#13
post #7

I think the way the Celestial Reference Frame Department does things might be old-fashioned. With new tech like blockchain for decentralized coordination, or machine learning algorithms that can process astronomical data more accurately and quickly, there might be better and easier ways to do celestial referencing. It might be time for a change to keep up with these new advancements.

What do blockchains help for coordination (among three players btw, as other posts point out, why even decentralized)?

What is wrong with the current proven algorithms/approach doing the celestial referencing (which is not rocket science btw)? How would machine learning help and overcome the necessary accuracy and certainty needed here?

To summarize: OMFG!!!11 Or you just buzzwording bot?

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#14

I did a deep dive on this once: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is coordinated among ... who? The answer (at least when I looked into it): University of Paris, NIST, and the US Naval Observatory. The other two are constantly comparing state of the art atomic clocks. USNO is the only member looking outward.

While the Navy's time keeping mission is fascinating on its own (and itself was(is) a prerequisite for navigational abilities) the understated 'read-between-the-lines' reason the Navy looks "outward" is because that's how it points the nukes.

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#15
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are the time people. There's also the Earth Rotation Service.[1] They track what the planet is doing. The Earth Orientation Center, in Frankfurt, Germany, tracks where the poles are pointed and the rotation speed. These are the people behind leap seconds. It all comes down to 3 numbers.[2] [1] https://www.iers.org/ [2] https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/DataProducts/tools/eop_of_today...

> These are the people behind leap seconds. So they are my enemies

I’m sorry, we can only accept them as “enemies” if you have a suitably Machiavellian plan to defeat them. 12 points and a snazzy PowerPoint presentation in the nearest secret volcano lair if you please.

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#16
post #7

I think the way the Celestial Reference Frame Department does things might be old-fashioned. With new tech like blockchain for decentralized coordination, or machine learning algorithms that can process astronomical data more accurately and quickly, there might be better and easier ways to do celestial referencing. It might be time for a change to keep up with these new advancements.

God doesn't roll blockchain...

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#17

I did a deep dive on this once: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is coordinated among ... who? The answer (at least when I looked into it): University of Paris, NIST, and the US Naval Observatory. The other two are constantly comparing state of the art atomic clocks. USNO is the only member looking outward.

I love stuff like this so much. You take something as seemingly complex as time or weight and it ends up boiling down to like a handful of people diligently crunching numbers or a hunk of exactly 1 KG of platinum sitting in the basement of some French lab. Dispelling the "magic" behind these things utterly fascinates me.

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#18
post #5

I did a deep dive on this once: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is coordinated among ... who? The answer (at least when I looked into it): University of Paris, NIST, and the US Naval Observatory. The other two are constantly comparing state of the art atomic clocks. USNO is the only member looking outward.

Those are the time people. There's also the Earth Rotation Service.[1] They track what the planet is doing. The Earth Orientation Center, in Frankfurt, Germany, tracks where the poles are pointed and the rotation speed. These are the people behind leap seconds. It all comes down to 3 numbers.[2] [1] https://www.iers.org/ [2] https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/DataProducts/tools/eop_of_today...

The International Earth Rotation Service is possibly my favorite name for an international bureaucracy. It give me visions of a Giant Control Lever extending deep into the Earth, with the labels Faster and Slower.

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#19
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are the time people. There's also the Earth Rotation Service.[1] They track what the planet is doing. The Earth Orientation Center, in Frankfurt, Germany, tracks where the poles are pointed and the rotation speed. These are the people behind leap seconds. It all comes down to 3 numbers.[2] [1] https://www.iers.org/ [2] https://www.iers.org/IERS/EN/DataProducts/tools/eop_of_today...

> These are the people behind leap seconds. So they are my enemies

You have been lied to… your true enemies are the ones that continue to build monotonic systems on top of non monotonic time scales… Join us in the Temps Atomic International! TAI is the one true timescale.

Computers should be using TAI and converting to UTC when humans want to see a local human time. My sincere belief is this was a bigger mistake than null, bigger than all the Y2K “we stored the year as 2 digits” stuff… The fact that from the BIOS/system Firmware up “we” decided to use a fuzzy time scale that changes on an unpredictable but just infrequent enough almost everyone can ignore it even exists except for when it changes and they remember it exists… genuinely a poor choice that I suspect is in large part due to a lot of people not knowing about TAI

Re: Celestial Reference Frame Department

#20
post #7

I think the way the Celestial Reference Frame Department does things might be old-fashioned. With new tech like blockchain for decentralized coordination, or machine learning algorithms that can process astronomical data more accurately and quickly, there might be better and easier ways to do celestial referencing. It might be time for a change to keep up with these new advancements.

This was a sarcasm btw
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