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Old October 30th 18, 09:29 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Gerald Kelleher
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Default What sometimes happens

Over the years I developed a real respect for astronomical practitioners at the level of composition which involves completing a narrative with incomplete information or less than perfect assertions.

Perhaps the most complicated example of this is Huygens expression of the Equation of Time -

"Here take notice, that the Sun or the Earth passes the 12 signs,
or makes an entire revolution in the Ecliptic in 365 days, 5 hours 49
min. or there about, and that those days, reckon'd from noon to noon,
are of different lengths; as is known to all that are versed in
Astronomy. Now between the longest and the shortest of those days, a
day may be taken of such a length, as 365 such days, 5. hours &c. (the
same numbers as before) make up, or are equal to that revolution: And
this is call'd the Equal or Mean day (24 hour day), according to which the watches are to be set; and therefore the Hour or Minute showed by the Watches,
though they be perfectly just and equal, must needs differ almost
continually from those that are shew'd by the Sun, or are reckon'd
according to its Motion. But this Difference is regular, and is
otherwise called the Equation of Time.." Huygens


Huygens like most of his contemporaries and going back to the era of Copernicus worked with the Ptolemaic framework where the Sun travels through the constellations whereas the foundations of timekeeping are based on the first annual appearance of the stars as a morning appearance thereby providing an orbital marker for the Earth's orbital position using the number of days as an additional gauge (via a proportion).

Sir Isaac drew his geocentric/heliocentric modeling equivalency via Huygens but a mathematician, at least from my own personal experience, was and remains unlikely to pick up on delicate and exquisite fine points. So here we are in the 21st century with this awful pretense that mathematicians have a clear idea of the components of astronomy and the chaos introduced by using timekeeping in a careless/reckless manner.

This is only one instance among many that need to be addressed but haven't seen anyone with the aptitude necessary to know there are problems much less deal with them in order for a creative/productive atmosphere to flourish for the first time in centuries.