Cassini,Roemer,Huygens comments and modifications

On Thursday, May 15, 2014 3:24:36 PM UTC-6, oriel36 wrote:
One of the neatest tricks in all astronomy was substituting the word 'average'
for 'constant' by using the average 24 hour day to act in principle that the
Earth has a constant rotation at a rate of 15 degrees per hour and from there
into the Lat/Long system.

For certain purposes in science, mechanics, engineering - and astronomy - one cannot get away with fudging things like the difference between "average" and "constant". Thus you make yourself look silly by condemning today's astronomers for carefully keeping this straight.

John Savard